Passing Through

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One of the most popular battle verses has got to be 2 Chronicles 20:15. Or it’s cousin Exodus 14:14. Both these stories speak of God being the one who would fight the battle on behalf of his children. The two scenarios are often so referred to you might think we don’t really get to fight any battles.

“Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.” 2 Chronicles 20:15
But some battles are ours and we have to do the fighting ourselves. Just three chapters afters watching God fight the Egyptians for them, the Israelites had to do their own fighting. God was still part of the battle, he made them win so long as they sought and praised him through the lifting of Moses’ hands.

“As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.” Exodus 17:11

Sometimes, our fighting only comes in after God has fought first. Like with Gideon and his men who only pursued and destroyed the enemy’s army after  God had confused them and turned them against one another (see Judges 7). So, you pretty much get it that there are different kinds of battles and different kinds of strategies to win them, but I want to talk a little about the battles we shouldn’t fight.

When Israel got closer to Canaan, the battles they fought were about taking possession of the land of the nations they overcame. Some land was not theirs to take so with these God would warn them not to pick fights with these nations.
“Give the people these orders: You are about to pass through the territory of our brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on…” Deuteronomy 2:4-5

It was a temptation to Israel to provoke these nations to war because they were superior to them. These nations where afraid of them. It would have been so easy to pick a fight because even the people they would fight would have already seen themselves to have lost. But God says that wouldn’t be the case. Powerful and experienced as they now were in war, they wouldn’t have won such battles because God hadn’t given them the prize.

“David asked the men standing near him, ‘What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?’…” 1 Samuel 17:26

Every battle has its prize. In this case, it was marriage into the royal family. At times it was land, other times about reputation, either of those leading the battle or the deities they represented. The prize of a battle should be a determining factor of whether you fight it, not your experience in battle.

God discourages the Israelites from picking a fight with Esau because there is no prize. He has withheld the prize from them because it belongs to Esau. This teaches us that we cannot have a prize that God has not given us, so we need to be careful to pick our battles wisely. Some battles are not to be fought, not by God or us, some battles are just to be avoided.

God says they are just passing through Seir. They were getting used to possessing the enemy’s territory, but this time they were just passing through. Much frustration comes into our lives out of a failure to distinguish between the two. We lose some battles because we seek to possess that which we were only meant to pass through. So it’s not that we weren’t strong enough, it’s just that it wasn’t ours to have. It’s only then that we realize that what we thought was our failure was actually the success of God’s plan.

“…David inquired of the Lord, ‘Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?...” 1 Samuel 30:8

It’s such a good prayer habit to ask God what battles we should engage in and which we should avoid. It's good to inquire of Him whether we possess and build or if we're just passing through. Doing so saves us from wasting time and energy pursuing things that could never be ours because they are just not God’s plan for our lives. It also encourages us to fight for what he has already given us because it already has our name on it. 

"...A man can receive only what is given him from heaven." John 3:27

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