DIVIDE THE PLUNDER
BY
The Lord gives the word and a great army [host of women] brings the good news. Enemy kings and their armies flee, while the women of Israel divide the plunder (Psalm 68:11-12 NLT).
After recently writing of taking the plunder, I was encouraged this morning as once again, reading through the Psalms for the 100th time, I saw this verse and realized the confirmation was from Him. The great army in the Hebrew of this passage is a “host of women.” And these women divide the plunder. Amazing, this God we serve, and the more we know Him, the more we love serving Him. The more we long to know Him, the more He will reveal Himself to us.
It is not the serving that we long to do, it is the knowing Him. Sitting quietly in His presence before sunrise, opening His word, hearing Him speak ever so gently to us, comforting us, correcting us, instructing us, teaching us, discipline us; this can never be substituted with serving, going to Church, or even witnessing to others.
This morning, as I read this Psalm again in the New Living Translation, it was amazing to me that this phrase “great army” was translated as “host of women.” I looked it up in other translations and found that only the NASB translated it the same way. “The women who proclaim the [good] tidings are a great host.” All other translations I read translate it as a “company” or "army." Strong’s (CONCORDANCE) identifies it as the gathering of an army, although the word “tsaba” for “company” is in the feminine.
I will go with the idea that the great army or company spoken of in this passage was indeed a host of women, or at the very least, included women, which of course, it does. And “she” divides the spoil, or plunder. Regardless, God spoke to me this morning, and confirmed that He indeed is calling us to take plunder from the enemy attacks that are coming fast and furious against us.
I feel I have been in a war this past year, and at times I became so weary that others had to carry me off the battlefield. The war increased immediately after my last writing of taking the spoils, as though the enemy wanted to taunt me and remind me that this war was far from over, he had yet one more scheme up his sleeve.
Yet in the cacophony of the war noise, I heard Jesus. He reminded me that He is in my son and that “Christ in you, the hope of Glory” (Col. 1:27), is a living Word (Hebrews 4:12), a fact, not merely a promise for the future. It is for now, this moment. And Christ in my son is the hope of God’s glory. It is not hope based on wishful thinking; it is hope that knows truth—that where God dwells, there will be glory. God, not my son, will bring glory to Himself, even through this time of war over his mind, will and emotions (soul). God will glorify Himself in it. This truth is the plunder. And I shall divide the plunder.
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