“And His people were made to be very fruitful

And they became more mighty than their adversaries.”

(Psalm 105:24)

Here we have arrived at David’s recounting of Exodus 1:7. In Egypt, the 75 persons who initially came down to Egypt (Acts 7:14) grew to become a multitude. They grew so great, across these 400 years, that the Egyptians feared them and sought to subjugate them in slavery and interbreed with their women, for fear of an uprising.

Yet, has it ever struck you the disparity between the Biblical account told here and the way the people viewed themselves? We are told that they were more mighty than their adversaries. What is implied here is that if the Israelites did choose to rebel against the Egyptians,  they would have won. Yet, as we read the Exodus account, the people feared the Egyptians and resisted a revolt against their teaching.

How often it is the same way in the church. We embrace a defeatist mindset and so we never take up spiritual warfare against the strongholds of the devil all around us. We fear reprisals. We fear that we won’t know what to say or how to say it. We fear that we might be defeated by the secular machine that dominates our culture…or by the secular church that has enslaved itself to the culture’s will. Yet, He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4) and we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us (Romans 8:37). 

That does not mean that our battles will be easy and it does not mean that we will not have our ears boxed in the process. But why fear those who can only harm the body and cannot harm the eternal soul (Matthew 10:28). Until the church realizes that we are more mighty than our adversaries, we will never rise up. Yet, if the church repents of her fear of the world, she will, like the righteous man, rise up repeatedly against her foes (Proverbs 24:16). 

And what makes the church so mighty? It is not because we are great; it is because God is great and he is the great warrior of His people (Exodus 15:3). Yet, note that we also have a promise given that anticipates God’s work in the church of creating a mighty army which is strong in the Lord because they walk in His name (Zechariah 10:4-12). This, dear Christian, wherever you are, is what God is working in us through His true church. So, if your church is hiding in timidity or compromising with the world, it is a reminder that you are not in the true church of Jesus Christ.