Fear - Part 1: My Champion

I've been looking up verses regarding fear recently.   God is dealing with me on the issue of fear and how it affects my trusting Him.  One verse given to me was Deuteronomy 20:1-4.  At first I glanced over this verse, quickly dismissing it.  After all, it is all about going to war which doesn't apply to me - or so I thought.

The Lord drew me back to these verses and as I reread them He began to open my eyes.  Now these verses which I so recently dismissed, have become some of my favorites.

When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.  When you are about to go into battle the priest shall come forward and address the army.  He shall say: "Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies.  Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them.  For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory."  ~ Deuteronomy 20:1-4

So, how does this apply to us?  First, we are all in a battle, a war against the enemy and this world he currently controls.  We are constantly battling the temptations and lies of the world.  Sometimes, or many times, these circumstances of our lives may seem so large as to be impossible to defeat, but the Lord tells us to not be fainthearted or afraid.  He is the God who delivered us from Egypt.  "But wait!" you may say, "I've not been to Egypt.  God hasn't rescued me from there."  Oh, but He has, Beloved.  Egypt signifies our lives before Christ, our lives of slavery to sin, to the world.  He has rescued us from this!

Further in the verse it speaks of the priest who stands before the army.  He tells them to not be afraid and assures them of victory.  How does he know this?  How can he be so very confident?  How can we trust him?  We can be confident because our priest, our liaison between us and God is Jesus himself.  He stands confidently before us amidst all the circumstances of our lives and tells us not to fear because He knows the final chapter of this story.  We are victorious in Him!

The Lord pointed out one more small detail to me regarding these verses.  A small detail, easily missed, but with huge implications.  Read that last line again.

For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. (v.4)

The Lord is not just telling us we will be victorious, He is fighting for us to give us that victory.  I recently watched the new Alice in Wonderland movie.  In it the White Queen is looking for a champion to fight on her behalf against her sister, the Queen of Hearts.  This is how things used to be done.  The Kings (or Queens) did not fight, they were too valuable.  Instead they would choose a champion to fight on their behalf.  The fight between David and Goliath was such as this.  Goliath was the champion of the Philistines and David was King Saul's.

But our God likes to stir things up a bit.  His logic and ways of doing things many times fly in the face of the world.  You see, as the King of Kings, He doesn't call for a champion to fight on His behalf.  We are not called to be God's champions.  Instead, the King Himself chooses to be our Champion!  He is not saying "Trust me because you will win."   He is telling us "Trust me because I have already fought the battle on your behalf and gained the victory!"

If God, the Great I AM, the King of Kings, is our Champion, what more can we possibly ask for?  What could we possibly have to fear?