Doing Right In A Wrong World

TO READ: Deuteronomy 20:1-9

When you go out to fight your enemies and you face horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid. The LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you!

Deuteronomy 20:1

The Israelites were facing the biggest fight of their lives, yet there was a bigger conflict going on behind the one for the land of Canaan. That conflict was a war between good and evil, and God was out to get the best possible army to fight it. He was interested in spiritually powerful people —not just military might. Those involved in this conflict could have absolute confidence in God’s strength and ability to win any and all wars.

In the New Testament the language of warfare is often used in a figurative sense (2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:12). This otherworldly war is to be fought with otherworldly weapons. Faith will embolden us to give ourselves fully to God’s cause, knowing, as the Israelites knew, that we are on the winning side. Through Christ’s death and resurrection and our faith in him, we can disarm the principalities and powers of darkness in this world (Colossians 2:15).

What battle are you facing today? Is it the battle to do right in a wrong world? Are you fighting to save your marriage and your family? Are you struggling to influence some hard-hearted young people in your Sunday school class? Are you trying to change a crime-riddled neighborhood, a dishonest workplace, an anti-God college campus? Do the “horses and chariots” appear formidable to you? “Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! . . . For the LORD your God is going with you!” (Deuteronomy 20:3-4). Take heart. You are on the winning side.