Mensa Otabil - God Will Raise Deliverers
- Watch
- Donate
Judges Chapter 2, Verse 16: Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hand of those who plundered them. There is much we can learn about God’s dealings with biblical Israel. Although Israel was God’s covenant people, they did not always obey Him. Many times, they would disobey God and do something very wrong. When they did, some crisis would come into their lives. There would be famine, or there would be an attack, and then they would cry out to the Lord. The Lord would hear their prayer, and when the Lord heard their prayer, He raised up deliverance for them. All the people who were called judges and the deliverers that God raised for Israel were ordinary people. Yet God used them to do extraordinary works for Him. Some of the deliverers were farmers; others were housewives. There were people who were disinherited-just ordinary people. But when God raised them as deliverers, they did extraordinary things for Him.
You know, it’s a lesson we can learn that when we get into trouble, God knows how to raise deliverers for us. The deliverers that God raises for us may not be extraordinary people. Yes, of course, God can raise people in high places to be your deliverer, but He can also raise people in so-called low places. He can use somebody you never thought could really help you; they could be the deliverer that God has raised for you. So many times, Israel’s enemies would come against them, and they would plunder them. The Bible calls them plunderers. A plunderer is someone or a system that comes to try and take away from you, to plunder you, rendering you hopeless and useless and dispossessed. When that happens, God will always raise a deliverer.
So if you are at a point in your life where you think, «Maybe I’ve done wrong, and that’s why this bad thing is happening to me,» or «Maybe, like Elijah, I’m still obeying God, but bad things are happening to me,» remember God has delivered us. The work of a deliverer is to free you from the plunderer. Whatever has come against you to steal your joy, to steal your peace, whatever has come against you to make you feel miserable and to steal your health, God has an equal measure of a deliverer to set you free and to minister to you. The way to embrace that is not to assign special qualities to a person that God can use to help you because if you determine, «Oh, it has to be a major pastor with a great title and a big congregation; that is the only one God can use to help me,» you will be mistaken.
God can use just somebody in your church, just a church member, to pray for you, and you might receive help that even a pastor’s prayer cannot offer you. It could be a song you hear in church that the choir sings that becomes your deliverance, lifting the burden. It could be just someone you don’t know whom God places a burden on their heart to intercede for you. God does not use special people to do His special works; He uses ordinary people to do His special work because guess what? He’s the special one; He’s the extraordinary one. He’s the mighty one, and He can use all kinds of people to achieve His purposes in your life. So, if you are in trouble, deliverance is coming your way, and there is a deliverer somewhere near you-maybe in your office-and God will use that person to bring help to you today. I pray that your deliverer will come to you from wherever they are to perfect the purposes of God in your life.
Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, You are my deliverer. I trust You to raise the right kind of deliverance for me. In Jesus' name, Amen.