This verse always strongly reminds me of our dependence on God:
The horse is prepared for the day of battle,
But victory belongs to the LORD
Proverbs 21:31 NASB
‘Belongs to the Lord’ is an archaic term and may confuse modern people. The New English Bible clarifies the meaning:
A horse may be made ready for the day of battle,
but victory comes from the Lord
Let’s look at two aspects of this verse…
xxxxx1) Although this verse is talking about just warfare, I believe that the principle of it can be applied in many other contexts. For example, I used to have a tiny lawn mowing business and I half-jokingly adopted this verse as my company motto. My version of it was thus:
The mower is prepared for the day of work
But profit belongs to the Lord
xxxxx2) There’s an essential element of synergy here. Synergy means “working together”, and in this case humans prepare the horse and do the hard work in battle, while God provides the victory. Similarly, God feeds the birds (Matt 6:25-34), i.e. they are as dependent upon him for food as we are dependent upon him for victory, but they don’t sit there and wait for food to fall into their beaks: they have to work for their worms. If sparrows were sentient they might have their own half-joking version of Pr 21:31:
The feathers are prepared for the day of foraging
But food comes from the Lord
In military language, God is our ‘force multiplier’: we make a forceful effort, and God multiplies our puny efforts in order to make them successful (everything that humans do is puny to compared to what the creator of the universe does. See Job 38:1ff).
Conclusion
When we are doing a godly work the Lord will multiply our efforts in order to bring success or victory. That victory comes from and belongs to God, so we should thank him for it; this will also help us to avoid pride.
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thes 5:16-18 NASB)
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Cor 15:58b NASB)
