Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
1 KINGS 22:19 | 19 Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him to the right and to the left of him.
JUDGES 5:20 | 20 The stars fought from heaven, from their courses they fought against Sisera.
1 SAMUEL 17:45 | 45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”
“Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He,
Lord Sabaoth His name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.”
The only way to have confidence in the face of evil in us and around us is to remember that Jesus is on our side. He is named Lord Sabaoth, which comes from the Hebrew word Sebaoth or hosts, a title for Yahweh in the Old Testament. The hosts of heaven can refer to human armies led by the Lord, as when David speaks to Goliath in 1 Kings. It can indicate celestial bodies, which Deborah the prophetess tells us fought for Israel at God’s command, routing the Canaanites (Judges 5). It also can mean the angels and heavenly beings gathered around God, as Michaiah conveys in 1 Kings 22. In all possibilities Luther identifies Jesus as possessing absolute divine power. Just as he won his own battles with evil and temptation in his ministry, so he can give us victory.
Do you ever “confide” in your own strength?
Gracious God,
You triumphed over Satan in your earthly life. You now hold the keys to life and history. Give us faith to trust you are with us in our trials.
Amen
