“And it came to pass, that in the morning watch, the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels…” Exodus 14:24
There are several examples in the Scriptures when we find men, armies, or nations fighting against God. The problem with these circumstances is that those who are doing so, do not realize often until it is too late, that they were not fighting against men but against God. Such was the case of the Apostle Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus, travelling on the road to Damascus. Scripture tells us that, “…suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:4) When this occurred, Saul was on his way to arrest men or women, who were followers of Christ. Scripture tells us that he had been, “…breathing out threatenings, and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” (9:1) But all of a sudden, there will come an awakening to him, for he will discover that in his persecution of the disciples of Christ, he was in fact persecuting the Lord of those disciples. The Lord would answer Paul’s question, as to who He was by saying, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” Then He adds, “It is hard for thee kick against the pricks.” In the book of Isaiah, we have the Lord declaring of Himself: “Yea, before the day was I am He; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand: I will work, and who shall let (hinder) it?” (43:13) Here is Saul of Tarsus, persecuting the disciples of the Lord, and he is fighting against them as hard as he can, not realizing that he is fighting against the Lord, the very Lord of Creation, Maker of heaven and earth, and the sole Redeemer of men. It seems that only by this revelation of Christ to Saul on the Damascus road, in this manner, with the effect of blindness which followed, would be enough to awaken him to the great error and futility of his ways. How merciful the Lord was to Saul to confront him in this manner, when He could have simply snuffed out his life.
There was another individual who fought against the Lord, who almost lost his life in doing so at the time. His name was Balaam. He was what might be called a “hireling prophet,” who prophesied for personal gain, rather than communicating the truth of God. Balak, an enemy of the people of Israel, sought to have Balaam curse the people, as they had been successful in conquering their enemies. However, God told Balaam not to do so, because He had blessed the people. Balaam went with some of the princes of Balak, only to be confronted with an “angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand.” (Numbers 22:23) The donkey upon which Balaam rode saw the angel of the Lord and turned aside. However, Balaam struck the donkey several times when the donkey, perceiving the angel, turned aside. Then came Balaam to a place where he could not turn aside. There the donkey fell down under Balaam, because again, he saw the angel of the Lord. It was then, when Balaam struck the donkey that the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, so that he appealed to Balaam. Soon thereafter the “…Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord.” He then bowed down his head and fell flat on his face. Balaam was striving against God, and yet God by the donkey was sparing his life.
When Pharoah’s army went into the Red Sea pursuing the children of Israel, they did so arrogantly, blindly defying reason. There, in the dry sea bottom, they would fight against God. God would remove their chariot wheels, and they would be destroyed by their own deception.
Dear Father, Make us truly attentive. In Jesus’ name, Amen.