Man of Faith - Joab (The Royal Fighter)

“Be strong and courageous! 

Let’s fight hard for our people and the cities of God. 

And may The LORD’s will be done.”

1 Chronicles 19: 13 TEV

Reflection 1: The Word

These were the words of Joab- King David’s commander of royal military when they fought with the Ammonites and Arameans. Being a military commander, Joab knows how hard it is to fight in a battle. He knows that amidst a battle these few things will happen - victory or defeat; death or survival; captivity or freedom and/or freedom with disability; fame or failure.

But let us ponder on the powerful words that he pronounced to inspire his troops.

1. "Be strong and courageous” - these words alone are very powerful motivation amidst uncertainty.

How can we be strong? Physical preparation, skills preparation, war tactics and/or strategies – very technical but of course, important.

How can we be courageous? This will need deeper and more purposeful rooting. Prayer is the best source of courage. It was not mentioned in this verse, but I am putting my faith that Joab prayed.

In our present time, when we are facing a big battle, prayer is our weapon. Giving God our praise, lifting to Him all our fears and concerns will make us confident that we will succeed, no matter what.

Reading the Bible and meditating on His Words are essential too.

- Deuteronomy 31: 6 NIV - So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

- Joshua 1:9 NIV - This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

2. “Let’s fight hard for our people and the cities of God.” 

Joab knows that winning a big battle is one of the greatest victories in life. Something that someone will hold on to for the rest of his life. Victory will give him honour and fame. But he never thought about these personal gains. He put in priority the safety of their people and their cities, knowing that they belong to God.

Like Joab, every day of our lives is also like a battle for survival - anywhere we are, is like a battlefield- at school, at the workplace, in the community where we live, or even inside our homes. We should not centre our daily battles towards personal gain but for the sake of our family, loved ones and other people who depend on us and trust us. We should put in our minds the common good of everyone not our personal and selfish ambitions.

We all know that Israel belongs to God. In our present time, we must also remember that everyone around us belongs to God. God entrusted them to us because He knows that we can protect them and provide for them because He will make us able to. So, we must value and protect these people at all costs. Israel is a big place to think about but think about our family alone. Our family must be protected at all costs from anything that will bring it down.

3. "And may The LORD’s will be done.”

Above all, we must fight for God’s will and purpose for us. We may not know what God really wants for us but if we will seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him and we will know what He wants us to do. We need to have a mindset that whatever we do, whatever we fight for, how we plan, and how we fight is for God. These will guide us with our actions, enlighten our decisions thus will make us successful- an undeniable conqueror.

Joab’s war was a picture of desperation because he has enemies front and back, but he put his trust to the Lord and surrendered in God’s will. Like Joab, when we are facing a desperate situation, surrender everything to God. Cry out in prayer and accept His will.

Conclusion to the Word

So let us always remember: We are soldiers. An army of God who fight a good fight of faith every day and everywhere. We may never know what will happen, what lies ahead and what would be our reward but just fight- be strong and courageous. God will give us victory for the people He entrusted to us and for His honour. He will make us successful because that’s His way of showing His love to His creations.

Use prayers and The Lord’s Words as your armour pack, and in God’s will, victory will unfold.

Use your power and authority as well to encourage other people. Use your voice to inspire and empower other people.

If you are to deliver words of encouragement to somebody or to a group of people facing a battle, what would that be? Be bold in encouraging other people.

Reflection 2: Is Joab a Good or Bad Leader?

Joab was portrayed in the Bible to be of complex character and though he is loyal to the king, he is still non-compliant to his orders.

(1 Chronicles 19: 11 – 12)

He left the rest of the army under the command of his brother Abishai, who was to attack the Ammonites. "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then come over and help me,” Joab told his brother. “And if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will help you. 

In these verses, Joab demonstrated how he values brotherhood. He knows that he will need help/ support at some point, so he asked his brother Abishai. And he knows that his brother will also need help at some point so he assured him that he will support him.

No man is an island. At some point in our life, we will need somebody to help us. Who else will be able to provide that help? It’s our brother – our family. Your spiritual brothers and sisters are also a great help if you are facing a spiritual battle. Their prayers and support will be of great value.

Upon knowing Joab better, it emphasized in me that we need to use our power and authority to encourage other people. We must use our voice to inspire and empower other people. However, there are things that will affect our credibility. So, we need to remind ourselves of the following:

1. Self-awareness - is very important. Be aware of your attitude, characteristic as a person and as a leader. Is it acceptable? Is it noble? Joab did not realize his bad traits.

2. Submission - Draw the line between you and your master. Couple of times that Joab did not respect the decisions of King David; He even overpowered him at some point. We may be holding an important role; we must know that there is someone who is always above us and holding a greater authority. And as a Christian, the  the highest of them all is God.

3. Servant-hood - who is Joab serving? Is it the people? Is it the city? Is it the King? Is it God? Of all disrespect that Joab showed to King David, there was never a mention of him trying to kill King David. But he became so passionate of protecting the king that he ended up putting justice in his own hands. Are we like him too? Are we crowd-pleaser? Are we idolizing our higher ups at work? Or somebody in the church? Or somebody in the community that we will do too much than what is expected to the extent that we lose our integrity.

4. Sincerity and genuineness - are we really true to what we say? To what we pray for and what we pray about? Joab delivered a very powerful encouragement, and we know that it was effective because eventually they won the battle. He did not receive credit for that - all credit belonged to King David. Are the words of encouragement we pronounce backed up with a prayer? There was no mention of Joab’s preparations that include prayer. So, did he just randomly declare an encouragement out of necessity? Are we like him?

5. Sin awareness - are we aware about our sin? Are we letting those sins hinder us from doing our role / purpose in life? Or we become so blinded that we already don’t know what is right or wrong? We now live in modern age, and we all claim that Jesus redeemed us from our sins and being a Christian, we always feel being convicted and this conviction is hindering us from doing our roles, our purposes in life especially with regards to advancing the Kingdom of God, that’s a reality. We are always afraid that people might know our weaknesses, our sins and it will affect our relationship with others, so we just keep silent and don't do our part in advancing the Kingdom of God.

As a final conclusion,

We are like Joab. We are sinners. We have inherited sins, and we have sins that are of our own doing. But also, we have purpose in life. We have respective responsibilities, especially in advancing the Kingdom of God. Do not let our sin interfere with that.

Ideally, we should live a pure life, but it is difficult. So, we need to arm ourselves with lots of prayers, equip ourselves with the Word of God - His encouragements will never be questioned.

And for us receiving the message and/or words of encouragements, are we looking at the credibility of the person? Inside the church, do we look at people with the right intent? Inside the family, do we respect the voice and decisions of the head of the family or just go on with our own thing?