And they came out, with all their troops, a great host, in number like the sand that is upon the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. And the LORD said to Joshua,
“Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel; you shall hamstring their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.” (Joshua 11:4, 6)
His majesty Jabin was like me, he wanted to win. I like winning in life. Am a victor and, because I know that deep down in my heart, that is why my life is a series of fights.
Am a person who has never been given things in life, I always take them. Jabin was like me and he had a strategy, which was, gather as many kings as you can and form a formidable force that over a million Israel force cannot conquer. He only invited the best and the most.
Actually, verse 4 tries to count and here is the figure that we are given:
in number like the sand that is upon the seashore
Joshua and the Israelites, like all of us, were afraid for the first time and he knew they were no match for a force that was trained right and as many as the sand on the seashore. Here is what God said:
Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel; you shall hamstring their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.
God categorically points out three things that: Tomorrow I will.
God did not say: tomorrow the heavenly host will, or I have negotiated other kings to join you in this battle of numbers. All God said was: tomorrow, me and myself I WILL.
God plus the Israelites are not much compared to the guys who are as many as the sand of the seashore. In fact, whenever God partners with some other force, he fails. God put aside the Israelites and said: I, without you and any other force is finish them.
We live in a world where election victories are due to numbers. Decisions are implemented based on the majority vote. The term celebrity is due to how many people celebrate you. We pastors are doing all we can to get as many people to attend and become members of our churches because that will give us another social status. Your business needs more customers I guess.
I have struggled to teach my P.5 son that I don’t care if he was the 1st out of 50 kids in class, all I want is to see the aggregates and my son told his mum recently that am ungrateful.
What God is teaching Joshua and all of us is that: Real victory is not quantitative but Qualitative. It is not how much (too much or too little) money you have that matters. What matters is the quality of your life. Are you peaceful, joyous, and free?
While it is important to pay the dowry and officially wed in church/court, the question is: what is the quality of your marriage? Your weight doesn’t matter as your health. You are free to eat all the foods that you want since you can afford, but what exactly are you eating?
Victory is quality oriented. Go to your wardrobe and see how many original shoes, clothes etc. that you have. Why is your life-filled but filled with duplicate things? Victors prefer having few quality things and people around them than having many useless numbers. I prefer ministering to a few church members but make them qualitative than have a million followers whom I cannot even access personally. Let me tell you, Moses sent 12 spies and 10 of them were wrong but Joshua sent 2 (Joshua 2:23-24).
Your phonebook, like mine, is filled with over 100 contacts but you and I know that there are only 3 contacts that are qualitative and useful to your life. A family of 10 members survives and thrives because of 2 members.
Finally, God told Joshua that I. God did say that your army and myself we will, he said I. God is the MAJORITY I and what makes him the MAJORITY I is WHO HE IS.
You are a Christian, stop thinking and believing in NUMBERS like politicians and start believing in the QUALITY of your God.
God bless you, I invoke Truth, Reason and Faith.
Pr White
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS WoW Ministries (John 4:24)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 