READING: 1 Chronicles 3-5
Here’s today’s devotional lesson straightforwardly stated: today’s victory is no guarantee of tomorrow’s faithfulness. We fight the battles we face in God’s power every day, or we or our descendants will lose the battle the day we don’t.
It’s the half-tribe of Manasseh that teaches us this lesson in 1 Chronicles 5. On one hand, they were part of the coalition of tribes that defeated the Hagrites (1 Chron 5:19). They were armed warriors, well trained for battle — but it was God who gave them victory. As we’ve heard several times before in this year’s devotions, “the battle was God’s” (1 Chron 5:22).
What we also read this time, though, is precisely what God expects from His warriors: “They were helped in fighting them, and God delivered the Hagrites and all their allies into their hands, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him” (1 Chron 5:20). The people prayed and trusted, and God granted victory. He still expects us to do the same.
The same tribe, however, would years later (300 years, actually) be “unfaithful to the God of their ancestors” (1 Chron 5:25). They turned to other gods, and God sent them into exile. The years between the recorded victory and the recorded exile were many, but these battles summarized the history of the tribe. When they followed God, He gave them victory; when they followed other gods, the true God brought judgment.
One point is again clear: every compromise we make today can be a first step toward the downfall of those who come after us. We do not make our choices in isolation.
ACTION STEPS:
- Make right choices today because you care about your family that will live on beyond you.
- Be sensitive to any compromises you make today. What is little today can bring disaster tomorrow.
PRAYER: “God, I don’t want to open the door to the enemy in my life or in my children’s lives. Guard me from myself today.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 1 Chronicles 6
