I realized a theme this morning while reading about the division of the kingdom of Israel. The kingdom divides in two, starting with Jeroboam (who lead Israel) and Rehoboam (who lead Judah). One king decided to rid his kingdom of the priests of God, and instead, create priests to serve the gods he fashioned out of gold. The other king, while still not ruling perfectly, humbled himself before God and the LORD showed up to fight for him.
In fact, this didn’t just happen with one generation. When King Rehoboam’s son Ahijah takes over as King, he actually appears to be even more God-centered than his father. And Ahijah’s son, Asa, having had some remarkable demonstrations of God’s protection and power, becomes even more dedicated to God than even his father was!
This isn’t typically a pattern we see, right? So often the parent or grandparent has had a strong faith in God and the relationship with God becomes less and less important in generations following. God gets replaced with gods of self, wealth, people, and things. This was not so with this particular segment of David’s ancestors. Why?
My guess is that in part they had heard and had even witnessed first hand what it was like to have the LORD God fight for you. Against great odds – in fact odds that were seemingly insurmountable – victory had come through the LORD. There could be no doubt of God’s hand in it. They should not have won. There was no way to explain the victory – except that they entered into battle confidently knowing that their God was with them and would not be defied by those who were serving a false god. They knew God’s power could save, then they proclaimed their belief that He would save, they asked God to save, and God did save! In a mighty way – God saved them!
In King Asa’s case, God saved Judah from an army of 1,000,000 warriors, with 300 chariots. I can’t even imagine how absolutely overwhelming it would be to see so many coming against me in an attack, and yet, Asa does not rely on his own power or the power of his small army. King Asa went straight to the One and Only who could provide victory.
God provided the victory. Asa and the people of Judah knew the victory was a result of God’s hand, and the people willingly gave God the credit for it!
I love these stories. I love the reminders about God’s victorious and miraculous hand. I love reading about how might God is to save. I truly love them. And, I cannot help but feel a bit of shame at how easily I can forget to turn to the One who can and will fight my battles for me. I am not up against a million-man army (thank God), so how much easier should it have been for me to call upon the LORD – asking Him to fight against the impossible situations/battles in which I find myself fighting?
In all honesty, yesterday there was a period of time where I was so overwhelmed by the situation in my workplace that I felt like I had no idea what to do! I had no solution to try to combat the struggles. I tend to think of myself as competent and capable – especially at work – and yet I hit a wall yesterday. I felt so out of my league – truly overwhelmed by it all. Clearly, I forgot that I am not supposed to face any of my battles alone – on my own accord. I don’t have to! I am a child of the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORD’S! I don’t need to have the answers because HE does! He does!
You see, I needed to be reminded that if God can defeat the massive enemy armies, He is more than capable of defeating the battles I face. So I will seek Him. I will give Him praise. I will invite Him to fight for me. I will trust that He will fight – and not only fight – but be victorious.
Blessings!