The Lord your God fights for you. He commands legions of angels to protect you and defend you whenever it is needed. When there is a problem that requires powerful intervention, the Lord your God employs heaven’s best resources to fix it for you. Did you know that? Take this time and use this quick lesson to remind yourselves of that – God fights for you.
The literal meaning of the Hebrew term Yahweh Sabaoth is “the Lord of armies” or “the Lord of heavenly hosts,” with “hosts” being a military connotated term indicative of a group of individuals with strong, abled bodies all fighting for a common cause – your cause. This means that the Lord who is with you in every moment of every second of every day is the same Lord that commands all angelic hosts, cosmic forces, and both natural and supernatural nations. The title is just one reminder that He has absolute sovereignty over everything that was, is, and will be. Best of all, in all of His power and might, He still invests so much attention in you that He knows the number of hairs on your head (Matthew 10:29-31).
The first use of the term “Yahweh Sabaoth” can be found 1 Samuel when Hannah and her husband Elkanah go on their regular pilgrimage to Shiloh to worship. They existed during a time period in which Israel was preparing for a significant political shift, from judges to the monarchy of their first king. Israel as a nation was weak and vulnerable to attack yet it was here that He chose to introduce himself as the Lord of Hosts. Weakness in the natural yields strength in the supernatural. In our natural weakness, we are made strong as we allow room for God to operate on our behalf in the spirit (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Later in the text, Hannah becomes the first person in the Bible to personally refer to God as the Lord of Hosts as she cries out in her barrenness, pleading with God for a child (1 Samuel 1:11). Hannah’s pain was so great that in her desperation, all that was left to do was remind her spirit of God’s power that surpasses any and everything that she could do for herself by her own efforts. Remind yourself that your broken marriage, your wayward child, and your ailing health all fall under the command of Yahweh Sabaoth. If you are believing for a miracle in your life, call out the specific characteristic of God that you are expecting to come to your aid. By praying to Yahweh Sabaoth, you are aligning yourself with heaven’s armies in declaring God’s sovereignty. Talk about setting yourself up for miraculous intervention!
Reflection and Application:
- We know that there are no coincidences in God’s word. Why do you think that God first chose to reveal himself as the Lord of Hosts in this part of the text during this period in Israel’s history via this specific family? How does the state of Israel as a nation mirror Hannah’s dilemma?
- Reflect on a time in your life where God has acted as Lord of Hosts, commanding armies to solve a problem that was clearly far out of human hands. If you cannot think of any occasions, in what ways would you like to see God intervene as Yahweh Sabaoth in your life today?
- If you truly believed that the God over all of the angel armies was operating on your behalf each and every day, how would you behave differently? Going forward, how will you change the way that you respond to hardships in your life?
Walking With, Like, and In Christ 
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