“When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.” (Proverbs 11:10, NIV)
The Old Testament is very clear about the enemies of the children of Israel. All Israel’s enemies were physical enemies with flesh and blood and they could die. The Lord was working with them in the physical giving them victory.
We read about David and Goliath, Elijah and Ahab, Esther and Haman and so on. All their enemies were physical. We don’t find the children of Israel engaged in a spiritual war. Every time they defeated their enemies, they rejoiced greatly like in the days of king Jehoshaphat.
In the New Testament there is a dramatic change. Here, we don’t wrestle with flesh and blood. Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities…..” We have enemies but they are not in the flesh. When the seventy returned rejoicing that evil spirits were subject to them, Jesus cautioned them not to rejoice because demons are subject to them but because their names are written in heaven.
Then Jesus said in Matthew 5: 44, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Now these are our physical enemies… Then He said in verse 45, “that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” That is how God treats His enemies.
So as a born again if you ever find yourself fighting flesh and blood, you have missed your real enemy and its proof that you are blind. If we cannot rejoice when we cast out demons are real enemies, how much more the death of a physical enemy? For a born again to rejoice over the death of an enemy clearly shows that he or she is in the Old Testament.
The writer is the senior pastor of Kampala Bible Revelation Church, located at Mukubira Zone, Makerere 1. near MBI on Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road.
