Word of Encouragement (11/05/2024)
“Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.” (1 Chron. 19:13)
These are the words Joab said to his brother Abishai when they faced the allied forces of the Ammonites and Arameans. After Nahash the king of Ammon died, David sent an envoy to convey his condolences to Hanun the son of Nahash, the newly crowned king. But Hanun’s advisers told him that David had no intention of consoling him, and the envoy he sent was sent to spy out the land. So, Hunun humiliated David’s servants by shaving them and tearing their garments. The Ammonites knew that they insulted David and expected him to use the occasion to invade them. So, they hired mercenaries from the Arameans and got ready for battle. That’s when David sent Joab and Abishai to fight them off.
When Joab and Abishai got there, they found themselves surrounded by the Ammonites in the front and the Arameans in the back. Seeing their disadvantage, Joab devised a strategy and shared it with his brother. He finished his talk with the words in v. 13. They are not words of prayer. But the last part is a prayerful thought.
First, we notice that Joab did not just pray. He came up with the best strategy he could devise to deal with the crisis they faced. And he encouraged his brother (and the soldiers) to be strong. He also motivated them to give their all to fight the battle before them. There are times when all we can do is pray. We may be bedridden, for example, having lost our mobility. But there are other times when we should act as we pray for God’s help. For instance, we should not just pray for a job; we should apply for different jobs and ask the Lord to open doors.
Second, we wonder about the tone of Joab’s prayer: we detect a sense of resignation in it. Resignation can be an act of faith in God as in “Not my will, but Yours be done!” But it can also stem from a fatalistic outlook on life—“Why bother if God does what He wills and there is nothing we can do to change His mind? I will do what I need to do, and God will do what He wills. Hopefully, He is open to helping me.”
It seems that the latter reflects Joab’s attitude better. When we survey his words and actions in the biblical narratives, he appears to be a man of common sense but with no personal relationship with God. He was a religious man, but he was a man of civic religion. He served the LORD because He was the God of Israel, not necessarily because He was God. It might even be that he did not really pray these words: they were just his religious talk.
If we are not intentional in our Christian walk, we may fall into the same kind of religious life. It is one thing to be aware of God’s existence but another to have a relationship with God. Many Christians are content to live in the former manner than in the latter. How tragic when we consider all that God promises to be and do for His people, especially through prayer! Let us treasure God’s invitation to be His people and walk closely with Him!