“Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength,
because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.”
Strength is the last thing we think of when we hold a baby
in our arms. What we see, besides
precious life, is the complete dependence upon another for food, care and
protection. That God has ordained
strength, means He has set the foundation.
“You have ordained” in the
Hebrew is ‘yacad,’ which means ‘to found, fix, establish, lay foundation’ according
to Strong’s, #03245. So God has laid the
foundation for strength to come out of the mouths of babes and infants. It still does not make much sense until the
Holy Spirit, through King David, gives us the ‘because.’ “Because
of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.”
The Enemy: When we
think of an enemy of God, we typically consider Satan. Any enemy of God’s is an enemy of ours. Scripture tells us “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
Peter penned those words through the Holy Spirit, and Peter was acutely aware
of the devil’s desire to destroy him. One
of the most frightening verses of scripture, at least to me, was when Jesus
warned Peter about his future denial of the Messiah: “And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you,
that he may sift you as wheat.’”
(Luke 22:31) Yes this enemy, the
devil, wants us to fail, he wants us to blaspheme God with our mouths, with our
thoughts and with our deeds. He stands
ready to accuse us before God. I have no
doubt that he has plenty of material on each of us.
The Avenger: To
avenge means ‘to exact satisfaction for by punishing the injuring party.’ (Websters)
This would seem to be a righteous action against a wrongdoer. In the Old Testament, Joshua prescribes ‘cities
of refuge,’ as a place for a person to flee for a trial when they need protection
from an ‘avenger of blood,’ whose duty it is to exact punishment on a murderer
of his closest relative. In the New
Testament, when the Apostle Paul is instructing the Thessalonians in how they
should live and act, he warns “that no
one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because
the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.” (1 Thessalonians 4:6) So why would God want to silence this ‘Avenger?’
Because we have a sin problem, and because He loves us
anyway. Every single one of us has
missed the mark, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans
3:23) The truth is we are stuck between
the enemy and the avenger. Satan has no
need to make up lies about us to God.
Satan has plenty of true material to accuse us before God. By our own thoughts and deeds, we were once, or may still be,
enemies with God. The avenger is
righteously justified in carrying out our punishment, in delivering the wrath of God. But God…what two wonderful words to find in
Scripture: ‘but God.’ We mess up right and left…‘but God.’ “But
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. Much more then,
having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
Him. For if when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:8-10)
We must believe in salvation through Christ as a child. Jesus said “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God
as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Mark 10:15) And we must openly confess Jesus as our Lord
and God. “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
(Romans 10:9-10)
How then are both the enemy and the avenger silenced? They must be silenced when we receive Jesus
with the faith of a child and openly confess Him with our mouth. For those who do not receive Jesus and
confess Him, there is no protection against the enemy or the avenger. Yet, for those of us who do receive Jesus and
confess Him, we will someday experience ultimate victory:
“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come,
for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night,
has been cast down.” (Revelation
12:10)
May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment