Against the Power of Our Enemies

Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.

Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness. -Alma 34:22-23

The first of these two verses seems unusual, until it is put into the context of the second. God is not normally a God of vengeance. He's not the sort of entity to whom one would turn for the power to defeat their enemies.Yet, God does sometimes bestow that power. The Nephites even relied on it. God has the power to smite and destroy, and He has used that power on at least a handful of occasions. It would seem that, when one's need is dire and their cause is just, they can call upon the power of God to aid them in the fight against their enemies.

Yet, the second of these verses is quick to point out that our real enemy isn't other people, but the devil himself. Other people may threaten our lives (as the Lamanites did with the Nephites) or our freedom (as the Pharaoh did with the Children of Israel), but the devil threatens people's souls, making him an enemy who is far more than merely deadly. The devil can't kill us physically, but if he can kill us spiritually, if he can drive a wedge of sin between us and God, that's much worse than being physically dead or in physical bondage.

We can hope to make few enemies. And when we do make enemies, we can often hope to soften their hearts and perhaps even befriend them. But we have common enemy whose heart will never be soften and whom we can never befriend.

God can help us defend ourselves from our enemies, both physical and spiritual, and He can help us repel them and even, when absolutely necessary, destroy them. This is not a power God calls upon often, but it's a power that can be called upon when it's needed, and in the case of our true enemy, we need God's power against him more often than not. We need to resist temptation, and we often need God's help with that. It's good to know that we can call on God for help against the power of our enemies, even when it comes down to a spiritual, or even physical, fight.