If God Be For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?
As Paul teaches us in the above quote from Romans 8:31, when we put our absolute faith and trust in God, we will not need to worry or fear whatever happens in our lives. In understanding the providential care and power of God, we may learn several great lessons that the Bible illustrates.
Faithfulness Does Matter. God Triumphs Over Evil
First, numbers do not matter. In a world filled with wickedness to the point that God was determined to destroy it, He found one faithful man named Noah and his family. The wickedness described among the countless millions of people (as many have estimated) compared to the faithfulness of Noah probably was indescribable. God could have very well killed Noah also, “but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). Think about one family among so many wicked. Moreover, we learn this lesson from Abraham in Genesis 14, who took his army of 318 trained servants and rescued Lot among all the people captured in the war of four kings versus five kings. Because of this glorious victory among so many nations, not only did the five kings come to meet Abraham, but also Melchizedek, king of Salem, came to meet this hero. In addition, we learn this lesson from Gideon in Judges 7. God Himself viewed the army of 32,000 Israelites as too many and whittled the army down to just three hundred to fight against the Midianites that “came as grasshoppers for multitude; for they and their camels were without number” (Judg. 6:5). What a great victory ensued, because with God, numbers do not matter.
Second, size does not matter. When the Israelites and the Philistines warred with each other in First Samuel 17, the Philistine champion named Goliath challenged the Israelites to a simple one-on-one match for supremacy. Nevertheless, at the barking words of this heathen, all of the people of God “were dismayed, and greatly afraid” (1 Sam. 17:11). It took a “youth” (1 Sam. 17:33) named David with enough faith in God to defeat this massive man, whose stature was over nine feet tall.
Third, age does not matter. In the midst of some of the most wicked kings of Israel and Judah, a boy named Josiah of just eight years took the throne of Judah (2 Kings 22:1). When he was a teenager of sixteen, “he began to seek after the God of David, his father,” and when he was twenty, “he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images” (2 Chron. 34:3). When he was twenty-six (26), the book of the law was found in the temple, and he revolutionized the nation by cleansing the country of idolatry and reestablishing the Passover. “And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him” (2 Kings 23:25).
Fourth, gender does not matter. While one might think most of the faithful heroes recorded in the Bible are male, do not forget about the wonderful females that exemplified the righteousness of God. Esther literally saved the Israelites single-handedly. Deborah was the savior of the people, serving as one of the judges of the land. The mother of Moses, Jochebed, hid her son against the laws of the Egyptian land. Rahab saved the Israelites from the Canaanites. A woman named Jael contributed to the victory of the Israelites by killing the enemy captain, Sisera (Judg. 4:17-21).
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).