Deuteronomy 2:31-37: in context

As Moses recounts Israel's approach to the promised land, he tells of their first victories east of the Jordan. God delivered Sihon king of Heshbon before them, and they took his cities one after another. And Moses sums it up with a phrase of wonder: from Aroer to Gilead, there was not a city too high for us; the LORD our God delivered up all before us. The fortified cities that might have seemed impregnable fell, not because Israel was strong, but because God delivered them; no obstacle proved too great when God went before.

The phrase to hold is, there was not a city too high for us, for the LORD our God delivered all before us. These were fortified cities, some with high walls, the kind of obstacle that could have stopped an advancing people. And yet not one proved too high, too strong, too great to overcome. The reason is given plainly, and it is not Israel's strength: the LORD our God delivered all before us. The obstacles fell not because Israel was mighty enough to overcome them but because God gave the victory. When God delivers, no fortress is too high. There is encouragement here for the obstacles we face. Some of them can seem like fortified cities too high to take: difficulties that appear insurmountable, barriers we have no strength to overcome, situations that look impregnable. And in our own strength, many of them are indeed too high for us. But this passage points beyond our own strength to God's deliverance: there was not a city too high for us, for the LORD delivered all. The question is not whether we are strong enough to overcome the obstacle, but whether God goes before us and delivers it into our hands; and when he does, no obstacle is too high. If God is for us, Paul says, who can be against us? The victory rests not on our strength but on his. This also carries a needed humility. Israel did not credit their victories to their own might; they said, the LORD our God delivered all before us. When obstacles fall and difficulties are overcome, the credit belongs to God, who gave the victory, not to our own strength. They did not gain the land by their own sword, the psalm says, but by God's right hand. This frees us both from despair and from pride. From despair, because no obstacle is too high when God delivers, so we need not be crushed by what looks insurmountable. And from pride, because the victory, when it comes, is God's doing, not ours. Facing the fortified cities of our own lives, we may take heart: there is not a city too high for us when the LORD our God delivers all before us; and to him belongs the credit for every obstacle overcome.

When I face obstacles that seem like fortified cities too high to take, difficulties that look insurmountable in my own strength, do I despair as though they were too great, or can I take heart from Israel's testimony that there was not a city too high for us, for the LORD delivered all before us, trusting that no obstacle is too high when God goes before me, and giving him the credit, rather than my own strength, for every one overcome?