Alrighty, let’s get our bearings.
So with supernatural help from the Lord, the Israelites have just mopped the floor with the Philistine army.
The “supernatural help” I’m referring to was the loud thundering from the heavens and a feeling of terror the Lord had instilled within the enemy soldiers.
As a result, the Philistines fled in all directions.
Now what’s amazing about this story is the Israelites really didn’t have to do any fighting at all.
The Philistines had crossed over the border into Canaan to punish Israel for holding what they saw as unlawful assembly at Mitzpah.
But before they could make any headway, the Lord struck their butts down!
Historically, we can see the defeat was just as psychologically devastating as it was physical.
The Philistines were so humiliated that afterwards they ceased stepping foot into Israel for quite some time after that.
The battle also resulted in a power shift and the establishment of a new political reality.
Samuel also memorialized this victory by erecting a stone near the battle site.
Keep in mind, this was the same site where earlier Israel lost 34,000 men fighting the very same enemy.
The Lord, in his sovereignty, had tipped the scales of justice back from one direction to another.
The Philistines had now been put back in their place by divine decision.
As a result, Israel enjoyed several years of peace afterwards.
This period would give them the stability they needed to to transition from a loosely held together alliance of tribes to a united nation ruled by ONE king.
And that’s your takeaway for today.
God reverses the fortunes of men at His will.
All Israel had to do was repent and obey…
And then the Lord took care of the enemy for them…
It was all grace through and through.
They didn’t need superior weapons or manpower.
All Israel needed to do was surrender to the Lord.
And the same goes for you too…
All you have to do is repent and obey…
You don’t need to be cool…
Or possess crazy amounts of money or power…
Just surrender to the Lord…
And let His Grace flow into your life unstoppable and unhindered.
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