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.

The people of God faced many enemies in their time in the Promised Land and sometimes, they even fought against each other. Because of Solomon’s sin in turning to other gods, the Lord said that the kingdom would be divided during his son’s, King Rehoboam’s reign. Jeroboam rebelled against Rehoboam and took the ten northern tribes with him, leaving Rehoboam with Judah and Benjamin. Rehoboam also turned to other gods during his reign. After Rehoboam died, his son, Abijah, became king. Abijah, with 400,000 fighting men from Judah, went up against Jeroboam who had 800,000 men ready for battle. Abijah and the men of Judah fought Jeroboam and the Israelites while relying on God for the victory and as the passage of scripture above says, in that occasion, Judah was victorious. Abijah, however, did not turn to the Lord after that and only lasted three years as king.

Whenever the people the people of Judah would turn to worship and serve the Lord, they had victory. Whenever they turned away, they would suffer defeat. That’s why the people of God only had occasional victory. Each occasion of victory was the direct result of them calling on and relying on God. Each time they did, it resulted in a great victory such as the one between Judah and Israel in this story. Even though Judah was greatly outnumbered having only half the number of men that Israel had, they overcame because God was with them. It was always God that made the difference, which makes you wonder why in the world they would ever turn away from Him. Instead of occasional victory, they could have had an undefeated record! But instead, they wound up losing many battles and eventually, being captured and exiled to Babylon.

While we may be tempted to chide the people of God for being so stubborn and hardhearted, we had better take time out to examine ourselves first. How many times has God come to your defense and has been your help when you were serving Him and calling on Him? Too many to count, I bet. But like everyone else including myself, we have all done the same thing that the people of God did, causing us to experience occasional victory. It doesn’t have to be that way. God has provided everything we need to stay connected to Him and to walk uprightly before Him (2 Peter 1:3) so that we can have full access to Him and to His power. The Lord loves to work on our behalf and is only looking to keep us close to Him so that we won’t destroy ourselves as the people of Judah and the ten northern tribes did. Thank God that He is so patient and merciful towards us! Let’s seek Him always and worship and adore Him because He is so worthy of all of our worship and praise. As we serve Him without turning away, we will have victory after victory instead of occasional victory. It’s a winning and a very blessed proposition!

Pastor Joey Vazquez