Bella Vista Church of Christ
LIFELINES
August 21, 2002 Sam Willcut
If God Be With Us
When we put our absolute faith and trust in God, we will not need to worry or fear whatever happens in our lives. In understanding the providential care and power of God, there are several lessons to learn as illustrated in the Bible.
NUMBERS DO NOT MATTER. In a world filled with wickedness to the point God was determined to destroy it, he found one faithful man named Noah. (Gen. 6.8) Think about one family among so many wicked. We also learn this lesson from Gideon in Judges 7. God Himself viewed the army of 32,000 Israelites as too many, whittling the army down to just 300, to fight against the Midianites that "came as grasshoppers for multitude; for they and their camels were without number." (Jud. 6.5) What a great victory ensued, because with God, numbers do not matter.
SIZE DOES NOT MATTER. When the Israelites and the Philistines were at war with each other (1 Sam. 17), the Philistine champion named Goliath challenged the Israelites to a simple one-on-one match for supremacy. Yet at the barking words of this heathen, all of God's people "were dismayed and greatly afraid." (1 Sam. 17.11) It took a "youth" named David with enough faith in God to defeat this massive man who was over nine feet tall.
AGE DOES NOT MATTER. In the midst of some of the most wicked kings of Israel and Judah's history, a boy named Josiah of just eight years took the throne of Judah. (2 Kings 22.1) When he was a teenager of sixteen, "he began to seek after the God of David his father;" and when he was twenty, "he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images." (2 Chr. 34.3) When he was twenty-six, the book of the law was found in the temple, and he revolutionized the nation by cleansing the country of idolatry and reestablishing the Passover.
GENDER DOES NOT MATTER. While one might think most of the faithful heroes recorded in the Bible are male, do not forget about the wonderful females that exemplified God's righteousness. Esther literally saved the Israelites single-handedly. Deborah was the savior of the people, serving as one of the judges of the land. The mother of Moses, Jochebed, hid her son against the laws of the Egyptian land. Rahab saved the Israelite spies from the Canaanites. A woman named Jael contributed to the victory of the Israelites by killing the enemy captain Sisera.
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8.31)
SAM WILLCUT
Munford, Tenn.
