30 More Days... Day 21

1Chr. 5:18  The sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh had forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty valiant men, men able to bear shield and sword, to shoot with the bow, and skillful in war, who went to war.
1Chr. 5:19 They made war with the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab.
1Chr. 5:20 And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them, for they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him.
1Chr. 5:21 Then they took away their livestock—fifty thousand of their camels, two hundred and fifty thousand of their sheep, and two thousand of their donkeys—also one hundred thousand of their men;
1Chr. 5:22 for many fell dead, because the war was God’s. And they dwelt in their place until the captivity.

As we noted yesterday, this passage is one of those things that is just kind of sandwiched into a genealogy and you might miss it if you blinked. God kind of gives a parentheses within the lists of names and records for us there a little gem for us to mine.

This is one of those little passages in scripture that is pretty obscure and sometimes when you first look at it you kind of scratch your head and wonder “why is it here?” What can I get out of this? Why would God even bother with it? It seems so insignificant.

We have what we so often find in these genealogical accounts. We have some names, some numbers, some facts and figures. But here we also have a picture.

When the Israelites came into Canaan, before they crossed over the Jordan, they had already engaged and defeated an enemy. They had taken a land. When they did the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh had asked to inherit the good land on that side of the Jordan river because it was good land for their flocks and herds. They had not failed to go over and help Joshua and the rest of the children of Israel come into their inheritance. And when they had returned to their land after the conquest of Canaan they had gone to great pains (and almost civil war) to insure that they would continue to be counted among the tribes of Israel, the people of God for generations to come. They showed a devotion that when exercised later ... at this instance ... served them well.

At the time of this particular passage then these tribes were still a force to be reckoned with. They were still a powerful military force. We see that they were a standing army of 44,760. They were skilled warriors, powerful and knowledgeable in the use of weapons and warfare. They were not just capable. They were trained. They were “commandos”. They have strength. Apparently they thought they had enough strength and advantage to go to war. They went to war against four peoples...sons of Ishmael, tribes of people. We aren’t really told how the war went. We aren’t told that the fighting went back and forth. We aren’t told whether they were in danger of losing or not. What we are told is that in battle they cried out to the Lord and He heard them because they trusted in Him.

Great. Good for them. We have about 100 stories like this. Israel calls out to God in battle and He hears them. So what is the point?

Well, these men were capable. They were trained. They were skilled. They were able-bodied soldiers. They were many, a fighting force. Despite that they called out to God. They put their trust in Him. Whatever their abilities and strengths they still cried out to God and He heard them. They may have been strong but they didn’t trust in that strength.

We hear story after story where Israel faces impossible odds. We see time after time that God helps this people from a position of weakness and foolishness to be the come-from-behind victor. They are the underdog that we root for. They are the “Davids” standing in faith before their “Goliaths”. They are the ones crying out to God for salvation.

This is not the case here. Here they are a mighty, highly trained fighting force. They are taking the war to their enemies. They are not the underdog. They are not the weak. Yet, we see them cry out to God. They are not trusting in themselves and their own strength and training. They trust in the Lord.

In many ways, this is also the point of our 30 Days of prayer. No, it is not that we feel capable, highly trained, mighty, powerful or any of those other things. It is the fact that no matter what we do whether in weakness or in strength the battle is not ours. Verse 22 says the war was God’s. Really it was always God’s. He was the one that brought them into and gave them that land. He was the one that told them to drive out the idol worship before them. There is no doubt that these peoples were great idolaters because later these tribes fall into those same patterns and are rebuked and judged for it. But here their trust is not in the strength of their own arm (though they have some strength) but in God. They go to battle and they cry out to Him in battle. He gives them great reward and they dwell in the land.

All too often we can trusts our strengths. We can trust our eyes. We trust in our programs and our plans. We trust in our strategies, our abilities our education. We trust financial resources (if we just had enough money we could...would see...) We trust degrees and the ideas of men. We try in our might. There is a spiritual battle going on. No matter how often we realize that we are weak, we still tend to look for the plan, the idea, the strategy that will give us the advantage... the victory. Even when we know that we are outnumbered we can look to think, plan, strategize or muscle our way out of it. If I just fight. If I just endure. If I just find the right approach. Success will come.

We can learn a lot from these tribes. No matter what their strength or weakness they somehow kept in view that the war was God’s and they cried out to Him and He heard them. That is one of the many reasons that we are doing these 30 Days as well. We want to and need to cry out to the Lord. The mission is His. The “battle” for the soul is His. We pray that He will hear us and that we will be faithful to put our trust in Him.

Prayer Request
*Please pray that God would expand His work here in Slovenia. Pray that He would build His church. Pray for us to be faithful and trust in His strength and plan. Pray that He would bring people to us that are open to the gospel. Pray that He would soften hearts that are hard spiritual things. Pray for us to have boldness and wisdom to share Jesus, that God would stretch out His hand to do mighty things.