2 Chronicles 13:18 (NIV) The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

There were many kings that Israel and Judah had in the years of their residing in the Promised Land. All of Israel’s kings were evil (the ten northern tribes). There wasn’t a godly king among them in all their history. Judah didn’t fare too well either, with only eight out of the twenty kings in their history being considered good in some form or fashion. Even most of the good ones weren’t good for all their reign. In the story from which the verse above comes from, Abijah was Judah’s king. He succeeded his father, King Rehoboam, who was King Solomon’s son. Abijah was not a good king but in this one story, he did what was right. In facing King Jeroboam of Israel, who happened to be the first king that they had and the one that turned the people’s hearts to idols, he did what should be done to secure the victory. Although he and Judah faced overwhelming odds being greatly outnumbered (Israel had 800,000 troops to Judah’s 400,000), he relied on God to secure the victory, At that time, Judah was honoring the Lord by keeping all the requirements of the law such as presenting burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the Lord. Because of this, King Abijah was confident of victory and when he and the army engaged in the battle against the greater army of Israel and he found himself trapped by Israel’s army who was in front of them and behind them, he cried out to the Lord and God delivered Israel into their hands. On that occasion, they had victory. But if you follow the story of King Abijah, you find that he was not devoted to the Lord after that. In fact, he only reigned for three years (1 Kings 15:1-3). You have to wonder why, after experiencing victory by relying on God, someone would stop seeking and serving the Lord. It seems like insanity, and it actually is.

But before we point a finger at Abijah and the people of Judah, we must take a good look at ourselves because we, many times, do the same thing. How many times has the Lord rescued us and gotten us out of serious trouble only to have us head in the wrong direction again, which is away from Him? How much mercy and grace has God demonstrated in our own lives? If we are fully committed to Him now, it’s only because He has had great patience and compassion on us. By all rights, we are not worthy of His love, grace and mercy. But God is not like us. There is no one like Him. He has declared us worthy through what Jesus did by dying on the cross for our sins and paying the penalty that was ours. The penalty was death, but Jesus paid it so that we can live! Now, we can have victory as well, but not just on occasion. Hopefully, your season of riding the roller coaster of loving and serving Jesus and of turning away is over and now, you and I can have victory on every occasion. Let’s secure the victory each time by doing what King Abijah did this one time that he should have continued to do throughout his short reign. Victory is ours every time we rely on Jesus!

Pastor Joey Vazquez