Date: Monday 13th August, 2018.

Topic: The Battle Cry

Bible Reading: Exodus 23: 20–33 (The Holy Bible, New English Translation®. Copyright © 2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C.)

1. “I am going to send an angel before you to protect you as you journey and to bring you into the place that I have prepared.

2. Take heed because of him, and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him.

3. But if you diligently obey him and do all that I command, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will be an adversary to your adversaries.

4. For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them completely.

5. “You must not bow down to their gods; you must not serve them or do according to their practices. Instead you must completely overthrow them and smash their standing stones to pieces.

6. You must serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst.

7. No woman will miscarry her young or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

8. “I will send my terror before you, and I will destroy all the people whom you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

9. I will send hornets before you that will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you.

10. I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals multiply against you.

11. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

12. I will set your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

13. “You must make no covenant with them or with their gods.

14. They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

Word for Today: Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land. – v. 30.

Inspiring Commentary:

Just visualize the children of Israel as they entered to take possession of the land promised them by God. A couple of thousands in number, most of them 20 years or younger – inexperienced in governance, with a 400-year-old history of slavery and quite used to a nomadic lifestyle! Hardly the type of people prepared to occupy and administer well-structured cities inhabited by millions of people. The All-Wise God, knowing all this, decided to give them victory in stages, giving them one victory after the other according to their ability to cope. Is this not the same way God deals with us, in our individual lives?

We may be impatient for victory in one area or another, but sometimes God has other things He wants to accomplish within us in the course of battle. Like Christian maturity and character. Is this not what the Apostle James meant when he said we should not shirk our problems or trials but allow patience have its perfect work? James 1:2) Christ's yoke on your shoulders implies that you are willing for God to have His way in whatever situation you are passing through as you await the fulfilment of His promise.

Prayer: Praise God! No matter how rough, long or winding my road, I am assured of victory every step of the way. Hallelujah!