When the Battle Belongs to God

 

There are times when the world seems to be moving toward confusion, conflict, and judgment. Nations prepare for war. Governments make plans that ordinary people cannot control. Economic pressures increase. Fear spreads easily, especially when people begin to believe that powerful forces are directing events beyond their ability to resist.

Yet the Bible repeatedly brings God’s people back to one essential truth:

The battle belongs to God.

That does not mean that God’s people have no responsibility. It means that our first responsibility is not panic, retaliation, or confidence in human strength. Our first responsibility is to hear God, obey Him, repent where we have turned from Him, and trust His power to accomplish what we cannot.

Psalm 81 gives us a remarkable statement from God:

“Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.”

Those words reveal both the problem and the solution.

The problem was not ultimately the strength of the enemy.

The problem was the disobedience of God’s people.

When God’s People Turn Away

Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly warned His people that rebellion against Him would have consequences.

Leviticus 26 explains that when Israel rejected God’s commandments and broke His covenant, fear, defeat, hardship, and oppression would follow.

Deuteronomy 28 contains the same warning. A people who had been blessed by God could find themselves brought low when they abandoned His ways.

Deuteronomy 32 gives the reason in even plainer language:

“Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.”

That is one of the great dangers facing every generation.

People enjoy God’s blessings and eventually forget the One who gave those blessings.

Prosperity becomes something they believe they created for themselves. Freedom becomes something they assume can never disappear. Moral order is taken for granted. God’s commandments are treated as outdated or inconvenient.

Then, when trouble comes, people look everywhere except to God for the explanation.

Scripture repeatedly tells us to look first at our own spiritual condition.

Have we listened to God?

Have we obeyed Him?

Have we remembered the Rock that formed us?

Before asking why God has allowed hardship, we should ask whether we have departed from Him.

God Can Use Even an Enemy

Isaiah 10 contains a difficult but important truth.

God describes Assyria as:

“The rod of mine anger.”

Assyria was not righteous. Its rulers were proud, ambitious, and violent. Yet God could still use that nation as an instrument of chastening.

The Assyrian king believed that his victories came through his own strength and wisdom. He boasted of his accomplishments and the nations he had conquered.

But God saw the entire situation differently.

The ruler thought he was acting independently.

God knew that he was still operating within divine sovereignty.

Then God declared that when His purpose had been fulfilled, He would judge Assyria for its pride and wickedness.

This teaches us something vital about frightening events.

God does not need an enemy to be righteous before He can use that enemy for His purposes.

Nor does God’s temporary use of a nation, ruler, or circumstance mean that He approves of everything connected with it.

God can use an instrument and afterward judge that instrument.

That is why Christians must never conclude that evil has defeated God simply because evil appears temporarily successful.

The Enemy May Advance Until the Very End

The sermon returns repeatedly to the example of Pharaoh and the Red Sea.

Pharaoh continued pursuing Israel even after witnessing the judgments of God upon Egypt.

Israel had left bondage, yet Pharaoh followed.

He did not stop when Israel approached the sea.

He continued until he entered the very place where God would destroy his power.

From Israel’s perspective, that must have been terrifying.

The enemy appeared strong.

The escape route seemed blocked.

Humanly speaking, Israel could not win.

But that was exactly the point.

God wanted His people to understand that their deliverance did not come because they were militarily superior to Egypt.

God delivered them.

Isaiah 10 refers back to this kind of deliverance when it speaks of God acting “after the manner of Egypt.”

The lesson is clear: an enemy may appear strongest immediately before God brings him down.

Therefore we cannot judge the final outcome of events merely by looking at who appears powerful today.

Christ Is Our Peace

Micah 5 speaks of an Assyrian invasion and then declares concerning the coming ruler from Bethlehem:

“This man shall be the peace.”

Christ is presented as the answer in the midst of danger.

That is where the Christian’s confidence must remain.

Not in political movements.

Not in military power.

Not in financial systems.

Not in the ability of men to predict the future.

Our peace is in Jesus Christ.

The world may become unstable, but Christ is not unstable.

Governments may change, but Christ does not change.

Human plans may fail, but God’s purpose does not fail.

The Christian does not deny the seriousness of difficult events. Faith is not pretending that danger does not exist.

Faith means knowing that danger does not have the final word.

God does.

Can We Stop Everything That Is Coming?

One of the most important questions raised near the end of the sermon is whether God’s people can simply organize themselves strongly enough to stop every coming event.

The answer given is no.

But that does not leave us helpless.

There is something we can do.

We can warn.

Ezekiel 33 describes the responsibility of a watchman. God tells Ezekiel:

“Thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.”

That is a very different calling from trying to control everything.

The watchman does not create the danger.

He does not possess the power to prevent every danger.

His responsibility is to speak faithfully when God has given a warning.

The same principle applies to Christians.

We are called to preach the gospel.

We are called to teach God’s Word.

We are called to warn against sin.

We are called to urge repentance.

We are called to point people to Jesus Christ.

That is work we can do.

This Is Not a Time for Fear

The sermon ends on a note of hope rather than terror.

Difficult events should drive God’s people toward Him, not away from Him.

If we know that God is sovereign, then frightening circumstances become a reason to pray more earnestly, study His Word more carefully, and obey Him more faithfully.

We do not know every detail of what lies ahead.

We do not know exactly how God will bring His purposes to pass.

But we know the One who holds the future.

That changes everything.

The Christian can look at uncertainty without surrendering to fear.

We can pray.

We can work.

We can believe.

We can warn others.

We can preach Christ.

And above all, we can remember the promise of Psalm 81. God desired His people to listen to Him, walk in His ways, and trust Him to deal with their adversaries.

That remains the lesson.

The answer to fear is not greater confidence in ourselves.

The answer is greater confidence in God.

The battle is His.

Our responsibility is faithfulness.