Daily Bible Reading Reflections

“It is the LORD Your God Who Fights For You”

Today’s Bible reading is Deuteronomy 3 and 1 Corinthians 10.

It was a time of transition in Israel. Moses is delivering his farewell address to an anxious nation of wanderers who have finally arrived on the doorstep of the Promised Land. Listen to his words in Deuteronomy 3:21-22:

“And I commanded Joshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. So will the LORD do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. You shall not fear them, for it is the LORD your God who fights for you.'”

Men, women, and children will have to step by faith across a miraculously-parted Jordan River. Soldiers will have to draw their swords. Joshua will have to lead. Spies will have to confidently report. Priests will have to march around Jericho’s walls, armed only with trumpets. A scarlet cord will have to be tied in a window. The ark of the covenant will have to be carried. But each and every one of those people will be able to do so with faith-filled courage.

How? “It is the LORD your God who fights for you.”

A few millennia later, disciples of Jesus continue to walk by faith, not by sight. We remind ourselves in song that this world is not our home. We continue to use the Bible as a light for our path. We pray, casting our anxieties before our Father’s throne. We worship. We assemble. We sacrifice. We unashamedly shine. We seek the welfare of our cities and our neighbors. We set our minds on things above. We live as if our real citizenship is in heaven and our King could return at any moment. Come what may–through the storms, through the night, through the darkest valleys–we endure. We speak and sing and blog about joy and peace and hope.

How? We remember. “It is the LORD your God who fights for you.”

And we believe.

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