From the Desk of Pastor Toby Powers
Truth Baptist Church
Hwy 78
Bremen, GA
The God of the Mountain & The God of the Valley
I Kings 20:22-29
Intro: This is a time in Israel when Ahab king of Israel in Samaria had just experienced a great victory in battle against Ben Hadad king of the Syrians. The Israelites had slaughtered the Syrians with a great slaughter on a mountain in Palestine, but the people of the nation of Syria said that the only reason that they had lost the battle was because they had fought it on the mountain. They claimed that the God of Israel was the God of the mountain, but not the God of the valley. The Syrians believed, therefore, when the two nations fought in the valley, the Syrians would soundly defeat those Israelites. “Their God can not deliver them in the valley,” they proudly declared. However, the prophet of God said that God was going to deliver them in battle again so that the Syrians would know that he is God. I want to know that God is the God of the Mountain and the God of the Valley. Regardless of your circumstance or situation He is still God.
He:
I. Is In Control: when the devil rails against us and tries to make us think that God has forgotten us, He is still in control.
A. God in control of our Welfare: Matthew 6:26 “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
B. God in control in our Wilderness: Judges 15, Samson was taken captive by the Philistines and drug out into the wilderness to kill him. There he tore loose the cords that held him and slew 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. There is no place in life so remote and barren that God can not respond in deliverance!
C. God in control of our Warfare: v. 29
II. Really Cares: When it seems that I am alone and nobody cares, his blessed Holy Ghost whispers sweet things to my soul to let me know that he cares.
A. He Cares about our Burdens: I Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
B. He Cares about our Brokenness: Hebrews 4:15, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
C. He Cares about our Bitterness: Exodus 1:14, The Egyptians made the lives of the Israelites bitter, but God heard their cries and raised for them a deliverer in Moses!
III. He has Compassion: When I deserve judgment and knew not the Lord, when I fail him time and again, when I do my best for him but still make a flop, when I deserve no compassion, he still has compassion on me. In the midst of my valley:
A. He opens a window in heaven: II Kings 7, Some doubted God’s provisions, but though they witnessed the provisions, they never were able to take thereof. Malachi 3:10, says that he would open that heavenly window and pour out blessings on his obedient children!
B. He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies: Psalms 23:5. He provides a table right in the midst of the wilderness (Psalms 78:19).
C. He will honor your labor: I Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” II Timothy 4:6-8, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
Conclusion: When you are in the valley, the devil will do all he can to convince you that God is not as good to you in that valley as he is on the mountain. He will do all he can to make you think that God is not the God of the valley, but do not listen to him. Continue to labor. Seek God’s face in your life. He’s the God of the Mountain and the God of the Valley!
