DEUTERONOMY 20 ON THE VERGE OF BATTLE2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Deuteronomy 20 On The Verge Of Battle

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021.

explore some of the things that God has for us, we're going to be in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 20. So if you want to grab your Bible, open up your app, however you want to follow along with us in the scriptures and work your way to Deuteronomy chapter 20. It's early there in the Old Testament, fifth book of the Bible and a book that Moses wrote. It's really a record of Moses addressing the children of Israel and

right on the verge of entering into the promised land. And it's important to understand the context. We'll see why in just a moment. But this is the next generation. After being delivered out of Egypt, the first generation got to the edge of the promised land, got freaked out and said, no way, we're not going in there. We're going to just be destroyed if we do. And so they ran into the wilderness. They spent 38 years wandering and died in the wilderness. But now this next generation has risen up.

They have been led by the Lord to the border of the promised land again. And once again, God is preparing them saying, you're going to enter into the promised land.

And so Moses here in Deuteronomy has been recounting for them their history and providing for them all the instruction that they will need as they head in to face some new challenges, some new battles, and take the land that God has provided for them. And so as we spend some time in this, this is what we're looking at. Moses addressing a new generation saying, get ready for the things ahead and here's what you need to know so that you're prepared to face those battles.

Well, as we work our way through Deuteronomy chapter 20, let's start off first of all looking at verses 1 through 4. Here's what it says. Deuteronomy chapter 20 verse 1. When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. So it shall be when you are on the verge of battle.

that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint. Do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. Let's pray. Lord, as we consider your word this morning,

I pray, God, that you would work within our midst. Lord, we know and we believe as we gather together in your name that you are here with us. But Lord, we also recognize that many times we are blind to your presence and dull to hear your voice. And so right now, I pray, God, that you would open up our eyes. May we see you as we spend this time in your word. Lord, would you open up our ears?

that you would allow us to hear, enable us to hear, and help us to be attentive. Lord, you want to speak directly to things that are happening in our lives, to areas of our hearts that need to be addressed, Lord, areas where we need to be strengthened and lifted up, and also areas where we need to be corrected, where course change is needed. God, I pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we might be in tune with you, led by you, Lord, that we might experience your work directly,

in our lives. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as we spend some time together here in Deuteronomy chapter 20, I've titled the message, On the Verge of Battle. On the Verge of Battle. It comes from verse 2, where Moses says, When you are on the verge of battle, the priests shall approach and speak to the people.

And so here we find the nation of Israel. They're about to cross over. And one of the things that they're going to experience frequently in this promised land that God has given to them was times of battle. And so God says, I want to prepare you for those times of battle. And when you are lining up against the enemy, when you are making those preparations and you're on the battlefield and you're right there about to engage in the battle, there's some instruction here for you.

As Israel is about to enter into the promised land, they know.

They're going to have to battle. They faced a few battles in their lifetime so far, but not that much. This was going to be a season directly involving battles as they would take the territory that God has given to them. Now, as we consider these things this morning, of course, there's some things that we need to consider for ourselves, and it may not relate to, probably doesn't relate to a physical battle that we might be facing.

Now, of course, there are those times in our lives where there are physical battles and these things would apply, but I would not limit it to that. For the Jewish people at this point, they were entering into the promised land. And the promised land for us today, as we consider it, is a picture of something that God wants to do in our life. Sometimes the promised land is mistakenly understood or looked at as eternity.

And we think about, you know, entering into eternity and relate that to the idea of crossing over the Jordan into the promised land. But it's really not a great picture of eternity because in the promised land, Israel was going to face battles. And when you enter into eternity with God, the battles will have been won. The battles will be complete at that point. Instead, for us, the promised land pictures what we might refer to as the spirit-filled life.

Romans chapter 8 life, being led by the Spirit and

facing battles. And it's one of the realities that we face as believers in Jesus, that we have peace with God, we have peace from God, and yet at the same time there are still struggles and battles and things that we face that are very challenging in our lives. But by the working of the Holy Spirit in us, we are equipped and enabled to face those challenges and to fight those battles.

And so as we obey God, we're going to face challenges. And the Promised Land really pictures that, being led by the Lord and facing the challenges that we have in our life. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, "'Claiming our spiritual inheritance will involve battles as well as blessings, for the hosts of evil are against us. God's word to Israel helps us understand how to defeat the enemies we face.'"

You and I, as we face enemies, as we face challenges and fight battles, we can trust in the Lord for his strength, for his leading, and for his work on our behalf. And so we want to think about that as Moses instructs this generation and prepares them for their battles, God is also preparing us for our battles. What kind of battles do we face today?

In our life today, as believers in Jesus, what kind of battles do we face? I would encourage you to consider five different types of battles. And we can't go in depth on all of these and all throughout the passage, but hopefully this helps you to think about different aspects of your life and understand some of the things that God may be wanting to do in regards to battles that are going on around you. The first one I would encourage you to consider is steps of faith.

What Israel was about to do was a step of faith. That is to cross over the Jordan and begin the battles with the inhabitants of the land. Now, sometimes when it comes to faith, we have a bad definition in our mind. Sometimes we call something faith because we don't know the outcome. Because we don't know how it's going to turn out, we label an event or we label an activity as faith.

But I would encourage you to redefine faith in your head, to not think of it that way. Many times, of course, we don't know the outcomes. We don't know how things are going to turn out. But that's not what makes it faith. Here's how I define faith. Faith is obedience to God at his word. Faith is obedience to God at his word. And what we need to understand is that faith...

is stepping out in obedience to God. This is what the children of Israel were called to do. They were to cross over the Jordan in obedience to God. It wasn't a step of faith just because they didn't know how it was going to go and they didn't have all the answers. It was a step of faith because they were fearful. It was a challenge. But in obedience to God, they were to enter in and take the land that God had given to them.

In a similar way, God sets before us opportunities. He sets before us challenges. And he calls us to take steps of faith, to obey him in spite of what we see or what might be going on around us. He calls us to obey him and face something new, do something different, head out in a new venture or walk in a different path. And as we do that, there's going to be battles to face. Another kind of battle we might face is conflict with people.

As fallen people, even though we're believers and filled with the Holy Spirit and being changed into the image of God, we're still sinful. We still have issues. We still rub each other the wrong way, bump into people, and have issues between us. Now, the reality is we should never count someone else as an enemy, but whether we do or not...

There are times where people count us as an enemy and fight against us. And there's conflict with people over things that are out of our control, over personality differences, over different hot topics or issues of the day. There's battles that we face. And God here gives us instruction to help us work through those battles. You can also think about adversity in life. We often refer to a battle against a disease or an illness.

There's adversity that happens in our life, challenges and difficulties that we face that could be labeled and understood as battles. And as we face those things, they're the result of living in a fallen world. It's the result of, you know, sin existing around us. We encounter issues and adversities, and God here has some instruction to help us understand as we're on the verge of battle to face those things that pop up.

But we also face internal things. It doesn't have to be something on the outside coming against us, but there are many battles that we fight in our own mind. A lot of mental struggles, things that we wrestle with internally, things that we wrestle with. Nobody else might know about it, but it's things that are raging, you know, all-out war in many ways that happens within. There's mental battles that we fight. There's emotional battles that we fight, things that we're

Feeling strongly, whether we want to or not, and wrestling against, do I feel this? Do I keep feeling this? How come I feel this way? What do I do now that I feel this? And there's these battles that rage within because of our emotions. And then, of course, there's spiritual war. And every one of us is in the midst of a spiritual war, whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not. The reality is there is an enemy of your soul that is out to destroy you and destroy everyone that you know and love.

And so we are in the midst of battle. Paul warns us about that and equips us for it in Ephesians chapter 6. If you're experiencing a lot of spiritual warfare, I would encourage you to spend some time in Ephesians chapter 6 and be equipped and prepared for that battle. As you think about all these different types of battle, though, between all of these, you could understand we are always on the verge of battle.

We're either on the verge of battle or in the midst of battle or just coming out of battle or on the verge of battle again, like all the time. All of these things are raging around us continually.

Which are you in the midst of, or which are you on the verge of this morning? In fact, I want to give you permission. If you're writing notes, you can change the title of the message if you want and say, in the midst of battle. If you're in the midst of battle right now and you know the war is raging, maybe just change that in your mind and allow these next things as we work our way through the passage to really instruct you and encourage you in the things that God has for you. As I share these things with you this morning, I can...

share with you that I am in the midst of battle. In my work situation, in fact, I like to take advantage of this opportunity since I'm up here and I have the microphone and you don't, I can invite all of you, please pray for me, please pray for me. Because yes, I am the pastor at Calvary Chapel Living Water and that is a full-time role in many ways. I teach on Sundays and Wednesdays and have the responsibility there for the church and

But also aside from that, I maintain a full-time job doing web development work. I'm writing code for a living, and I've been doing that for the past five years. The last two and a half of those years have been working full-time at this particular company that is just down the street from our church.

Well, it's going good. Things are difficult, of course, working two jobs in that way, but I've been blessed, and God's been doing a work in that and leading through that. But then the last couple weeks, things really started to change. My direct superior, my supervisor, the marketing manager, he left the company. Friday was his last day, but there was a little bit of notice, and so now there was a scramble for someone to replace him.

my direct superior, and my boss's boss asked me to fill the role. And I said, no way, you're crazy. I'm not equipped for that role. I don't have training in that role. I don't have skills for that role. I don't have the personality for that role. I mean, I could continue to go on and on. And literally, I shared these exact things with my boss's boss, convincing him or attempting to convince him, this position is not for me.

I'm totally comfortable living in my cave. My office there at work is a little network closet, right? It literally is a closet. It's dark in there. I close the door. I have dark mode on my machine and I write code. Like that's, it's great. Very comfortable place for me to be. This is a completely different role. I really don't want this kind of responsibility. But the boss's boss said, well, I think you're a good fit for it. I really want you to consider it. Will you consider it? I said, okay, fine. I'll consider, I'll pray about it.

I'll get back to you. So I started to pray about it. Well, as I'm reading through the scriptures, I'm reading through Deuteronomy right now. That's why we're here this morning. And I'm reading God's instruction to a group of people who are on the verge of crossing over the Jordan into something new where there's going to be a lot of battles that they're not equipped for and not prepared for and not ready to handle. I was like, why couldn't I be in a different book? Right? I never wanted to be Job so much in my life. Like, I

Take me somewhere else. No, the Lord kept saying, I want to cross you over. You're going to face new challenges, new battles, new things. It's going to be really different. It's going to be really challenging. But you need to go. You need to obey me and go forward. And so as of this last week, I am the acting marketing manager. And I am now responsible for this company and the marketing efforts and things that I'm not equipped for and prepared for. So pray for me. But...

But also, I share that with you because it fits into and hopefully it helps you think about your life as we think about these kinds of battles. This is a step of faith for me. Sometimes we think of steps of faith only in the context of churchy things. But my workplace steps right now are steps of faith. I'm doing this out of obedience to God.

God wants me there, so I need to do it. I'm going to be challenged and changed, but God's going to use this to do that work in me. And similarly, in your life, in your home, God wants you to take steps of faith, and there's battles that you're going to face. In your workplace, wherever you are, there's going to be these kinds of situations, conflict with people, adversity, internal struggles, spiritual battles. These things are not limited to this property.

But there are battles that God wants to give you victory in. And so he gives this instruction to us. And so there's four things that we'll work through here in Deuteronomy chapter 20 to help us as we're in the midst of battle, on the verge of battle, to find the victory that God has for us. So the first point we'll find here in verses 1 and 2, and that is let God choose your battles.

Let God choose your battles. Let's read verse 1 and 2 again. It says,

Here is God addresses the nation of Israel through Moses. He speaks about these situations where they're lining up for battle. They're right there on the verge of battle. And you can kind of imagine the tension, right? The excitement or anxiety in the air as they're lining up. This is old school battle, right? So there's, you know, across the field, the enemy lining up their battle. And here is our soldiers, our forces, they're lining up for battle. And there's this tension.

anticipation of what is about to come. You're on the verge of battle. God says, here's what I want you to do first. Bring in the priest. Bring in the priest there in verse two that he shall approach and speak to the people. And here I think it's important to understand the priest is involved in speaking to the people right before this battle because he represents God.

He's not there just on his own. Hey, I've seen a lot of things as my years of priests. And so let me give you some words of encouragement. Let me give you a little pep talk based on what I've seen. No, the priest is there not to speak from his experience or what he's seen. The priest is there to speak directly on behalf of God, to say what God says in that situation. That was the priest's job. That was the priest's role.

And so the priest was to come on the scene and address the people because God was there and had some words to say to the people. And as the priest would encourage them in the battle that was about to unfold, they would know and understand this was a battle that God was encouraging them in and giving them instruction about. I mean, you can understand the promised land battles as a whole, they were God's instruction. They were part of God's plan.

He had given them very clear instruction to cross over the Jordan. Here's the boundaries of the land I'm giving to you, God has said over and over and over again. All the inhabitants of the land, you are to drive out because Israel was God's agent of correction upon those nations. They were very rebellious against God.

He gave them 400 years to repent. They refused. And so God says to Israel, I'm using you as my agent to bring correction to these nations, and I'm giving you this whole land. So drive out all those inhabitants, every city, every town, every peoples, you're to drive them out of the land. That was God's mission for them, God's word to them. And so the promised land battles were battles that God had chosen for them.

But you can also understand after they did that work, they were established as a nation, there would be the possibility for an enemy to come and attack at any time. And so there was going to be battles beyond that initial taking of the promised land. There was going to be enemies who would attack and they would find themselves in the midst of a battle, even if it was no doing of their own. And in that case, they were to bring the priest in as they're on the verge of battle. They were to give God a chance to speak to

in the midst of that situation. And God could say, all right, you're on the verge of battle. Here's the strategy. Here's the technique. Here's the way to go about it. But you could also imagine God could say, you know what? Everybody pack up your bags and go home. Don't fight this battle. This bringing in of the priest was giving God the authority to say, yes, fight this, or no, don't fight this. It was giving God the opportunity to direct or redirect their plans, their purposes, and

It was submitting the choosing of their battles to God. This is the way that God wants us to handle battles. When you're on the verge of battle, and if you're in the midst of battle, it's not too late. The most important thing to figure out in the midst of that battle is, is this a battle that God has chosen for me? Does God want me in this place, in this fight, in this battle, in this step of faith, fighting against this adversity?

Later on, after Israel had conquered the promised land, God also hinted that he might give them more territory. He might send them beyond the borders that he had initially assigned and say, go take that land, go take that territory. And so as they would expand and go and face those battles, it would be at God's choosing, at God's instruction that they were to follow. Let God choose your battles.

Bring in the priests. The priest is involved because God is involved. Bring in the priest and hear what God has to say about the battle. For you and I this morning, I don't know what kind of battle you're on the verge of or what kind of battle you're in the midst of, but I would encourage you to consider, regardless, has God chosen this battle? Have you given God an opportunity to come in and speak? Have you called in the priest?

Now, maybe the priest is a reference to call in a spiritual leader and allow them to speak into your life. But primarily, calling in the priest is giving Jesus, the high priest, opportunity to say to you what needs to be said about the things that you're facing. Do you need to take a step of faith? Is it terrifying and fearful? I can tell you my work situation is terrifying and fearful. But it's a step of faith. God's led me here. He's told me to cross over. He chose the battle.

So I'm going to be obedient. Sometimes, though, we find ourselves in steps of so-called faith. We ventured into something recklessly. It was risky. We didn't know the outcome. We thought it was faith because of that. And we hadn't actually heard from God that this is what he wanted from us. If that's you, you have the opportunity now. You can connect with the Lord and hear from God. And that needs to be priority number one. God, what do you want me to do in the midst of this situation?

Because faith is obedience to God at his word. Lord, would you speak to me that I might be obedient to you from here out? You can't unwind and redo all the past, but from right now you can connect with the Lord and say, Lord, I'm bringing in the priest. I want to hear what you have to say about this. Lord, would you choose my battles for me? When it comes to conflict with people, boy, this is an important one. We need to make sure that we let God choose our battles.

that we do not engage in battle with others, that we do not prolong or, trying to think the right word, escalate conflict with others around us when it's not a battle that God has chosen for us. And sometimes we can rush headlong into a conflict, maybe for fun, maybe because we're emotional about it and we rushed in before thinking about it. For a variety of reasons, we might be in a battle that God doesn't want us to be in.

But also sometimes we're holding back. I don't want to rock the boat. Boy, that's going to cause some trouble and difficulties, right? I don't want to ruffle any feathers. And so we hold back from battles that God has chosen for us. You see, the important thing here is what is God saying about that conflict and that tension with the people around you? When it comes to adversities in life, we don't get a lot of say in that. These are things that happen to us typically. You could think about the example of Job. He didn't have a lot of say in that.

Those things that transpired in his life, they happened to him. But you know who got a lot to say about that? I'm saying that very poorly. You know who got to say what would happen in Job's life or what wouldn't happen? God did. And the very fact that those things unfolded in Job's life means that God allowed those things to unfold. He permitted those things. God, knowing what Job could handle...

God, knowing what he could do through the process that Job was about to undergo, allowed those events to unfold. Listen, adversity in our life, it's typically not our choosing, but God always has a say. And he allows things in our lives because he knows the end from the beginning. He knows what's good for us, and he knows what he can do in the midst of it. And so when it comes to adversity in this life, you can understand God has chosen your battle.

He brings this calamity, this adversity, this difficulty to your door. He's chosen it for you. You can rest assured that God has a plan and a work for you in the midst of that situation. When it comes to internal struggles, again, these are things many times that we don't choose. It's not like we've chased something, but it's something that happens to us. The result of living in a fallen world, in a fallen body situation.

We have mental battles. We have emotional battles within. And many times we would wish those battles would be done. We long for that peace, don't we? We long for those opportunities where, man, I wish I didn't struggle with those thoughts anymore. I wish I didn't feel this way. I wish I didn't have this kind of, you know, depressive feelings that are going on. I wish I didn't have these anger issues that just rage within. I wish I didn't have those.

And we wonder sometimes why God hasn't taken them away because God has chosen the battle. We need the battle. And it's a part of his work in us and for us and for our good. The same goes for spiritual war. We don't choose it. We're in it. As a result of being a believer in Jesus, we have an enemy against our soul. God has chosen that battle for us.

He is with us and on our side. And so the first thing to consider, the first thing to understand is to let God choose your battles. Make sure that you are where God wants you to be

That you're fighting a fight he wants you to be engaged in. And then point number two comes in, verses three through nine, trust God to fight your battles. Once you have that settled, that you know this is a battle God wants you involved in, you know this is a step of faith, this adversity, you're settled in God's will and God's plan. Okay, now that I know that, now I know I can trust God to fight my battles. If I don't know that,

That this battle that I'm facing is something that God wants me to face? I have no basis for trusting God to fight my battles. There's no basis for me to trust that because I don't know if I'm where he wants me to be. I don't know his will. I don't know his plans. I haven't listened to his instruction. I haven't called in the priest to hear what he has to say. Then there's no basis for me to trust God to fight my battles. No, I need to go back then and get that first point squared away. Lord, what do you want to say about this?

What is your direction and your insight about this situation that I'm facing? But when you have that settled, when you know what God has said, now we can trust God. Check out verse 3 and 4. It says, He shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint. Do not be afraid. And do not tremble or be terrified because of them.

For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. And so here is the record of the priest's message. When the priest would come in to address the army on the verge of battle, if it was a battle that God had for them, a battle that God desired for them, he would say, listen guys, do not let your heart faint. Do not let your heart faint.

He's saying, do not be afraid. Don't tremble or be terrified. But we need to understand we are emotional people. God has built us with the capacity to feel. He's not saying don't feel fear. He's saying, don't let fear control your life and make your decisions for you. Don't let your heart faint. You see, your heart wants to faint because of your fear, but you don't have to allow it. You don't have to let your fear control you.

dictate what you do and your behavior from there. And that's the priest's message. Do not be afraid. You're fearful. You're overwhelmed. This is a tough situation, but don't let how you feel about it dominate and decide for you the course that you take. Now, this is important to understand because in verse one, God explains you're going to be facing a superior enemy. Check out verse one again.

When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, then the priest is to come in and say, guys, do not fear. We're outnumbered. They've got superior power to us, but do not fear. The nation of Israel at this time, they were not quite a nation yet. They were the children of Israel.

But they didn't have an established army. They didn't have an established government in the sense that we might think of. That came later, right? We saw King Saul and then King David and some of those things began to be established. When it was time for battle for the nation of Israel in this day and age, in this time frame, what they would do is they would send out a call. Hey, children of Israel, it's time for battle.

Send your men, 20 years and up. Whoever wants to come, come. We got to fight. And they would call and every tribe of the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel would send their guys and they would organize themselves quickly and then fight the battle that there was to fight. They didn't have established military. They didn't have a cavalry riding in on horses to, you know, charge against the enemy. They didn't have military equipment or things organized like that. And yet,

the enemies that they would face often did have all of those things. As they came into the promised land, there was people who were established with armies, with horses and cavalry and chariots and weapons of a superior quality. They were more advanced militarily, but also they were outnumbered. Here God makes reference to the people more numerous than you. So you're outmanned, you're outgunned, but the priest's message is, don't be afraid.

And there's reason not to fear. Verse 4 explains, For the Lord your God is he who goes with you. Don't fear, not period, end of story, but don't fear because God is with you and God fights for you. Really, the exhortation is to look beyond the physical, to look beyond what you can perceive with your senses and understand that God is doing a bigger work than what you can see right now.

I don't know if you're familiar with the guy in the Bible named Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was a man who was called by the Lord to go back. This is many years later in Israel's history. After the temple had been destroyed, God called Zerubbabel to go back and rebuild the temple. But it was a really big job because the temple had been thoroughly destroyed. And when Zerubbabel looked at the work to be done,

He describes it as a mountain of rubble. There is just so much debris, so much work, so much to do. It seemed like an impossible task. Just the cleanup efforts alone seemed impossible. And then to build after that or build on top of that, it just, it was so difficult, it seemed impossible. And so the Lord sent a message to Zerubbabel through Zechariah the prophet in Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6.

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. It's a physical project. Lots of physical debris to move. Construction work to do to rebuild the temple. But here's God's message. It's not by might.

It's not by power, but it's by my spirit, Zerubbabel. You need to trust in me, be led by my spirit, allow me to lead you and work in your life, and this work will be accomplished. Although it seems impossible, that mountain will be cast into the sea. Although it seems impossible, you will finish this work as you rely upon the power of the spirit of God. Trust God to fight your battles.

There's more going on than what you can see. And although the enemy, although the challenge, the adversity, the difficulty might seem so huge, might feel like you're outnumbered and outgunned and there's no hope. Any rational person looking at the situation that is described there in verse 1, you're facing a people that have more numbers and they've got chariots and horses and you don't. The strategic thinking person is going to say, we can't win this battle. But God's called you to the battle.

So even if it seems like you can't win the battle, even if it seems there's no path of victory, God says, I've called you there. Trust me. It's not by power. It's not by might, but it's by my Holy Spirit. You remember the account of Elisha's servant in 2 Kings 6? The prophet Elisha doing a great work for God and caused the enemies of Israel to be disturbed by him. And so the enemy decides, we're going to go take out Elisha. And the servant of Elisha wakes up one morning, kind of yodeling,

looks out the window, the enemies are surrounded them. He freaks out, panics. Elisha, Elisha, we're surrounded. And Elisha rolls over and goes, don't worry, there's more with us than are with them. The servant says, wait, what? I'm counting one, two, that's it. There's me and you. How can there be more of us, two, to this multitude that is gathered against us? And tells us Elisha prays, God, would you open up my servant's eyes?

And as the Lord opens his eyes, he sees the hillside filled with the armies of the Lord, the chariots of the Lord. And then he understood, truly, there is more with us than are with them. We may not always see it. We may not be able to perceive and understand how victory will be accomplished or how God will do a work in the midst of this. And we might be in situations where anything good ever coming out of it just seems absolutely impossible.

But trust God to fight for you. Trust God. He's with you, and he is able to overcome. Now, as we kind of get that settled, okay, the priest comes out. We got to trust God. Okay, I think I can do that. I'm going to trust God. Well, now they get challenged in that trust because in the next few verses, God says you were outnumbered before, but now you're going to be outnumbered even more because

How's that? Well, the captains of the army are going to come in and say, okay, guys, any new homeowners in the bunch, raise your hand. And if there's any new homeowners who raise their hand, they'd say, all right, you, you, you, you, you. Okay, this battle is not for you. Go home. Check out verse five. The officers shall speak to the people saying, what man is there who has built a new house and is not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.

God says, you're outnumbered. Now you're going to be outnumbered even more because all new homeowners, you need to go home. Go live in the house that you just got. Spend some time there. Establish yourself at home. There'll be other battles in the future that you'll be able to be a part of. This one's not for you. Then the captain would say, all right, any new business owners here in the group? All right, business owner, you, you, you, you, yep, yep, you haven't experienced much business yet in your new business. You should go home. Verse 6 says,

What man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it. You've planted. You haven't got to taste of the fruit yet. You haven't got to participate in that investment that you've spent so much time in. So this battle is not for you either. You should go home, tend to your vines, enjoy the fruits of that investment that you have made. Then the captains would say, any newly engaged people in here, you can go home too. Verse 7.

What man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her. You're engaged, you're betrothed, you're about to be married, you're making those plans. This battle's not for you. Go home, finish your plans, get married as you wanted to. Later on, there'll be other battles, but first you need to have your priorities in order. Go get married, establish your home life, work on those things for now. And then finally,

In verse 8, the captains would say, all right, anybody afraid, anybody scared, you can go home too. Verse 8, the officers shall speak further to the people and say, what man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart. Essentially, he says, go be afraid at home where you can't infect other people and make them fearful too, right? If you're fearful, just go. You don't have to be part of this battle. Now, we see this actually lived out later on in Judges chapter 7 with Gideon, don't we?

They're battling against the Midianites, which is described as an innumerable force. Gideon sounds the alarm, calls people to battle. Everybody sends in their troops. They have 32,000. By the time they finish this process and the things that God tells Gideon, they have 300 guys to go against this innumerable multitude of the Midianites. But as they were faithful to obey God and dismissing those who needed to be dismissed, God worked hard.

On their behalf, as they trusted in God to fight for them, God did fight for them. And he accomplished victory on that day with 300 men against an innumerable multitude. Pastor David Guzik says, God can do more through a smaller army that's really committed to him than through a bigger army that's full of compromise. These that God dismisses here, they're double-minded people.

They've got other priorities, other things competing. They're not in the game. Their mind's not on the battle. They're not really ready for this war. And so God says, it's better for you. Go focus on those things that you need to be focused on. There'll be other opportunities to fight later. You can come back then. But now you got to get these things in order. And I think that's really important for us to consider. For you, you need to know there's a lot of good things

battles, a lot of godly battles, a lot of things that need to be fought, but it might not be your time to fight them. Every good cause is not necessarily a good cause for you right now. Every good activity or every good battle is not necessarily a good battle, a good activity for you right now. God may have other priorities for you.

Now we could imagine on a physical level, just kind of a very practical level, being an army, seeing that we're outnumbered and saying, you can't send anybody home. Like we need everybody we can get. In fact, call your grandmas and grandpas and bring them in too because we need all hands on deck to face this battle. We could see ourselves responding that way for sure. And we can see situations around us and perhaps we really want to engage in that battle. But going back to point number one, let God choose your battles. Not every good battle matters.

is a good battle for you at this moment. And for some of you, God might be saying, listen, you know what? You need to establish your home life before you start engaging in these fights. You need to get settled at home, establish your spiritual life, establish yourself and your family and the things of God and the ways of God.

And get those things in order so that then your life has a foundation upon which you can build these other things that are good and that need to be done. But it might not be for you right now. Paul tells this to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 3.

He says, look, when you're appointing leaders and overseers and servants within the church, there needs to be an understanding of how's their home life. Are they established at home? And if they're not established at home, they're not qualified to serve. Now, that doesn't mean ever. It means their priority then needs to be at home. You need to work those things out and develop that spiritual life at home so that later you can become leaders.

the servant, the leader, the overseer. That is a good work that you're qualified for and called to. And so not every battle, even if it's a good battle, is a battle for us to fight right now. But when it is, we can trust God. When we go back to point one, we've brought in the priest. We know God has this battle for us. It's our time. It's a challenge to fight. We can trust God to fight our battles. Whether that be in your life, a step of faith,

conflict with people, adversity in life that you're facing, internal struggles or spiritual war, you can trust God to fight your battles. Moving on to verses 10 through 18, we get the third point to consider this morning. On the verge of battle, in the midst of battle, we also need to understand that we should prefer peace when possible. Prefer peace when we can. Verse 10 through 12 says this,

When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you and serve you. Now, if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it. Here, God gives them instruction for beyond the promised land.

Verse 15 and 16 make that clear. This is not for the boundaries within the boundaries. Again, they were to drive out all the inhabitants of the promised land. But beyond that, later on in their existence as a nation, they would have opportunity where God would say, I want to expand your territory. So you need to go to battle. Here, the instruction God says is, don't lift the sword immediately. First, make an offer of peace. First, try to work out an agreement.

See if they'll surrender to you first. You don't have to battle even if it looks like a battle is imminent. Offer peace first. Now, the Apostle Paul offers something similar to us in Romans 12, verse 18. If it's possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. This is an important thing for us to consider. There are battles that we have to face. There are battles that God has for us, conflicts that will abound in our lives that's going to happen.

But we also need to understand that that doesn't mean that we are to be battle people, ready to fight at a moment's notice, you know, always ready to argue our point or make sure that we're right or win the debate. There's a lot of occasions where the best thing for us to do in that situation is to make an offer of peace. Now here Paul recognizes it's not always possible. It's a condition, if it's possible. Sometimes people will come against you and there's nothing you can do about that. They count you as an enemy and they'll be working against you.

But he says, as much as it depends on you, as much as you have a say, as much as you get to determine the course of that relationship, live peaceably with all people. Live peaceably with all political party people. Live peaceably with people who see the pandemic response or behavior differently. Live peaceably with the neighbor who has a different team than your team. Those Dodger fans, you got to live peaceably with them, okay?

Oh no, you guys are the Dodger fans? Okay, okay. Live peaceably with those Angel fans or those, right? Like, we're not to break fellowship for things that are not worth battling over. We should endeavor to have peace as much as we can with the people around us. Prefer peace when possible. Ask yourself if it's worth fighting over. Now, it's important to understand and put all these things together. Some battles are commanded.

So it's not pursue peace at all costs, because if you pursue peace at all costs, you will disregard some of the instruction that God says. It's not peace over everything else. It's obedience to God over everything else. And many times, peace fits right in line with what God wants to do. But we need to let God be the one who says that. I'm sure you recognize there are many times we go to battle when God would want us to make peace.

But then the other side of that is there's also many times where we try to make peace and God says, no, this isn't a peace issue. You need to fight this. You need to go to battle in this scenario. We can't be the ones to decide when to offer peace and when to battle. It's not really up to us. Going back to point number one, let the Lord choose your battles. Let God choose. Let him have the final say in when you offer peace and when you go to battle.

Well, I want to finish up in verses 19 and 20 for point number four this morning, and that is, let God set the limits of battle. And this is an important one to consider. Very interesting verses here. Verse 19 and 20 says this, "'When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. If you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man's food.'"

Only the trees which you know are not trees for food, you may destroy and cut down to build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it is subdued. Here God says, all right, you know God's chosen the battle. You've tried an offer of peace that didn't work. You know you are called by God to take this city. You are to take the city, engage in the battle.

But you are to set some boundaries and some limits on the tactics that you use and on the approach that you take. For them, besieging a city in those days usually involved camping around the city, cutting off all the supply resources and waiting for the people inside to get desperate and surrender or to be weak enough that the army could get over the wall and then defeat the enemy and take the city. And so they would build siege works to besiege.

get over the wall, equipment to help them overtake the city. God said, you got to do what you got to do in the battle that I've set before you. But there are limits, there are boundaries. In the area around, as you're looking for wood and resources to be able to execute this strategy, you need to factor in, is this a fruit tree? And if it's a fruit tree, he says, well, you're not to use that for those means. Why? He says, because it's man's food.

The idea here is this. If you're successful in conquering the city, well, there's still going to be people that have to live here. And if you conquer this enemy, there's still going to be people that live in this area. There's going to be some of your people, some of their people. There's going to be people inhabiting this area. And if you cut down those trees, you're diminishing their ability to survive. You're diminishing the fruit that they will live off of in the years to come.

Pastor David Guzik puts it this way. They had to take a long-term view and see that their immediate need for wood was less important than the long-term good of the area. And I think this provides a really important perspective for us in our battles that we face and the things that we're engaged in and the things that we're fighting against. Sometimes we win a battle while losing the opportunity to ever be a witness again.

Sometimes you're involved, let's say, in the workplace, and there's things going on, and you're fighting so hard against those things that are going on. You're fighting so hard, and it's a just cause. It's a right cause, right? But the way that you go about that battle ruins your opportunity to then share the love of Christ and share the gospel message to your co-workers. There are times that we do that. There are times that we battle and destroy the fruit of

of a person's life. God says, don't cut down the fruit trees. Sometimes we battle in such a way that we destroy the fruit that might come forth from their life, their ministries, from their opportunities that they have been engaged in serving the Lord over the years. This happens as believers a lot of times where we attack one another. Maybe we're right in the sense of, you know, we're right on this point or that point, but we're wrong in the approach that we're

or discredits or slanders or gossips against the other person. I mean, I think you could picture gossip in this way. Gossip is like going around to all the different cities and cutting down their fruit trees. It's an attack. Can I remind you this morning? There is no person that exists on the face of the planet that you should count as an enemy. There is no person that's your enemy. The people around us are who we're fighting for, not fighting against.

The fight that we're fighting against, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 6, it's not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. It's against the spiritual forces of evil, the wickedness in the heavenly places. That's the enemy. The people are our mission. They're our objective. And so if we fight in a way that we never have an opportunity to minister to them again, we lose that. We've chopped down that tree.

I would encourage you to think about the example of Jesus. He had some intense battles with the religious leaders of his day. And yet at the same time, his battles were restricted, limited. If one of those religious leaders would see the truth and repent and get right with God, they would be Jesus's friend instantly. They would fit right in. They would hang out with the rest of the disciples. They would be part of the group. No problem.

Even though Jesus stood for righteousness and truth and corrected them and spoke right into those situations, he never did so in a way that would cut down the trees and remove all future opportunity for fruit from that relationship or that situation. And we need to be very careful as we face difficulties and hardships and battle conflicts, whether it's people attacking us or things that God has told us to do until we're marching forward. We need to be very careful.

that we don't chop down the fruit trees. Don't destroy the fruit that God might want to bring in the future from a situation. There's an old saying, it's been attributed to Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, various other people, nobody knows who originally said it, but the saying goes like this, the safest way to destroy an enemy is to make him your friend. The safest way to destroy an enemy is to make him your friend. There's always casualty in battle.

And again, sometimes, whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not, God calls us to battle. But when there's opportunity for peace, we need to seek peace. And when we have to battle, we need to seek opportunity beyond the immediate, beyond that immediate battle, beyond that first encounter. And consider, after this battle, after this conversation, after this discussion, can I share the gospel with this person? Can I be a witness for Christ?

After I teach this person on the freeway, can I cut them off and show them my Jesus bumper sticker? Does it destroy my witness? Does it destroy the fruit in their lives that other people are seeing and benefiting from? We need to be careful. Let God set the limits of battle. It's not an all-out war. But we hold back. We restrain ourselves to make sure we don't destroy the fruit. There's still things that God perhaps would want to do in the midst of that situation.

And so here we have some great exhortation from Moses to us. On the verge of battle, in the midst of battle, priority number one, make sure you know you're in the battles that God wants you to be in. Let him choose those battles. And when you know that, you can trust him to fight for you, to fight with you. He's going to fight those battles, see you through, and accomplish great things in your life. When you have opportunity, seek peace. And prefer that when there is that opportunity, when there is that chance.

But let God be the one who decides when you need to fight and when there needs to be peace. And when you have to fight, make sure you set some limits, set some boundaries. Don't destroy the work of the Lord. Don't destroy the work of God in other people's lives. Don't destroy the fruit of their ministry, of their witness. Don't destroy long-term things for the sake of a short-term gain. No.

Restrain yourself. Don't win at all costs. Win in submission to God's will and God's plan for your life. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, which is so practical in many ways, God, and speaks to us about real situations that we face on an ongoing basis. God, there are battles within us. There are battles around us. Some you want us to engage in and be part of. Lord, some you want us to

to reprioritize ourselves and focus on other areas, more important areas of our lives. And so God, I pray for great wisdom and discernment upon us. Lord, would you fill us with your Holy Spirit that we might hear your voice about the battles we face, or that we might know those things that you want us to engage in and those things that you want us to stay away from. God, I pray that you would help us to trust you when we feel overwhelmed, outnumbered, outgunned,

but help us to trust you and believe you at your word. You're with us and you're working all things together for good. We can trust you and rest in you. God, I pray that you would help us to be obedient as you speak to our hearts. Lead us by your Holy Spirit. Lord, bring about the victory that you want to deliver in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.