This devotional series examines a verse or two from a chapter of Proverbs each day of January 2017.
The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord. ~Proverbs 21:31
Imagine the scene: You’ve been tasked to lead an army against an enemy force, but before battle your general informs you that your 32,000 men are too big of an army. He tells you to decrease its size with a variety of methods and in the end, you are left with just 300 men. How confident would you be?
Imagine: You are the servant of a man of renown, and when you step outside in the morning you find yourself surrounded by armies looking to arrest the man you are with. When you cry out, “What shall we do?”, the other man replies, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” With your eyes, you see no army with you. How sure would you be?
The first scene is the account of Gideon against the Midianites in Judges 6-8. The second is of the prophet Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 6. In both cases, God gave the little in number a great victory.
No matter what we face in life, God is sovereign. No matter what enemies seem to stack against us, true victory is found through God.
In the case of Elisha and his servant, Elisha prayed for the Lord to open his servant’s eyes. God did and the “young man saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” The victory came not because of the realities of physical armies but because of spiritual realities.
God is simply the biggest big and the strongest strong. No one can thwart his will. No one can overcome his power. Even when the authorities in the world killed Jesus and he went to the grave, the grave only held him for 3 days. When Jesus rose from the dead, he grasped hold of the keys of death and the grave (Revelation 1).
If death is our greatest enemy and it has been defeated by Jesus, then trusting in him will gain us ultimate victory. Even if enemies overcome us and kill us in this life, they cannot take us from God’s hand and they will not stop us from getting new, better, and glorified bodies in the resurrection.
We don’t have to worry, fret, or fear. We have a God who determines the victory.
First Baptist Church 