Let God Fight

We all go through our own personal struggles. Sometimes the struggles are minor, sometimes they are major battles.

As Christians, one of our most significant problems is that we tend to try to fight our battles ourselves.

Think of the battles that the Hebrews fought in the Old Testament. At Jericho, God told them to walk around the city once a day for six days. Then, on day seven, they were to walk around the city seven times; after the seventh time, they were to blow trumpets. When they blew the trumpets, God knocked the walls of Jericho down.

Gideon’s battle against the Midianites was also unconventional. Before the battle started, the Midianite army outnumbered Israel’s army 120,000 to 32,000. Then God kept telling Gideon to decrease the army. God said Israel was ready for battle when the numbers were: Midianites 120,000; Israel 300. Outnumbered 400 to 1, Gideon goes into battle with weapons of trumpets, torches, and jars. In the middle of the night, the Hebrews blew the trumpets, broke the jars, revealed the light from the torches, and shouted, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” This tactic caused the Midianites to believe they were under attack by a massive army. In their confusion, they start killing each other and retreat in defeat.

In an earlier battle, Israel is fighting the Amalekites. God tells Moses that their army will prevail as long as Moses keeps his hands raised. The struggle goes on for hours. When Moses drops his hands, the Amalekites prevail; when he raises his hand, Israel prevails. Aaron and Hur see that Moses begins to wear down. The two of them hold Moses’ arms skyward. Israel wins the battle.

In every one of these battles, God provides the victory, but the effort required of Israel varies from fight to fight. At Jericho, God told them to walk around the city and blow trumpets. Against the Midianites, God reduces their forces, and has them blow trumpets, break jars, and yell. In the clash with the Amalekites, they fought on the battlefield, swords attacked the enemy, arrows flew through the skies, they suffered casualties, but as long as one man held his hands to the heavens, God provided victory.

The common denominator in all the struggles God’s people face is this: when you do what God says, victory is assured.

There is a battle in 2 Chronicles 20 that gives great detail of how we are to face the struggles of life.

The armies of Moab, Ammon, and Mt. Seir come to invade Israel. The first thing King Jehoshaphat does is pray. This first step is where many Christians fall short. We are to pray without ceasing; we are to pray about all things, but often in the modern Christian’s life, prayer is a last resort rather than the first step (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18).

In Jehoshaphat’s prayer, he never tells God what he wants done. He does ask God if He will judge the enemy, but Jehoshaphat never asks God to do so. Instead of giving God a list of things to do, Jehoshaphat tells God his heart. Jehoshaphat tells God he does not have the strength to win this war, nor does he know what to do (2 Chronicles 20:12). Jehoshaphat is beside himself.

Often, when we pray, we already have an idea of how God can fix our problem, and instead of giving our hearts to God, we tell Him what we want done and the steps He needs to take to do it. Praying in this matter is more like rubbing a genie’s lamp instead of humbly coming to the throne of God.

There is one thing God emphasizes in His answer to Jehoshaphat’s prayer: they are not to fight this battle. “…Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of the great multitude; for the battle is not your’s but God’s…Ye shall not need to fight in this battle” (2 Chronicles 20:15,17).

We all face problems, we all face circumstances, we all have our struggles. If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit resides in your heart, and God will never leave you nor forsake you. Even as God’s children, we face difficulties in life, but we must realize that the fights are God’s, not ours.

Example: we all struggle with sin. Many Christians struggle with a particular sin, and often we fight it for decades. Regardless of the sin, the cycle is the same. We know we shouldn’t, but we do. We feel guilt, and we go to God, confess our sin with every intention never to do said deed again. It may be a day later, a week, a month, but somewhere along the way, we find ourselves doing it again. The cycle repeats: sin, guilt, confess, intend never to do it again, do it again, guilt, confess, good intentions, sin, confess, good intentions… You get the idea.

The reason for this endless cycle is that we are fighting the battle instead of letting God fight our problems. Instead of confessing our sin and telling God we’ll never do it again, we should confess and ask God to give us a heart that hates that particular sin. God does not sin because He is holy. The essence of holiness is a hatred of sin. Therefore, to have a heart like God’s and to allow Him to fight our struggle with whatever sin we struggle with is to ask Him to give us a heart like His, one that hates sin.

In the battle of 2 Chronicles 20, Judah did not need to fight. Still, just as God told Joshua at Jericho, and Gideon with the Midianites, and Moses with the Amalekites, He had them do something.

God told the Hebrews to walk down to the brook so they could see the results of what God would do. They took everyone, the men, the wives, the babies, the children, and the army. The army walked ahead of the civilians, but ahead of the military, Jehoshaphat placed the singers, the choir (2 Chronicles 20:21).

By the time they arrived, God destroyed the invading hordes. He destroyed them by having them turn on each other. When Judah arrived, they discovered the dead bodies (2 Chronicles 20:24).

God can and often will fight our battles before we arrive on the battlefield.

Again, in all these instances of God fighting the battle for them, all that God required was obedience to His Word: walk around the city, break the jars, hold up your hands.

Christian, do you want to continue fighting your own fights, or would you prefer that God fight them for you? Yes, you’ll have something to do, but God will fight the battles of your life. If you do, get into His word and do what it says. Like Jehoshaphat, there will come times when God provides complete victory before we even reach the field.