The Armies of Israel

This morning I heard that some of the Israeli troops had commented that they were not going to die of missile fire, but they might die of exhaustion. One said that he had only gotten 15 minutes of sleep in the past 3 days.

Human beings are only able to go so long without rest and sleep. The Israeli military is fighting a battle we cannot imagine, and they are spread thin.

There are a few stories from the Old Testament that I thought about as I prayed for them this morning. In Joshua 10, when Joshua was leading the children of Israel into war against the 5 Amorite kings, his men had marched all night long and they had to be weary. To help them, God rained down large hailstones from heaven and more of the enemy were killed by the hailstones than by the sword. And miraculously the hailstones only killed the enemy, but God's people were spared. Joshua needed more sunlight to finish the job, so God caused the sun to stand still until the battle was victorious.

And in Exodus 17, when the children of Israel went to war against Amalek, Moses went up to the top of the hill with the staff of God in his hands. As long as he held his hands up, his people were winning, but when he put them down from fatigue, his fighting men started to lose. So, Aaron and Hur found a rock and sat Moses down and they held up his arms until the battle was won.

In both of these stories, the armies of Israel were fatigued and in one, the leader, Moses, was fatigued. It's hard to fight when you're exhausted because it's not always possible to draw strength and energy from a well that is dry. But God...... But God showed up and He rained down punishment from heaven on the enemy and He extended the daylight, and He allowed a brother and a friend to hold up the arms of Moses in order that His people would win.

What do the armies of Israel need now? They need supernatural strength and energy. They need fire to rain down from heaven upon their enemy. They need us to hold them up to heaven with our prayers.