Prepare for Battle

1 “When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Deuteronomy 20:10 HCSB

10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, you must make an offer of peace.

Deuteronomy 20:19 HCSB

19 “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. You must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you?

Notice the “When You” part of this passage.

These verses meet a particular set of circumstances for Israel as they begin to occupy the Promised Land. It would be wrong headed to read these verses about war, and think that they have some application to America or any other geo-political group in our world today. These verse can seem very harsh and can certainly be misapplied if we don’t recognize this. God intended for Israel to move into the Promised Land and deal harshly with its current occupants because they were so evil in His sight. He planned to use His People, a Holy People, to eradicate the evil from the Holy Land. In much the same way that Revelation 19 says that Jesus will return on a white horse to judge the evil in this world and that he comes with the armies of heaven (verse 14).

Don’t fear. God has this.

Don’t fight. For certain exemptions..

Mid construction on a home

First harvest of a vineyard

Engagements

Fainthearted

They were to wipe out some enemies.

They were to offer other the opportunity to surrender.

They were to respect the land. No destruction of fruit bearing trees, but other trees could be used as instruments of war.

The Inevitability of the Battle

Christians Fight Unseen Enemies

Ephesians 6:12 HCSB

12 For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.

Story of Bro. Dean’s calling to a church. That’s just the devil talking :)

What do we need to fight this battle?

We are very familiar with “full armor of God.” Truth, righteousness, evangelism (telling folks about Jesus), faith, our salvation, and the Word of God.

Verse 18 says to pray at all times in the Spirit. REAL PRAYER THAT DESIRES GODS WILL FIRST AND FOREMOST.

This is not a game. We have been called to be soldiers in the Lord’s army. And we need to be fighting the right battles.

Our enemy is not some person who has a different skin color, a different demand, or a different opinion, but our enemy is the Devil and all the forces of Hell.

We need to be sure that we see people the way God does, as someone for whom Christ died. Many of the folks that we will run up on are being held captive by the enemy. They don’t need an argument, they need the Lord.

Jesus said that He came to proclaim liberty to the captives. As His ambassadors lets pray.

That God would give us a new brokenness for our world.

That God would use us this week in some tangible way to fight the unseen enemy.

That we would have a primary focus on THE truth, on personal righteousness, on sharing the good News that Jesus saves. Let’s ask God to bolster our faith, thank Him for our salvation, and live in obedience to the marching orders given to us by our commander in chief, King Jesus, as written in the Word of God.

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