Inheritance Includes Protection

Isaiah 54:17 - No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgement, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, says the Lord.

          Imagine being an inexperienced soldier in an intense battle, with bombs dropping all around, land mines hidden beneath the ground, and bullets whizzing by your head. What thoughts might run through this young soldier’s mind?  How did I find myself in this place? Why is this happening to me? How will I ever survive? Like all battlefields, the very atmosphere is charged with fear, confusion, uncertainty and panic. This is how many in our world are feeling right now. Make no mistake about it, friends, we are in a war and the casualties are real.

          Long before we found ourselves in this current fight, God foresaw every challenge and provided us with what we would need to navigate safely through each of them. And, as always, His provision is contained in His promise. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. It matters not how powerful or advanced the weapon might be. The Almighty God has assured us that it will not succeed, it will not be effective, and it will not defeat us. Our Father God has made this pledge and He cannot lie. His faithful promise forms a very solid premise for us to stand on.

          Right on the heels of the mention of weapons is a reference to the tongue. This suggests the type of conflict we are waging; it is word-warfare. Words paint pictures and our enemy is attempting to paint a picture of loss and defeat in our minds. He is the slanderer and false accuser who hurls vindictive judgements against the righteous, and sadly many times, he uses others to do it. He uses the media with their constant barrage of bad news and gloomy economic forecasts. He uses fearful people who wish to draw everyone into their morbid preoccupation with disaster. Opinions on social media, biased news reports, and predictions of dire times are filling the airwaves. Words, words, words. The only thing that can counteract the rapid-fire of these words is a higher word which carries with it a higher authority.

          In warfare there are various types of encounters. There are all-out assaults designed to take ground from the enemy, and there are battles that aim at defending ground from being taken. For the Christian, our war has already been won; Jesus conquered all. He defeated the enemy at the Cross. The battle that we are in is one of defending the ground that our Lord owns, which very ground He rightfully took back. Notice that the weapon is formed against us, and the words are coming against us; it is a direct attack against each of us. If the battle is already won, then our part is to stand our ground by declaring the truth of God’s Word. This is the pattern which has been clearly revealed by history and constantly repeated in Scripture.

          We stand and defend what we own, but we do not stand in our own righteousness. We stand with courage in our voice because we have been given the gift of righteousness. Someone has once defined righteousness as an ability to stand in the face of anyone without cringing fear or intimidation. We stand before God without fear because of what He has done for us. We stand fearlessly in the face of the accuser knowing that our Father God has cleared us every malicious charge. We stand, with head held high, verbally acknowledging the truth. This is our inheritance which has been graciously given to us. There is no cause for pride as if we had gotten this wealth on our own. There is only cause for gratitude and praise to the One who conquered all our enemies and has lavished upon us the rich inheritance of eternal life and freedom. No weapon formed against you will prosper!