It is easy to feel as if we are alone when trials and tribulations come, but the battle is not ours. The battle belongs to the Lord!
Join us as we discover how God fights our battles and how we can find peace and rest in our Warrior God.
Does God Truly Fight Our Battles?
There are times in all our lives when we are tempted to ask this question. The world around us feels like it is falling apart as we lose a job, have our name slandered, or worse yet, lose someone we love…
When such trials come, we often turn our faces to the Lord, but sometimes it can feel as if He does not hear us, or even see us—that He is off somewhere, leaving us to fight our battles alone. Yet, that is far from the truth. He is ALWAYS there, ready to fight our battles IF we will let Him…
In the Word there are many instances where God fought the battles of those who followed after Him. Of imperfect men and women He favored, fighting their battles for them. Fighting battles as He still does for us today, as each battle belongs to the Lord!
God’s Hand in the Word
There are times when God will come in with a company of angels to turn the tide of the battle, but there are many times when God comes in with His gentle love to speak into our lives or protect us from harm.
The book of Daniel describes several physical encounters with angels protecting God’s people from harm…
Daniel and many others from Judah were taken captive by the Babylonians not long before the 586 BC capture of Judah and the destruction of the First Temple. There, in Babylon, it was common for the king to enact laws regarding worship… when, where and who could or could not be worshipped. Because of these laws, those of God’s people who refused to pray to other gods—praying to their God alone—were often found out by those around them and exposed to the king, forcing dire action. No law put into being by the king could be revoked—even by the king.
In these times of trials there were two events that most of us are familiar with. One being the incident with Daniel’s friends—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego—who refused to bow to false gods. The other, Daniel being cast into the lions’ den. In both these instances, the Lord sent to His followers a single angel to guard and protect them, aweing the kings of Babylon and proving that God is Lord!
“Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury… He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. And he commanded certain mighty men of valor… to bind… and cast them into the burning fiery furnace.”
“Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’
“They answered and said to the king, ‘True, O king.’
“‘Look!’ he answered, ‘I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’”
—Daniel 3:19-20, 24-25
Yes, God sent an angel to guard them in the fire. He fought their battle for them. Yet, it was their faith that sent them into the fire, and their faith that made them say to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:17, “…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.”
They had faith even before the battle that the Lord would be the one to fight it for them! They believed what we do—that the battle belongs to the Lord.
Daniel, likewise, had faith that the Lord would defend him in the lions’ den, as did even the king of Babylon!
When men brought Daniel up on charges of not obeying the king’s law which stated that only the king could pray during a specific thirty-day period, King Darius was greatly distressed—for he did not desire to see harm befall Daniel. So, the king tried to find a way to alter the edict. Being unable to do so, he not only spoke that Daniel’s God would protect him, he even spent the night—while Daniel was in the lions’ den—fasting, praying, and refraining from sleep. When the night had passed, King Darius was overjoyed to discover that Daniel had survived, God having sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths!
So, God fought Daniel’s battle, bringing him through the night…
“Then the king arose very early… and went in haste to the den of lions. And… he cried out with a lamenting voice… saying to Daniel, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?’
“Then Daniel said… ‘…My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me…’
“Now the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den… and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God.”
—Daniel 6:19-23 (emphasis added)
Yet, God’s defense of His people is not only shown in the Word through such dramatic rescues. Sometimes the battles He fights are ones of the heart…
For instance, when Hannah—who would become the prophet Samuel’s mother—was barren and being tormented not only by her husband’s other wife, but by her own mind and heart, she prayed to the Lord. And God answered her prayers… fighting her battle and giving her a child.
“And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.”
“And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. Then she… said, ‘O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life…’”
“…and the Lord remembered her. So it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, ‘Because I have asked for him from the Lord.’”
–1 Samuel 1:4-7, 10-11, 19-20
Remember the Battle Belongs to the Lord
As it says in Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
When we “hold our peace” and are “still” in the Lord, trusting that He will fight our battles for us, He never disappoints. The battle may not be won the way we expected, or even happen how we should like, but God will not let us down…
“…the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,”
—2 Peter 2:9
What the enemy means for ill, the Lord certainly means for good—we just have to keep our eyes on our Father, remembering who He is!
“But I will sing of Your power;
—Psalm 59:16-17
yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning;
for You have been my defense
and refuge in the day of my trouble.
To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises;
for God is my defense,
my God of mercy.”
Even today, for us as Believers, the Lord fights our battles. And He continues to fight the battles of His children in Israel—our Jewish brothers and sisters. As the enemies that surround Israel try to destroy her, the Lord fights for her and her people, bringing them through every trial!
Let us stand together in faith, renewing our hope as we realize that God is the fighter of our battles, our defense in times of trouble! Let us remember that the battle belongs to the Lord!
“It shall come to pass
—Isaiah 65:24
that before they call, I will answer;
and while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
