Who Will Fight For us? January 16th Devotional

Who Will Fight For Us?
Deuteronomy 3:22

January 16th Devotional

      On this day in 1605 Miguel de Cervantes's book, “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (better known simply as Don Quixote) was published.  Cervantes was a Spanish writer who struggled most of his life with poverty.  In his early twenties, he served as a soldier.  During one conflict his left hand became injured, which plagued him for the rest of his life.  Despite his injury, he continued to fight in the military.  At one time he was captured and held prisoner for five years.  His family was so poor that they were unable to pay the ransom requested for his release.  He became a tax collector after his military career.  Needless to say, this did not earn him many friends nor did it improve his reputation.  He was accused of misusing tax money and was thrown in jail two times. It was during the second imprisonment that the concept of Don Quixote came to him.  The story of Don Quixote follows a man named Alonso Quixano, a man nearly fifty years of man, of low Spanish nobility, who loved to read.  This mild-mannered man was known to allow his mind to wander into the world of fantasy, so much so that Alonso chooses to lead behind his normal life and become a knight errant seeking great quests and adventure.  He wears a laughable old set of armor, rides on a worn-out farm horse, and changes his name to Don Quixote.  Don creates a fictitious world around him where pubs become castles, farm women become ladies, and salesmen become cutthroats.  Along the way, Don Quixote convinces Pancho to be his squire and join in his adventure.  The most familiar scene in the book is when he fights windmills, thinking they are giants.  The book became extremely popular, so much so that he wrote a sequel to it in 1615.  Don Quixote is considered to be the first modern novel and is irreplaceable in his value to world literature.  Tragically Cervantes never received payment for his work on Don Quixote and died in poverty.  

      Cervantes created an iconic character in Don Quixote.  Quixote’s ambition was to fight for the weak, for the little guy.  Despite Don’s flamboyance for insanity, it’s hard not to love the heart of a person who is willing to fight for others.  The Bible speaks of God as our defender, as one who would fight for us.  In Deuteronomy 3:22 we find Moses encouraging Joshua with these words, “Do not fear them, for the Lord your God is the one fighting for you.”  Joshua was going to be tasked with a huge job, invading the land of Canaan.  The Israelites failed to take the land forty years earlier because they were afraid of the people in the land.  They said that they were mere grasshoppers compared to the giants in the land.  Moses reminded Joshua that it is God who fights the battle.  In a similar way, it is God who fights our battles today.  He fights the battles for our marriages, our families, the battles with our temptations and failures.  He fights spiritual battles that we aren’t even aware are going on around us.  Many of us get frustrated because we are living in constant spiritual defeat.  Is the reason why because we have chosen to fight the battle on our own?  Are we asking and allowing God to fight for us?  He is the undefeated champion, why not trust Him?  What battle is God fighting for you right now?  What battle do you need to give to Him?