No Might Without Thee

We have many enemies in this world. Our greatest enemy, for those without Christ, is death. Death is the enemy of God. God created life; Satan created death, despair, and disease. Suffering is the antithesis to creation. As you read the creation story in Genesis 1 you see death, despair, and disease were not a part of the original plan. In fact when God finished, the Bible tells us:

    “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31)

The one who brought death, despair, and disease to earth and mankind is Satan, who was known in heaven as Lucifer. And his sin caused him and a third of the angels to be cast out of heaven. The Prophet Isaiah tells us:

    “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?’” (Isaiah 14:12-17)

We live in a fallen world because man was tempted by a fallen angel and gave into that temptation. However, we do not have to give into the power of temptation, the power of sin. There is an antidote for the anti-Christ. He is Christ Jesus!

We not only have an antidote, we also have an avenger and a defender. When King Jehoshaphat was facing the mighty armies of Ammon and Moab, he cried out to God to protect His people. Listen to his plea:

    “Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said: ‘O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, “If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.” And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them—here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.’” (2 Chronicles 20:5-12)

Imagine today the leader of a nation crying out to the one true God for protection. We used to have such leaders, both in politics and the pulpit. Would to God that be true again in America. The American Church today would rather rely on Washington D.C. than the Lion of Judah. We would rather rely upon human pragmatism than holy piety. God is too often an afterthought when He should be our first thought. Matthew Henry explains:

    In all dangers, public or personal, our first business should be to seek help from God. Hence the advantage of days for national fasting and prayer. From the first to the last of our seeking the Lord, we must approach Him with humiliation for our sins, trusting only in His mercy and power. Jehoshaphat acknowledges the sovereign dominion of the Divine Providence. Lord, exert it on our behalf. Whom should we seek to, whom should we trust to for relief, but the God we have chosen and served. Those that use what they have for God, may comfortably hope He will secure it to them. Every true believer is a son of Abraham, a friend of God; with such the everlasting covenant is established, to such every promise belongs. We are assured of God’s love, by His dwelling in human nature in the person of the Savior. Jehoshaphat mentions the temple, as a token of God’s presence. He pleads the injustice of his enemies. We may well appeal to God against those who render us evil for good. Though he had a great army, he said, “We have no might without thee; we rely upon thee.”

Our so-called nonChristian Founding Fathers, some who became President, used to call for national days of fasting and prayer. Would to God our so-called modern Christian leaders do the same. That they would look out across all that plagues our land, with humiliation for our sins, acknowledge the sovereign dominion of God’s Providence, and plead that He exert it on our behalf.

We have tried the secular way and we have failed miserably.

And Dear Lord we know why this is so.

We have no might without thee…

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2013 David Jeffers

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