Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
Along with the words of a song, which as I said, I never taught the church but I used to sing:
As I reflected on this I realized that this might need to be explained. Why? Because the verse and the song speak of an enemy, treading down and slaying this enemy. This is warfare talk, and to the world this means physical battle, violence; to tread down your enemy refers to domination, subduing this enemy in a physical manner. And to the ears of the unbeliever this sounds like the Christian is trying to take over his neighborhood, workplace, government, when nothing could be further from the truth. Oh, to be clear, Jesus is coming again and when He does HE will take over, but that’s not our job.
So what does all this talk mean?
The Gospel takes up ideas like warfare, battle, wrestle, and victory and turns them on their ears. What? Yes, the very real and very physical concepts of war and victory and enemy are spiritualized to refer to a spiritual struggle.
Ephesians 6:11-12 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
I have enemies, but not flesh and blood enemies. Even when there is a person who is assaulting me, or the government is opposed to me, what appears to my eyes is not my enemy. Victory, therefore, is not striking back at my foe or taking over the government.
So, what is this victory the Bible and this song refer to?
I believe that in order to answer this we need to know the wiles of the devil. In another place Paul refers to these wiles as devices or schemes, we are not ignorant of his devices. What is it that the devil is seeking to do? Briefly,
For the unbeliever he is doing whatever it takes to keep them from believing in Jesus.
For the believer
1) Cause me to quit the faith, give up, go back
2) Cripple me through sin so that I am unable to serve God
3) Distract me through the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life
4) Focus my attention on my problems instead of God’s presence and promises
This is the battle we are in. This is the warfare. Now it should be easier to see what the victory is! Let's look at them one at a time:
1) Persevering in faith. No matter the struggle, the threat, the consequence, I continue to believe in Jesus. You may beat me, jail me, kill me, if I continue to believe in Jesus I win the victory!
2) Walk in righteousness and holiness; avoid the sin which sets me aside. But, what if I stumble and fall into sin? What is victory then? Repenting and returning to Jesus.
We can see that victory doesn’t always look or even feel like victory. But it’s real nonetheless. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Don't you dare quit. You. Keep. Holding on!
3) Ah, now we are getting down and dirty. Every day of my life I am faced with the cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and if I’m not careful I can be consumed by them. What is victory here? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. I have to draw near to Jesus and stay close to him, seek him daily, stay in his Word, be full of the Spirit. You see, victory is not some package I buy at Walmart or have delivered from Amazon; I overcome every single day. Praise God for the cross, the resurrection, the Word, the Spirit, the name of Jesus! But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
4) Ouch! When God brought Israel to the border of the promised land, Moses sent out twelve spies to spy out the land. When they came back ten of them said, “All we see is giants, man, we can't do this.” Right here is the battle. What do I see? The ten saw giants and couldn’t see God. Joshua and Caleb also saw the giants, but they saw God, Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. That’s victory, when Jesus is bigger than the giants in my eyes!
As Charles Spurgeon said in his sermon, The Victory of Faith, “This fight with the world is not one of main force, or physical might; if it were, we might soon win it; but it is all the more dangerous from the fact that it is a strife of mind, a contest of heart, a struggle of the spirit, a strife of the soul.”
That's our battle. Those are our enemies. That's our victory!
Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesying by the Holy Spirit said (Luke 1:68-75):
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
Amen! Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
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