Deuteronomy 18-20: Don't Panic

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.” - Deut. 20:2-4 NIV

Don't panic.  That is the word the priests were to give the people before they went into battle. 

How often do I feel I am fighting the battle all alone, or even worse, how often do I feel that the battle has been lost already, so there is no reason to fight at all.  I find that especially true when I survey the world.  How can I fight all I see around me:  the broken homes, broken fathers and mothers, broken children?  How can I fight the forces that are dragging our society down to the depths:  the addictions, the drugs, the pornography, the incest, the greed and maliciousness?  How can any of us go into battle against all of these forces?

But, ever so faintly I hear the words:  'Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me,' and  'I will never leave you or forsake you..'  'Don't panic', our High Priest tells us, 'for God goes with you to fight your enemies.'  Don't be fainthearted, for greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

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