Victory Belongs to Yahweh – Proverbs 21:31

Here’s the ad for Certain Victory Martial Arts & Fitness, typos and all : “At Certain Victory Martial Arts & Fitness, we offer the BEST & EXCITING Martial Arts & Fitness programs for kids, teens and adults in New England. Our kids classes teach children from ages 3-12 the importance of self-respect and discipline, as well as the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and great grades in school. Develop a “YES I CAN” attitude at home, in school and everywhere. Get physically fit while having fun and learning valuable self-defense skills and appreciate the value of hard work to achieve worth goals!…Our classes are…fun and chal lenging every session!”  Perhaps a wee bit of humility would help.

The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD. (Proverbs 21:31, ESV)

I remember when the United States was trying to figure out how or whether we should help Kuwait as Iraq threatened her borders.  The success we had when we came to her aid and overpoweringly stopped the Iraqi army and secured her border seemed to answer all questions of whether we could or should help her.  We had great confidence in our military and financial strength, but confidence can become arrogance.  “Nobody can stop us!”

But our proverb reminds us that as ready as our horses may be for battle, as powerful as our army and financial capacity might be, we had better not fall victim to the idea that we can dictate victory.  That confidence we had that we could handle Iraq led us to full scale invasion later when we sought to disarm their weapons of mass destruction, weapons we never found.  We got mired in a war of attrition, stirring up guerilla armies and buttressing an ineffective government.

Victory belongs to Yahweh!  In every endeavor of our lives we must “make ready for the day of battle” and it is good to know that we have prepared well for getting victory, but we can’t make the mistake of believing that it all ultimately depends on our ability to win the day.  The humility of acknowledging that Yahweh determines all outcomes must guide our actions.  Submission to His sovereign decisions must be the rule.  And certainly a conviction that He wants us to enter this battle must be our concern.