THE STRENGTH WE NEED

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure. If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there. But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.”

“Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that He will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.”

Deuteronomy 23:9-14

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Book of Deuteronomy has been building toward a climax where the Israelites were going to cross over the Jordan River into Canaan, the land God had promised to give them, and there, they would face resistance and conflict. The Lord made them well aware of this in advance but He also let them know they would never be fighting alone as He would be with them every step of the way. 

This gives us the background information needed to support today’s passage from our continued study of Deuteronomy, chapter 23. For we read where the people of Israel would be “encamped against (their) enemies” and the Lord would be moving “about in (their) camp to protect (them) and to deliver (their) enemies to (them). During this time, the scriptures tell us that the Israelites were to “keep away from everything impure”, ensuring they remained physically and spiritually clean. They were also required to keep their camp holy “so that (the Lord would) not see among (them) anything indecent and turn away from (them)”.

This was an important warning because it would be bad if the Lord turned away from His people Israel. It was certain that they would not and could not find victory without Him.

So what this have to do with us today?

I think there are parallels for sure that we need to consider for like Israel, we are encamped every day of our lives against an enemy, Satan, who wishes for one thing and one thing only…to destroy us and there’s no way we can have a chance if we try to fend for ourselves. Consider these verses from the sixth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Ephesians 6:10-18

Here’s we find directions on how to spiritually defend ourselves with a supernatural armor. Here’s what we gain from the components from God Himself:

From the belt…truth.

From the breastplate…righteousness.

From the feet…readiness from the gospel of peace.

From the shield…faith.

From the helmet…salvation.

And from the sword of the Spirit…the Word of God.

In other words, we get everything we need to stay clean and pure, to be holy and upright before the Lord, ensuring that He stays with us and helps us defeat the devil and his schemes as we stay “strong in (Him) and in His mighty power”.

Friends, God expected Israel to stay holy, clean, and righteous before Him and He expects the same from us today. After all, He did command us to do this in the scriptures:

“Be holy because I am holy”. 1 Peter 1:15-16

If you think you can achieve this on your own, think again, because you can’t do it on your own. You’re no match for Satan so never underestimate his power.

The good news is that we, like Paul, have a Lord who has already defeated our enemy and through Him we too become victorious. This Lord is named Jesus and we can do all things through Him and the strength we find in Him (Philippians 4:13).

Let us give thanks for this and share it with others every day so they too can be armed and protected as they step onto life’s battlefield each and every day.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.