Standing Before Your Enemies

As you get up in the morning, shower and shave, and get ready for your day, what enemies are you going to face today? Are your enemies on the outside - a boss that you don't see eye-to-eye with, another call from the mortgage company warning you of impending foreclosure, the colonoscopy you really don't want to drop trou for? Or are your enemies on the inside - a habit you can't shake, really not feeling good about yourself, some difficult choices you need to make?

Enemies are something common to the Old Testament in the bible. God's people fought enemies all the time. They won some and got their butts handed to them in others.

I'm sitting here, searching through BibleGateway.com, looking for Biblical support to confront someone on something that just isn't right in his life. As it usually happens, I've found an awesome piece of God's word that I'd like to share with you about how to defeat your enemies.

Let me set the stage for this story for you a bit. God had just defeated the city of Jericho through Joshua. In Joshua 6 God says to Joshua,

"See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors..."

God also warned Joshua the the men of Israel were not to take any of the plunder for themselves. All the silver, gold, iron, and bronze would be taken and claimed for God. Nothing was to be taken for personal treasure hunting. Everything that was not taken in to God's claim was to be destroyed.

In Chapter 7, they went to battle against another city, Ai. This city was thought to be an easy victory. In fact, the men sent to gather intelligence information reported that they wouldn't need very many soldiers at all. So, Joshua went up against the city of Ai with 3,000 men. They promptly got their butts kicked! Joshua went back to the arc in the temple and had a very frank and personal conversation with God. He was so upset that he tore his clothes off and went face down on the ground! When was the last time you had that kind of intense exchange with God?

This is what God said to Joshua:

Joshua 7:10-13

¹⁰So the LORD said to Joshua, "Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face?

¹¹"Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things.

¹²"Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst.

¹³"Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the LORD, the God of Israel, has said, "There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst."

There are three things here that I want to share with you. First, God says "Get up"! It's simple really. Get up - stand tall. You're a child of God and you can rest in the knowledge that he'll take care of you.

The second thing God says is in verses 11 and 12 where he says "Look people, you're not living right. And as long as you don't live right I'm not going to be with you!" God was with them at Jericho and gave them the city. Yet, they disobeyed and kept plunder for themselves. When they went to Ai God was not with them and they got a good old fashioned whoopin'.

The last thing God says to Joshua is in verse 13. He says "You can fix this." The word consecrate means to purify - to make the dirty things clean. God told Joshua that if the people of Israel would purify themselves He would be with them again.

What this meant for Joshua and the people of Israel was survival. Being in the desert without God would mean the death and extinction of God's people. God was offering them an all-or-nothing proposition. If you're with me, I'll give you wonderful things. If you're not with me, you die. There was no settlement in the middle.

So, for us as men, when we get out of bed in the morning and face our enemies, we need to make sure that we go with God. It's very simple. Start each day with God and He will take your through your day with His protection and grace. Start each day on your own, using your own strength and your own resources, and your enemies are going to beat you up.

It says so in the Bible.

John 13:17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.