Remember when the Israelites left Egypt? In their minds, they wanted to head straight toward the Promised Land, but God knew that wasn't the best plan. He knew that if His people encountered all of those other strong nations right off the bat, they would probably lose heart, question themselves, question their God, and turn back to Egypt.
So He took them around the long way (which became the really long way) in order to build their strength and confidence.
He started with leading them to a place where they thought that all they could see was the Egyptian army in hot pursuit. On one said, Pharoah and all of his chariots; on the other side, the massive body of water we know as the Red Sea. If ever there was a time that a people would think they would have to fight, this would be it. We can imagine Israel trying to calculate their chances, trying to figure out just how much fight they had in them...only to have God step in and show them how He fights.
They watched their first enemies drown.
They watched their second enemies defeated by marching in circles and shouting.
Do you see what's happening here? God is slowly building their confidence as they start to encounter their enemies. He doesn't expect them to go out and fight some all-out major war right off the bat; He knows they don't have the heart for that. The stamina for that. The faith for that. So He builds it, slowly, over the course of the exodus and the entrance into the Promised Land. Slowly, but surely, He trains His people to fight.
That way, when the time comes, they will not only be ready, but they'll know they are ready.
This is the theme of Psalm 144 - Blessed be the Lord, who is my rock. He gives me strength and skill in battle.... He stands before me as a shield. He subdues people under me. It's really worth reading the whole thing.
But the whole thing is about how God teaches us how to approach battle. How He strengthens us for the fights that are ahead. He stands with us, yes. He goes before us, yes. He follows behind us, yes. But everything God is doing in our lives is making us stronger for the thing that's coming up that we can't even see yet - physically stronger, mentally stronger, spiritually stronger. He's training our instincts to fight His way so that when the time comes, we'll not only be ready, but we'll know we're ready.
And we'll know we're ready because we know Who is in our corner.
Like the coach in the boxing ring, He's right there. He knows we've put in the work. He knows we've followed our training. He knows we're still going to get weary and sometimes, it might even look like we're losing. But He's got us. Because He knows that we know that He's got us and that He's made us ready for this. Even this.
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