Midweek: Who Brings the Victory?

Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.

~ 2 Kings 5:1

Naaman's master considered him a great and honorable man, why? Because by him the Lord had given Syria (Aram in other translations) victory over its enemies. Now, if we are at all familiar with the battles and the means by which God's people went to war recorded in the Old Testament, we read something like this and think of Naaman, bowing before God, asking Him or thanking Him for a great victory. Is that what this is saying?  

Maybe what's being said is that the king of Aram knew God and he gave thanks to God for the victory granted his nation through such a mighty and capable leader. But history does not bear that out. Judges 3:5-11 tells of the pagan neighbors of Israel and how God used these nations (eventually sending a deliverer) to trouble Israel and turn their hearts back to God; Aram-Naharayim (Mesopotamia in the NKJV) was such a neighbor. God's people were at war with the people of Aram for generations. With that information, not only does the possibility of Syria's king attributing victory to God diminish, so does the possibility of the commander of the king's armies attributing victory to the God of Israel. That leaves only one person, the writer of 2 Kings.

It's really interesting that, in the context of a heathen victory, of the triumph of Israel's enemy, this writer of Scripture recognizes that it is the Lord who gives and the Lord who takes away (Job 1:21). I don't always think that way. I see the wicked "wickeding", I see the blasphemers blaspheming, I see the moneygrubbers moneygrubbing. And I seethe with indignation or, if I take the time to see them through the eyes of God, I pray for and pity them. But I rarely stop to recognize that in their lives, at the very moment they have made a huge profit on the sale of their home or benefitted yet again from the system or taken that dream vacation --You know, the one that was my dream --or won a legal battle, that God is working. So, when I begin to recognize the sovereignty and movement of God in the lives of those who deny He even exists, I have to ask myself, Why not? 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reasons that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Rain that waters crops and quenches thirst; rain that saturates and brings mold to vulnerable little seedlings and ruins a double-header. Why not celebrate the goodness of God in the lives of all people? Why not give thanks that His kindness is meant to lead mankind to repentance? Why not use my frustration over their myopia and my grief over their reticence to thank God for His pursuit of them? to thank God He is still active in their lives, sparing them (particularly when they are my loved ones)? Why not use my human response to nudge me toward prayer for these individuals? My frustration should not cause me to give up hope or turn my back on interceding for them. My grief is not --Praise God! --a final grief. As long as I have breath in my lungs, I have opportunity to pray others, too, will recognize it is God who is sovereign over all things. That He has brought healing to buy them time, that He has brought prosperity that they might eat, that He has surrounded them with friends that they might know relationship, and that He has given them rest from their labors that they might, in those peaceful days of reflection, lift their eyes heavenward and know Who has brought the victory.