The Sword of the LORD

1.      "We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us work You did in their days, in the days of old. 2.      You drove out the nations with Your hand and it was Your power that gave a home by rooting out the peoples, but You spread out. 3.      For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your countenance , because You were favorable toward and did delight in them. 4.      You are my King, O God; command victories and deliverance for Jacob (Israel). 5.      Through You shall we push down our enemies; through Your name shall we tread them under who rise up against us. 6.      For I will not trust in and lean on my bow, neither shall my sword save me. 7.      But You have saved us from our foes and have put them to shame who hate us. 8.      In God we have made our boast all the day long, and we will give thanks

"Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and Who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places."  (Deuteronomy33:29) The blessings and promises that God bestowed upon Israel in the Old Testament were but foreshadows of everything that He has given to the believers in Christ.  Christ was always going to be the fulfillment of God's great plan.  He was the Tree of Life in the beginning of creation, and He is the Tree of Life in the closing chapter of the Revelation of John.  Though the prophecies of old were spoken to Israel after the flesh, most of them have their broader fulfillment in spiritual Israel which is the church of Jesus Christ - that body of believers (both Jew and gentile) who have been born again and are bound together not by any particular doctrine, creed, or bloodline, but by the Spirit of the living God.