Wednesday March 9, 2011

A pattern has emerged as I have read through the Old Testament this year. This pattern involves God’s ability to take care of Himself and to be victorious without our help. Jericho is a prime example where God asked the nation of Israel to march around Jericho one time for 6 days and 7 times in one day and the walls would fall in. When the people did that, the walls fell in and Jericho was completely destroyed.

God asked Gideon to destroy an entire army of 120,000 soldiers with 300 warriors. The task of the 300 warriors was to blow their trumpets, crash pitchers, and yell, “For the Lord and for Gideon.” They did that and experienced a tremendous victory over the Midianites. In an earlier jlog, Jonathan with “One Sword” had victory over an entire army of warriors. With one sword.

The most recent passage I was reading involved the ark of God being captured by the Philistines (I Samuel 4-6). Israel brought the ark of God into the camp thinking it would give them victory, but they didn’t trust God to give them victory and the result involved 30,000 of their own people being killed and the ark of God being captured by the Philistines. As you read this story in chapter 5, you see a very interesting thing begin to happen. The first place the ark of God was but in Ashdod and set it with Dagon, their idol god. In two days, Dagon’s head and hands were broken off and it was at the feet of the ark of God. Something else began to occur in that all the men developed tumors (hemroids).

They moved the ark of God to Gath. Tumors broke out on all the men and they were in great pain. So they moved the ark of God to Ekron. Tumors broke out on all the men there as well. The men responded by saying, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people. For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it.”

The moral of this story and others in the Old Testament is that God is “Strong Enough” to take care of himself. I sometimes find myself thinking what I need to do, but God has enough power to take care of any situation I might find myself in. He does want us to rest in Him. Sometimes He wants us to move or do. Sometimes He just wants us to wait and watch. He is STRONG ENOUGH for any situation you find yourself in.

So rest in Him as you take steps or sit on your journey today.