“Jehovah Fights for Israel” (10 min.)
Have we ever felt completely alone, with no one to help us deal with a problem? Yes, that's how it felt. It's not the only one. Even some faithful servants of Jehovah in the past felt this way. And that's when the memory of Jehovah's promise comes to mind. "I will never leave you and I will never abandon you."
And we are going to talk about this in the theme of Treasures of the Bible with the title: Jehovah fights for Israel. There were times when this nation also thought they were alone. For example, the case that is exposed in the book of Joshua chapter 10, it is indicated that after the Gibeonites made peace with the Israelites, 5 kings found out about this pact that they had made. So they wanted to kill Gibeon, which was not a very small city, but they wanted to kill off because they supposedly felt betrayed.
LET'S READ: Joshua 10: 5
Then, the five kings of the Amorites - Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmut, Lakís, and Eglon - met accompanied by their armies. They set out and camped to fight Gibeon.
As we can see, it was a very uneven 5v1 fight, so there was almost everything to lose from a human point of view, of course. And from that point of view, the situation was not so favorable, because we are talking about 5 kings of the Canaan region who were experts in warfare, who knew how to terrorize, attack. Who were going to defend us? the Israelites.
And let's remember that they had not carried out a task of the army to be warriors by nature, because they had always wandered in the desert, so they did not have the full capacity to defend. Yet they did. Because? Because Jehovah intervened in the situation. Jehovah fought for Israel.
We have ever felt like this, that we have felt a lot of pressure. It can be an aspect of schools, colleges, jobs, family, neighborhood, in the country, because we are pressured or threatened, or sometimes they do some actions that show the hatred they have for being a servant of God. What do we do in those cases?
Have you ever felt completely alone? Possibly, but here we have the clear example that very powerful nations were attacking a small, reduced group. It was not a balanced ratio. Five against one. How can Jehovah help us in these cases? Let's see what he did for Gibeon and supporting Israel.
LET'S READ: Joshua 10: 10,11
Jehovah wreaked havoc among the Amorites before the Israelites, who killed many, many of them at Gibeon; They were chasing them on the way up Beth-Horon and killing them as far as Azecá and Maqueda. 11 While they were fleeing from Israel and going down the slope of Beth-Horon, Jehovah threw great hailstones from heaven to Azekah, and they died. In fact, more people died from the hail than from the Israelites' sword.
As we can see, on two occasions it is mentioned that it is Jehovah who fights for Israel. In verse 10 he talks about the chaos that happens among the Amorites and that allows the Israelites to attack them. And many of them kill them. And in 11, instead, it is described that for a considerable amount of kilometers, Jehovah threw large hailstones from the sky, and they died more because of this than because of the Israelites.
Today we can also sometimes when we feel alone, pressured, either by governments, families, authorities, etc ... Jehovah is the one who can perfectly intervene on our behalf. And Jehovah can do things that are apparently not humanly possible, such as hail falling in mostly desert areas, as it was in these places described by Joshua 10-11.
In the book Insight, it is indicated that Jehovah, on other occasions, had also done the same of using hail as in Egypt, for when the people of Israel were delivered. It should not surprise us, then, that even if we are under a lot of pressure wherever we find ourselves, Jehovah can do something that is apparently not possible.
But Jehovah can do even more impossible things. He is the God of impossible things, and he did it in an impressive way. Now let's look at Joshua chapter 10. What we will read is a situation that was pressing because the day, the light, was already ending. So ending all those five kings and their armies seemed like a task that was not going to be accomplished. What happened?
LET'S READ: Joshua 10: 12-14
It was then on the day that Jehovah defeated the Amorites before the eyes of the Israelites that Joshua turned to Jehovah and said before Israel: "Sun, be still over Gibeon, and, moon, over the valley of Ayalon!" 13 So the sun stood still and the moon did not move until the nation succeeded in taking revenge on its enemies. Is it not written in the book of Hasar? The sun stood still in the middle of the sky and did not rush to set for a whole day or so. 14 There was never before or after a day like that when Jehovah heard a man's voice, because Jehovah was fighting for Israel.
These verses contain something impossible that a man asks God not to lose the light in order to fulfill the task of ending these kings. Jehovah agrees and for approximately 24 hours the rotation of the earth is stopped so that Israel can destroy these enemies. As verse 14 clearly states, there never was, before or after, a day like that. All because, as it says at the end of the 14th, Jehovah was fighting for Israel.
Brethren, let us be sure that Jehovah will go out of his way to help his servants who are in difficult situations.
ILLUSTRATION:
As for example we can see in our activity guide, the photograph of one of our brothers in jail unjustly imprisoned. But he is seen to be happy, there are undoubtedly some who are there around him saying words of encouragement, another in his situation would be crestfallen crying thinking why I am here, if he has not done anything wrong.
Even so, what is happening there is a clear demonstration of someone who has deep faith and trust in Jehovah and that this can both motivate those of us outside of prisons as well as those who are observing the attitude of our brother, and Jehovah it can do impossible things. It has already shown lately, even before the end of last year, many of our brothers were released from other prisons where they had been locked up for decades, no one could think that this was going to happen. But Jehovah clearly does so because he fights on behalf of his people.
And situations like these remind us of the words in song 55 that we use in the unions under the theme: "don't themes." and there it says: Even if they use threats and want to deceive you, or make fun of evil, do not let yourself be scared. Although they are many, it will never give you up. I give you my strength, the victory you will achieve.
The next time we feel alone, it is normal to feel it. Let us think that Jehovah has always fought and supported his people, he will never abandon us. Let us fully trust. He is Almighty God and we have the best backing in the universe.
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