This day in history takes us way back in time. The year was 1457 BC and the Egyptian army was under the command of a Pharaoh named Thutmose III. He gathered his forces to fight against a large coalition of Canaanite people under the command of the King of Kadesh. Egypt had laid claim to the land which we now call Israel but the Canaanite people were often rebellious and refused to acknowledge Egyptian rule. This rebellious attitude lasted for decades until Thutmose determined to ruin the people entirely and show the power of Egypt. He mustered an army of between 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers, including chariots. The Canaanite king rallied almost an equal number of soldiers unto himself to challenge the coming Egyptians. There were three paths to enter the Valley of Megiddo, two easy and one more difficult. Thutmose chose the more challenging path and surprised the confederate Canaanite armies by leading his men personally and routed them soundly. The remaining Canaanite people fled to the city of Megiddo and fortified it against attack. Thutmose set a siege against the city for seven months. He built a moat and forced the people to surrender. He was victorious, he bought peace to the area and extended the reach of Egypt into the Jezreel Valley. But why is this battle so important? This date is important because it is the first battle recorded in history with a reliable account. The events of the battle were recorded by a military scribe named Tjaneni. Tjaneni traveled with Thutmose and wrote daily accounts about the battle. He would return to Egypt and have the events carved into the walls of a Temple dedicated to Amun-Re at the city of Karnak There were countless battles before this but the details were always sketchy. This particular battle was very detailed in its recording.
But why are these events important to us 3500 years later? What Biblical importance does it hold? The reason why this battle is important is because of the events that would take place shortly thereafter. The Bible gives us the rough estimate that the Exodus from Egypt took place around the year 1440 BC and the Pharaoh during that time would have either been Thutmose III or Amenhotep II. The battle of Megiddo stands out because God sovereignly uses a pharaoh to destroy a huge Canaanite army that would have withstood the Israelites as they entered the promised land. God already had a plan even while Moses was wandering in the back side of the wilderness. God was already setting His plans into motion, though no one but Himself knew it. God sees the past, present, and future all in the blink of an eye. The hand of God moves in the present in ways we cannot understand, but He does it having a complete future in view. He was in control then and He is in control now. It reminds me of a passage in Deuteronomy 1:30 which says “The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes.” God was reminding the people that He is already making the path for victory, that He is already ahead of them making way. Many of us believe these beautiful truths, but we fail to embrace them. We are often overcome by the here and the now and in the present news that we lose hope. All we see is failure and ruin and we forget that God is already setting up plans for us to triumph. All that is happening in the here and now has a purpose, though unseen at the time. We need to cling to the Biblical truth that God will make a way, even though we do not see it clearly at this moment. Trust Him, even if you don’t see the end of the path. Why? Because He’s already there. Corrie Ten Boom once said that we can trust an unknown future to a known God.
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