¹² Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight.”

2 Samuel 10:12

When I read the Bible, sometimes God’s message for me takes a while to surface, but sometimes, it’s right in your face. Today, it’s the latter.

The verse above is Joab’s encouragement to David’s entire army. They were about to face a difficult challenge: Hanun, the king of the Ammonites, hired 35,000 soldiers to go into battle with David’s men. It wasn’t clear how many he had on top of the hired soldiers.

While the bible doesn’t say how many Joab deployed against the tens of thousands of soldiers, it definitely reads as something difficult for them to overcome.

⁹ Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans.

2 Samuel 10:9

Joab had to strategize and prepare for the war and encourage his men to be strong and fight bravely—to trust that the Lord would do what was good in his sight. And He sure did.

¹⁸ But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers. He also struck down Shobak the commander of their army, and he died there.

2 Samuel 10:18

Reflecting on the current challenges in front of me – this reading inspires me to continue to be strong and fight bravely.

What I like about this reflection is that it isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about picking up your slack, preparing for what’s to come and actually doing the work. And then, of course, trusting that God would do what was good in his sight.

To my dear reader, I’ll finish this post with a question for reflection:

What can we do to make it pleasing in God’s sight?