“Who can battle with the Lord?
Who can battle with the Lord?
Who can battle with the Lord?
I say, NOBODY!”
The lyrics of this chorus aptly sums up the awesome power of our God! Nobody fights with God and wins.
Ask Pharaoh of Egypt!
Ask Haman the Agagite!
Ask Jonah as he tries to run away from serving God!
Ask King Sennacherib as he tries to overrun Jerusalem!
Nobody fight against God and wins!
This is the confidence that every child of God should have, for the Bible says in Romans 8:31:
”If God is for us, who can be against us?” NIV
Let us look at the four examples of those who tried to fight against God and their woeful end.
Pharaoh was the King of Egypt and after 430 years of slavery , he was not about to let the children of Israel take off and leave just like that.He had enjoyed free labor and was used to oppressing them as he pleased. So, when Moses, who had been raised in the palace of Pharaoh and was considered a Prince in Egypt, until he murdered an Egyptian, came back after 40 years of running away, to ask for the release of his people, Pharaoh thought it was a huge joke! However, God was not joking with Pharaoh. He had heard the cry of his children through their suffering and was ready to help them leave their land of bondage and captivity.
In Exodus 5:1-5:
“Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.” NIV
Pharaoh did not know and realize that he was dealing with the Lord of Hosts, a tested war General that has never lost a battle!
In Exodus 15: 3, the Bible says :
“The Lord is a man of war;
The Lord is His name.” NKJV
Well, Pharaoh and all of Egypt learnt a hard lesson. After the Lord had visited them with the 10 plagues of Egypt, they were the ones that begged the Israelites to leave! They even gave them anything they asked for, thus paying Restitution for all the years of slavery. However, Pharaoh was still not done with his folly.
After they had departed, he went after them in a fury to bring them back to Egypt. When the Lord parted the Red Sea to make Israel cross to the other side, he did not think that was a strange thing. Instead, he went after them and Pharaoh and his men became “fish sandwich”, as the sea swept them all into a watery grave!
“Who can battle with the Lord?”
Nobody!
Haman the Agagite also tried very hard to exterminate a whole nation, simply because Mordecai the Jew refuse to bow down to him show him respect. Haman had been promoted as the highest ranking government official and his position had gone into his head. He felt that he could do anything and get away with it, especially since he had then ears of King Ahaseurus. He consulted his magicians to find the most favorable day that he can wipe out all the Jews living in the Kingdom of Ahaseurus. A date was chosen and as Haman went to dinner with the King, the nation reeled in disbelief.
However , unknown to Haman, God was quietly working behind the scene to work salvation for his own children. Just like that , the tide turned! Haman was identified by Queen Esther to her husband the King , that Haman wanted to kill her people, for she was a Jew and Mordecai was her uncle.
Haman, who was power-drunk had built gallows, 70 feet high to hang Mordecai on it. By the divine power of God, Haman was himself hanged on the gallows he had built to kill Mordecai!
Talk about the justice of God!
Perhaps if Haman had listened to the words of his wife and friends, he would not have perished .In Esther 6:12-13, the Bible says:
“ When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.” NIV
That was exactly what happened to Haman.
“Who can battle with the Lord?”
Nobody!
Another man in the Bible that learnt the lesson that you cannot fight with the Lord and win was Jonah.
God sent him to Nineveh to preach repentance to the city. However, Jonah had other plans. He knew that if he went to Nineveh, they would repent and God will forgive them and not destroy them. So, Jonah bought a ticket and boarded a boat going to Tarshish. He ended up for spending three days and three nights in the belly of a fish. This gave him enough time to reflect on his folly and ask God for mercy.
In Jonah 1:10-16:
“This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.” NIV
“Who can battle with the Lord?”
Nobody!
Finally, let us look at King Sennacherib, the boasting King of Assyria. He had captured so many cities and countries and thought that Jerusalem was just another territory for him to capture. He left God out of the equation, and discovered when it was too late that nobody can battle with the Lord and win.
He had earlier sent his supreme commander, chief officer and field commander with a large army to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. His men had boasted that they would take Jerusalem and even asked them to surrender and be taken into exile.
King Hezekiah sent word to Prophet Isaiah who told him that King Sennacherib will not come into Jerusalem to fight. In 2 Kings 18:32-37:
“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
“‘He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
34 I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’”
35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.”
NIV
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"Who can battle with the Lord?
Nobody!
Invitation to Salvation.
Jesus is calling you today. He is saying to you:
“Come to me all who are tired from carrying your heavy loads and I will give you rest”. Mathew 11:28
If you want to accept this invitation, pray to God. You can say something like this:
“Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I confess my sins before you today. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I want to know you personally.I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in and be my Lord and personal Savior.Take control of my life.Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life.Make me the kind of person that you want me to be. In Jesus name I have prayed. Amen.”
If you have sincerely put your trust in Jesus to be your Savior, welcome to the household of God!
