Reliance On The Lord

-August 2, 2022

Good morning, happy Tuesday,

“Thus the children of Israel were subdued at that time; and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the Lord God of their fathers.”

(2 Chronicles 13:18).

Under King Rehoboam the kingdom was divided into two parts in keeping with what God told King Solomon would happen because of his sin of idolatry and turning away from the Lord; the son of Solomon kept two tribes of Judah and Benjamin as the Southern kingdom, and Jeroboam reigned over the ten Northern tribes. All the kings of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and were in full idolatry. The kings over Judah were mostly good and God blessed them when they honored Him. There were some bad kings among them also.

In the end, both kingdoms were taken into captivity: Israel by Assyrians and Judah by the Babylonians. Judah ended up as bad or even worse than Israel. They knew better but failed to turn back to the Lord. Their captivity lasted seventy years and then many of those from Judah went back to their land as God foretold. They rebuilt the temple, the walls of Jerusalem, and occupied their land once again.

Over their history up to the captivity, Israel and Judah fought many wars against each other as in our text today. In this case, King Jeroboam of Israel came against King Abijah of Judah. The latter tried to convince the former not to fight, but to no avail. The lesson for us is to avoid conflict with others as much as we can, while not compromising our faith in the Lord. Our warfare today is spiritual in nature, and is against the devil and his evil forces.

Instead of backing off his attack, Jeroboam caused an ambush against Judah and hemmed them in on two sides: front and rear. Fortunately, they cried out to the Lord for His help, and blew the trumpets. God acted on their behalf to deliver them and gave them the victory over Israel. King Abijah struck them and killed five hundred thousand choice men of Israel. Israel had the stronger army, but God supported Judah.

The reason for Judah’s victory was clear: “Because they relied on the Lord God of their fathers.” Still today, the key to victory is reliance on the Lord. The definition of reliance is, “dependence or trust in someone or something.” For the Christian, we must rely on the Lord fully and not on ourselves or on others. God is glorified when we do. We like Abijah and the nation of Judah were in deep trouble with no way out. God came through for them in a big way.

We must always guard against reliance on our own intellect, will, strength, and wisdom. Self-reliance never works but only makes things worse. Often, the kings of Israel and sometimes the kings of Judah also, hired armies from the nations around them. It was never good. Instead, we must trust in the Lord, fight the good fight of faith, and rely fully on Him. God alone is our confidence. When we depend on Him alone, we find that He is fully dependable and reliable. The battle is not ours but the Lord’s. Help is but a prayer away.

Have a blessed and victorious day relying on the Lord. Before you act stop. S-T-O-P stands for Surrender-Trust-Obey-Pray. It is one of the best and easiest acronyms to remember and live by. Stay safe and healthy.

In reliance on the Lord fully,

Dean