Numbers 24:18
And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly.
Anybody can say they will be valiant in dangerous times, but only time will reveal who is truly valiant. God said Israel shall do valiantly. The word valiantly means courageously. We certainly live in times when we need believers who are courageous to stand for truth. When truth is under attack, we often ask who will stand when we should rise and stand ourselves. Heroes for truth are not trained but are revealed when they stand while others are running, compromising, or hiding. There are four things I want you to notice about this phrase of doing valiantly.
First, you can’t be valiant without doing. Nobody has ever been valiant who was sitting at home. Only those who are involved are those who are valiant. We talk about the need for people to be valiant, but you can't be valiant while doing nothing. Those who were valiant in history were not at home when they became valiant, instead they faced a situation that demanded courage while they were doing and they stood up to whatever what trying to destroy them. One of the greatest reasons we don't have valiant believers today is because too many are playing when they should be doing. We can complain about the need for people to be valiant, but what we ought to do is get busy serving God. If you are one who looks for people to be valiant, look no further than in the mirror and ask yourself are you even doing anything that, if the moment demands someone to be valiant, you will be there. Valiant people are doing people; they just happened to stand when others would not stand.
Second, you won’t be valiant if you need the approval of the crowd. There has never been one person who was valiant who looked to be accepted by the crowd. A valiant person is one who is willing to stand alone and be criticized, but history shows the valiancy they had and the courage to stand to fight alone instead of being accepted by the crowd.
Third, valiant people have never run when they faced failure. Valiant people have faced failure, but they did not run home or go back to the world when failure came. Instead, valiant people got up and faced what caused failure and turned their failure into success. If the fear of failure keeps you from standing, you can be assured that you will never be valiant. If failure itself is keeping you down, you will never be valiant as long as you surrender to your failure.
Fourth, only the moment of need reveals who was valiant. When you look at the heroes in history, we see their valiancy because they stood at the moment in time that needed someone to stand. David stood to Goliath when nobody else would stand. Daniel stood up against the law and faced the lions den when others would not pray. The three Hebrew children stood when others around them bowed to the golden image. Stephen stood for truth while stones were being cast at him. The Scriptures are filled with people who were valiant. There was Gideon, Samuel, Saul, Noah, Phinehas, and many others who were valiant, and their stand changed the narrative of their time.
You won't know if you will be valiant, but one thing for certain, you won't be valiant if you are not doing something for God right now. Get busy serving God and stop focusing on anything else, and stand when the times comes when someone must stand for truth.