It is Never too Late to Conquer Your Enemy

1Ch 4:42 Now [some] of them, five hundred men of the sons of Simeon, went to Mount Seir, having as their captains Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi. 43 And they defeated the rest of the Amalekites who had escaped. They have dwelt there to this day.

In this passage of Scripture we find the sons of Simeon defeating the remnants of the Amalekites that had escaped from David and Saul. Even though they were in the land of Edom (Esau’s descendants), and it had been hundreds of years since the initial conquest of the Land by Joshua, they conquered the Amalekites and lived on the land as an inheritance. The interesting thing about these verses is the names of the captains from the family of Ishi.

Let’s look at the names:

Ishi = “He saves me”

Pelatiah =" Jehovah delivers"

Neariah =" servant of Jehovah"

Rephaiah=" healed of Jehovah"

Uzziel =" my strength is God"

Here are four captains that clearly have names that reflect the nature and character of God. Just think about these men’s names for one moment. Every time someone would call them, they would here, God Saves Me, God delivers, Servant of God, Healed by God, and my strength is God. No wonder these men could lead the others, their very names would lead them to trust in the God for whom they had been named. These men conquered the enemies of God and took what had been theirs for their own.

The prophetic significance of this is really awesome. Paul tells us that we are to put off the old man, the former behavior of our lives before Christ. Well the good news that we can learn from this short story in the Chronicles is we always have time to overcome what remains of the old nature. Hallelujah!

IT IS NEVER TOO LATE!

Pastor Frank