God Strengthens Series

My point is this: I won! But not because I was clever or smart. I won because God was strong. I won because God fought for me and set this professor up to be exposed as a false teacher in front of an entire class who probably thought I was nothing more than a nuisance.

I want to close with an intriguing article I once read entitled “Bringing A Tent Peg To A Sword Fight” (by Andrew Wilson, Christianity Today, May 2019, p. 28… I’ve taken a few liberties)

“The battle against Sisera by Deborah and Barak was won – not with sword or spear, but with a peg and a workman’s hammer (Judges 5:26).” (A woman drove a tent peg through the Temple of the sleeping Sisera). Then the author told of other Old Testament battles - In the book of Judges, Shamgar, defeated the Philistines with a cattle prod (3:31). Gideon won against the Midianites with jars and trumpets (7:19-23). And the Philistine king Abimelek is killed by a millstone thrown over the wall (9:53). Then in Exodus… Moses brings the Israelites out of Egypt using a staff designed to steer sheep, and the book of Joshua tells of Jericho’s walls were brought down with musical instruments (Josh. 6). They blew trumpets.

God (he wrote) seems to like common-place tools. The stuff of cooking, building, farming, and culture, but not swords or spears or chariots. It’s the very strangeness of the weapons that’s the point: Nobody could win a fight with those kinds of weapons… unless God was with them. It could be a tent peg or a cattle prod. It could be a jawbone, a pebble, a stone, or an altar soaked in water that suddenly caught fire. Whatever the means of victory, it rams home the point that Israel’s success came “Not by might nor by power, but my Spirit’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Zech. 4:6)

In other words, their strength came from the Lord.

Then the author added this interesting observation

The ultimate contrast, came at the cross. Rome, the most powerful military force the world had ever yet seen, gathered a battalion of soldiers to inspect Israel’s King. They were armed, he was stripped. They came with swords and spears; he came in nothing but the name of the Lord God. They carried the most advanced weapons available. He carried nothing but a rugged cross and a crown of thorns. And yet when the dust settled, the soldiers were no match for the King of Kings.

Jesus won the battle for our souls, not by the weapons of this world, but with His blood upon the cross.

CLOSE: I want to close by revisiting the words of Isaiah 40 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Notice… the reason we can trust God to give US strength is because HE CAN! He has power and wisdom beyond anything we can imagine. He is the CREATOR, the is EVERLASTING God. He doesn’t faint or grow weary… because He’s God. And He loves you so much He wants to share that power with you.

INVITATION