225. God will do the Good
1 Chronicles 19:13 Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight.
Joab is speaking to the troops of Israel before going into battle against the Syrians and the Ammonites. The encouragement is to be strong and of good courage and to fight bravely for the Lord and His people is repeated often in Scripture. When soldiers trust in the Lord during battle they may be strong and courageous. They will do what they are called to do and trust the outcome to the Lord. The promise is that the Lord will do that which is good in His sight. We do our part and God does His part. God’s part is always greater and always good.
This is a general principle for all of our daily spiritual struggles and for all of our life. We take up our work, fulfill our responsibility, and do our job according to our calling, and then we trust God to keep His promise to do what is good. Our job is not to win the victory. God does that. Our job is to repent and believe the gospel and go about our business according to which we are called. In other words, we keep the commandments, repent when we fail, believe the forgiveness, live the life, and do the good works God has prepared beforehand. We get no credit for victory, for God does what is good. That’s a promise we can believe.
We do the service and the work that is set before us in faith and let God do the rest. We believe the promise: He will do a good job. We are often called upon to serve God by serving our neighbor in several different roles. Sometimes we are called on to be soldiers and put on the armor for spiritual warfare. We pray and obey, and leave the results, and the credit, up to the Lord.
There is a tension between what we do and what God does. Wisdom knows the difference, and it is as difficult as distinguishing Law and Gospel. But that is why we have the Word and the Spirit. We can “do all things” when we know that God will do the good.