Since the UnShackled LIFE group is currently studying Deuteronomy, I was skipping around at random through the book, but stopped back near the beginning when reading the following verses (Deut 1:26-33):
“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go."
Many are the times when I look at the Old Testament and ask myself: how in the world could the Israelites turn away from God, or not believe in the promises of God? Look at all God did for them! How could they be so idiotic? Surely they had more sense.
But are we not exactly the same today? Do we not have battles to fight for the Lord? Yet rather than believe that the Lord will be with us when we fight those battles, we turn away. Look at those fortifications! Look at how tall those guys are! We don't stand a chance! More accurately, we are probably saying that our life is pretty comfortable and besides, we don't want to be called hurtful names. We've been losing battles - primarily the "culture wars" - for years. Why should it be any different today?
If we are not willing to fight for God, why should He fight for us?
