Yesterday I mentioned there was another reason why the Lord ordered Joshua and his men to destroy the enemy’s chariots and horses besides the fact that He wanted to disable them so they would never rise up and become a threat to Israel again.
The other reason is this:
God did NOT want Israel to acquire the trained horses and chariots for themselves.
Think about it.
The Israelites, being just as human and subject to temptation as anyone else, would’ve been unable to resist using this cutting edge battle weaponry to fight their enemies in future wars.
It would’ve been easy for Joshua to capture some of the enemy soldiers and have them train the Israelite soldiers on how to use these weapons.
The unbeatable combination of horses and chariots was something only a few Canaanite kings possessed.
If the Israelites got a hold of these weapons, they would have become overconfident.
And what does overconfidence lead to?
It would lead to NOT consulting God on certain matters…a big mistake they had made in the past if you recall.
God wanted to prevent Israel from casting Him aside and relying on their own fleshly wisdom, strength and human war strategies.
Because whenever Israel relied on their own strength, it always led to defeat.
This seems to be an attribute of God that is unchangeable and that we see reflected all over the place in Scripture.
Consider Israel’s situation immediately after they fled Egypt.
They were at the shores of the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s horses and chariots bearing down on them and they literally had zero avenue of escape.
Well, we all know what happened next and the incredible miracle God performed through his mediator Moses in order to save His people.
Or how about Gideon and his army?
In the beginning, he had 32,000 soldiers in his army and was still outnumbered by the enemy 4 to 1.
God told him that was too many men and forced Gideon to wheedle down the size of his army to a mere 300 soldiers.
Why?
Because again, God didn’t want Israel to become overconfident.
He wants us to rely solely on Him and in a big way.
So we shouldn’t worry when the odds seem tremendously against us when we’re facing a challenging situation.
In fact, if it’s not challenging enough, it would seem like God would NOT want to step in and help us based on everything I’ve shared here.
The takeaway is clear…
…let God be God and let Him do His own thing.
You just obey and enjoy the roller coaster ride about to unfold as Hashem makes mincemeat out of your enemies.
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