Victory in Jesus

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

VICTORY IN JESUS

2 Sam 8:1-6

8:1 In the course of time, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and he took Metheg Ammah from the control of the Philistines. 2 David also defeated the Moabites. He made them lie down on the ground and measured them off with a length of cord. Every two lengths of them were put to death, and the third length was allowed to live. So the Moabites became subject to David and brought tribute. 3 Moreover, David fought Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to restore his control along the Euphrates River. 4 David captured a thousand of his chariots, seven thousand charioteers and twenty thousand foot soldiers. He hamstrung all but a hundred of the chariot horses. 5 When the Arameans of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck down twenty-two thousand of them. 6 He put garrisons in the Aramean kingdom of Damascus, and the Arameans became subject to him and brought tribute. The LORD gave David victory wherever he went.

NIV

It seems this is a lot of war with the killing of the enemies of Israel. To capture one thousand chariots, but perhaps the most interesting is that David subdued the Philistines. He had been fighting with them from the beginning, when he was still just a shepherd, and he killed Goliath in front of both the Philistine and Israeli armies. Yet our story is about the fact that the LORD gave victory wherever he went. Can we take that as a promise from the LORD for our lives? Certainly, the Lord would not want us to live a defeated life, but rather a life of victory over our adversaries. We know the enemy of our souls is roaming about seeking whom he can devour. We also know he has already devoured all those who live in the darkness of this world. Our culture is full of every kind of perversity as it’s under the devil’s hideous influence. But it is the children of God, us believers, that he is roaming about trying to devour. But, like David, we can have the victory over the dark powers of this world and the rulers and principalities and the forces of evil in the spiritual realm, because we know the Lord is with us. We do not fight alone; in fact, it is the Lord who fights the battle for us, yet we are to take our stand and stand firm, holding our ground, giving no ground to the enemy of our souls. We may not have won the war completely against sin, but someday we Jesus comes back to take us to where he is, we will have won the victory. Yet, at the same time, as we live out our lives, we know that we can have those daily victories, conquering our enemy, putting to death that old self, leaving only the life the Lord has given us through that rebirth, as he caused us to be a new creation, born from above.  Because the Lord does not want his people to walk in defeat, we can know, just as the LORD gave David victory wherever he went, the Lord gives us that victory wherever we go.