OT Promise 185: The Battle is the Lord’s

185. The Battle is the Lord’s

1 Samuel 17:47 And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.

The context for this promise is the story of David and Goliath. David confidently in faith says this to Goliath the giant. The promise is: The battle is the Lord’s; I don’t fight my spiritual battles alone; almighty God is fighting on my side. We have enemies and we fight battles, but the battle belongs to the Lord. There is no indication in the Bible that this promise is just for some battles, but we can believe that every struggle we face is the Lord’s battle, because we belong to the Lord as His children, or His sheep. He knows we are weak and helpless alone against the lies, temptations, and scares of our enemies.

We take this as a promise, and we realize that we don’t have to face any battle, trial, struggle, problem, obstacle, frustration, etc., alone without God’s help. We learn battle lessons from this story. The Lord saves us not with sword or spear, but always through His Word and Promise. And it often is through something right at hand that we may not readily think of. In this case it was a stone. David already had the sling, and that was all he had except for a shepherd’s staff, and the stones were plentiful all around. David still had to do something, pick up a stone and sling it, but it was really the Lord who aimed the stone and struck Goliath so that he fell. 

We may be surprised what word the Lord may use to defeat the spiritual Strong Men in our lives, but with God it is always at hand. The Lord saves not with sword or spear. He saves with the innocent blood of the Son of Man, and in our lives He uses that Gospel sword to save us.

A stone doesn’t look like much in the face of the giant’s huge spear. The “little word” that God gives us doesn’t look like much in the face of the monstrous problem in front of us. God gives us, and we will use, truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, and the Word of God. These things we have, and with these things we pray. Believe, pray, fight, win, and evil flees and falls.