God Wins Battles

I have never served in the armed forces.  It is an honor for all who have though.  The US armed forces protect freedom, and do not get paid enough to put their life on the line.  Ancient civilizations normally gifted their military with the most land and housing because they fought for it and deserved it.  Today’s USA has the banks playing usurious games with money to make debt slaves so the banks own many millions of houses no one lives in.  Meanwhile, the men and women who put their lives on the line go homeless or struggle to get by.  It ain’t right what our politicians and banks have been up to, but those who serve demand great respect from me even when they aren’t aware of what they got themselves into.  God bless and protect US and her allies service members and veterans.  

The Lord replies, “You attack my people like enemies. Men return from battle, thinking they are safe at home, but there you are, waiting to steal the coats off their backs. You drive the women of my people out of the homes they love, and you have robbed their children of my blessings forever. 10 Get up and go; there is no safety here any more. Your sins have doomed this place to destruction. 

Micah 2:8-10 (GNT)

Blessings are real. God is real.  Strive to seek God’s blessing.  There is no limit to which it can make you happy, joyful and pleasure filled.  And in Heaven, it gets better.

So I have not served, however, I know a thing or two about tactics.  You want to form firing arcs with ranged.  A retreat is not taken lightly for you’ll lose some of your forces and morale and cannot fight later as strongly.  Attacking from the front and behind flanks pinches your opponent so they lose most advantages from mobility and cover.  If you waste time on attacking, your enemy can have allies show or counter attack your towns.  Battle-hardened soldiers have an advantage against untrained soldiers who maybe are even more well-armed.  More well-armed soldiers have advantage over less armed soldiers of equal skill.  You should not have your king fighting in the front lines for if he dies, the chain of command gets wrecked and leads to disadvantage.  And most of all: You just want to plain out number them.   The Israelites won battles against their enemies violating almost all of these tactics.  

Lets start with the one everyone knows about: David and Goliath.  Do you know that fame is a blessing?   Fame is a blessing God gave David.  He is so famous, people know about him today, thousands of years later!

“The Philistine armies would come and fight, but in every battle, David was more successful than any of Saul’s other officers. As a result, David became very famous.”

1 Samuel 18:30 (GNT).

Goliath was about nine foot tall, battle hardened and had a spear with a huge reach.  He challenged the Israelites with curses looking for a 1v1 fight to determine which nation wins.  Do you think the Philistines would really honor their bargain if they lost?  It sounds humane, 1v1, only one person dies and the war is ended.  Hey, maybe lets not even fight at all, lets play chess to see which nation rules over the other.  Man, if we could get rid of wars, that could be cool.  But someone would get mad and fight over the outcome.  The idea of this being a fair challenge by Goliath was a joke, and he just wanted to intimidate the Israelites.

Goliath was intimidating the Israelites and cursing God when David showed up bringing his brothers a bagged lunch from momma.  David heard what this Goliath guy was spouting and was thinking like,”You know, he already lost.  You just can’t curse and challenge God.  I don’t care who you are, how big, smart, educated, skillful in battle, or how many armies you lead, it doesn’t matter.  You can’t call out God and fight against him.  The ruder and hateful you get, the worse your destruction is.”   So he told the guys he’d do it since no one else would.

Saul offered him his armor and David declined.  Some think this was bad tactically, but it wasn’t.  You need to personally know how you go about doing things.  If you have a strategy you use, and someone tells you to do something that works normally, but not in your strategy, do not follow their advice.  The best advice I can give you is to not take everyone’s advice.  If David took on unfamiliar armor he would lose agility and speed.

So young and not fully grown sheep herder David fought super big, battle hardened Goliath.  You know how the battle goes:

41 The Philistine started walking toward David, with his shield bearer walking in front of him. He kept coming closer, 42 and when he got a good look at David, he was filled with scorn for him because he was just a nice, good-looking boy. 43 He said to David, “What’s that stick for? Do you think I’m a dog?” And he called down curses from his god on David. 44 “Come on,” he challenged David, “and I will give your body to the birds and animals to eat.”

45 David answered, “You are coming against me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the Israelite armies, which you have defied. 46 This very day the Lord will put you in my power; I will defeat you and cut off your head. And I will give the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds and animals to eat. Then the whole world will know that Israel has a God, 47 and everyone here will see that the Lord does not need swords or spears to save his people. He is victorious in battle, and he will put all of you in our power.”

48 Goliath started walking toward David again, and David ran quickly toward the Philistine battle line to fight him. 49 He reached into his bag and took out a stone, which he slung at Goliath. It hit him on the forehead and broke his skull, and Goliath fell face downward on the ground. 50 And so, without a sword, David defeated and killed Goliath with a sling and a stone! 51 He ran to him, stood over him, took Goliath’s sword out of its sheath, and cut off his head and killed him.

When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they ran away. 52 The men of Israel and Judah shouted and ran after them, pursuing them all the way to Gath[d] and to the gates of Ekron. The Philistines fell wounded all along the road that leads to Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites came back from pursuing the Philistines, they looted their camp. 54 David got Goliath’s head and took it to Jerusalem, but he kept Goliath’s weapons in his own tent.*

1 Samuel 17:41-54 (GNT).

God won many other victories too showing that strategy and skill is no match for miracles.  Gideon was told by God to send only a few of his army to fight, and God won the victory by having the enemy army be confused.  Joshua led an army that would win every time they stayed faithful to God.  The army was untrained, almost unarmed and was walking in a desert for forty years with their parents being uneducated freed slaves.  Jericho, they just marched around a few days and the walls fell when the trumpets blew.  All this was because of God.  There is no other explanation on how they won.

What battles in your life do you wish God would take over and win despite you not looking like you have any chance?   Take it to God in prayer. Do you want your job to be cool?  Do you want some sick people you know cured?  Do you want the hungry fed?  Pray!

Maybe you feel unattractive, yet desire an attractive spouse and think it impossible.  The impossible is possible with God. Pray for that attractive spouse the way you’re interested in, stop the porn, and go to the gym.  Pray they’ll be smart too! One of Satan’s lies is that a dumb bimbo would be the best catch.  Then you have someone not good in finances, wreck your house and you have dumb kids.  Don’t pray for a dumb spouse.  Pray they’re educated and smart! Pray for their faith to be great too.

Some in the world try to get rich to find a spouse.  In fact it isn’t enough for some to be rich, they want others to be poor. This is a sin.  Instead, if you want your prayers to really be heard, don’t oppress the poor or think that way.  Instead, be generous!  It sounds like a really bad strategy to make yourself be in a weaker position, but God wins battles miraculously.  Do you believe in miracles?

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