The Hagrites
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
Have you heard of the Hagrites?
Surely the Bible students out there have heard of this group of people. The name is certainly a unique one that you would think we would all remember. Yet if you open a concordance of the Bible, you will find that they really aren’t mentioned much at all.
There is a reason. You see the Hagrites were defeated in battle. The very few details of this battle are found in I Chronicles 5. This particular part of I Chronicles is frankly a bit boring to read in that it is filled with genealogies of the different families in Israel.
In amongst the list of family names you find intriguing little stories or details.
The Hagrites story is one of them. It seems that the tribe of Reuben along with the tribe of Gad and part of the tribe of Manasseh went to war with the Hagrites. The Bible states that they had an army of 44,760 that went into this battle. However, it seems the battle didn’t go as well as expected. The Bible really doesn’t say what happened.
Here is what it does say:
And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them, for they cried out to God in battle. He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in him.
One may wonder that as the battle progressed that it either wasn’t going well or the tribes of Israel realized they hadn’t asked for God’s protection, and they needed prayer. Whatever the reason, they cried out to God in prayer during the battle and in the heat of the battle God heard them.
As I reflected on this passage, I thought of the many times I have cried out to God in the heat of a crisis. To many times I, and maybe you too, have rushed into a crisis or battle without taking things to God in prayer.
Too many times we realize in the moment that we need to stop and pray.
Other times, maybe we did pray prior to the crisis, but in the midst of the heated moments you realize you need to pause, throw up a plea to God and ask for deliverance.
I love that God takes our prayers in the battle, before the battle, and, yes, after the battle when we can pause and thank God for leading us each step of the way. As you reflect on your own spiritual growth, take heart that God wants to hear from you. God wants to walk with you before moments of crisis, in the moments of crisis, and every other moment of your day.