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The Power of Praise

2/28/2024

Many of you probably remember the week of Labor Day, 2020. A haze of smoke covered our valley. Fires sprang up all around the state. An eerie, yellow-orange light saturated the air, causing the indoor lights to seem blue in contrast. Ash rained continuously and many suffered from the poor air quality.
Like many, we had to be evacuated from our home up in Gates because the wildfires surrounded it, burning down many homes and leaving everything temporarily uninhabitable. While we were safely evacuated with our family, our home suffered damage.
Our kitchen was destroyed and the smoke entering in from left-open windows covered every square inch. The mattresses, clothing and furniture were permeated with the stench. Thankfully, unlike some, we have homeowners’ insurance. Unfortunately, like many, our insurance didn’t want to pay for all that we believe are the damages. They delayed, made excuses and finally just fell far short of the cost of repair, in our opinion. Finally, after much wasted negotiation, we found an attorney who specializes in bringing insurance companies to court and started the next part of the process.
We have finished the arduous process of compiling evidence and are now waiting in queue to bring our evidence to the judge.
We hope he will see things the way we see them. We hope that he will hear us out and be a fair and experienced judge, able to discern and distinguish between arguments and evidence.
We hope that he is impartial, not showing favoritism to anyone, and above reproach and corruption.
It is how our story today starts as well. In 2 Chronicles 19, we find that King Jehoshaphat very righteously has been about the business of setting up judges to sort through every case, civil and criminal, to judge in the fear of the Lord. They were to carefully examine the evidence, only giving out consequences to those who had committed a crime against another, and in civil cases to make sure that property continued to be disbursed to those to whom it belonged.
After remonstrating with the newly appointed judges, King Jehoshaphat exhorts them:

“Behave courageously, and the Lord will be with the good.” v. 11

Little did he know how those words would portend his future and the future of his country!
Immediately after those days, as the enemy is wont to do when they find that order and righteousness are being restored to God’s people, the enemy joined forces to descend upon all of Judah under King Jehoshaphat:

It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.
Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’ And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them— here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

The Ammonites and Moabites, those nations descended from Lot, Abraham’s nephew, came against them en masse. Now God had strictly forbidden the Israelites from messing with their relatives’ land as they came to the Promised Land: God had apportioned the Moabites their country, and the Ammonites their country. It was their allotment from God just as the Promised Land was the Israelites’ allotment. So, on their way from Egypt, the Israelites were not allowed to fight with their neighbors because they were their fellow relatives descended from Lot.
At this juncture, however, it is the Ammonites and Moabites who are coming to try to remove the Israelites from their land, repaying evil for good.
The only time someone could legitimately be removed from their land and property was 1) if they had illegally taken possession of it or 2) it could be temporarily given away as consequence to pay off a debt or sin of the people for a specified period of time.
So, in effect, the Moabites and Ammonites were making a claim that the people of the land of Judah had violated God’s law so much that they would have to be removed as consequence of their sin just as the Canaanites had been removed. This would, in fact, happen eventually. God often used other nations to bring judgment upon one another for their national sin. Eventually, Judah’s sin would increase so much that they would be exiled for a time.
So, just as the people were to gather in the previous chapter to seek the judgment of the judges for any disputes, now Jehoshaphat and all of Judah, small and great, were called to come to the judgment of God in order to plead their case and defense against this accusation and hostile trespass. (v. 9)

We must act in justice as a community: loving God and people.

Sometimes the enemy threatens what God has given us to steward.
Satan’s first tactic is to try to get us to worship idols, to worship what people have; to be obedient to what we have created with our own hands.
But Jehoshaphat, in chapter 17, had removed the idols from the land and caused the people to worship God alone. They were loving the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.
In chapter 19, we found King Jehoshaphat establishing justice and morality throughout the land, making sure that people were held accountable for treating one another right. They were loving their neighbors as themselves.
They were walking in obedience to the two greatest commands of God!
The Bible tells us that we are not unaware of the enemy’s schemes (1 Cor. 2:11). While he has several, he reuses them. They are identifiable and repetitive.
When the enemy cannot get us to worship our own desires and works, his next scheme is to accuse us falsely as if we have.
He comes against us, our constant legal adversary to the Father, as the Accuser which accuses us night and day before our God (Rev. 12:10). However, if we have been walking in righteousness, he has no legal right or authority because we have done nothing wrong.
Now, if we have been unfaithful to God, if we have allowed other things to be first in our heart and life, if we have wronged our brother or sister, then the enemy has a legal standing to take issue with us before our Judge. In such a case, if we find that we have sin in our hearts, 1 John 2:1 tells us, we have an advocate, an attorney who pleads our case for us: Jesus Christ, The Righteous who always lives to make intercession for us. If we repent from sins and cry out to Jesus for forgiveness, we have peace with God and the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin so that we can once again come boldly to the throne of grace and find help in time of need.
If, when examining our hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit, we find that we have kept faithfully to walk in obedience to the Spirit, then, in our legal system, the case becomes what is called a “frivolous lawsuit,” one intended to distract and use up our resources and attention in order to deplete us in an attempt to wear us out and keep us from being successful.
These kinds of earthly lawsuits can be demoralizing, because even if we know that, given a good Judge, we should ultimately win, the case will be so costly that it could bankrupt us.
In Jehoshaphat’s case, this was a class action lawsuit. It involved the entire nation being dispossessed.
We saw from Jonathan’s story that if we act in righteousness and boldly walk in the Lord’s victory, there will be a victory accomplished for us. But if we want not only victory for ourselves, for our families—if we want victory for our communities and our nation and our world, then there must be a turning back to God corporately by God’s people.
1 Peter 4:17 tells us that “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” If the enemy were to come against our nation, could we as believers, declare boldly to the Lord that His Church here in America has been faithful? Could we say with confidence that we have turned away from sin, that we have worshiped him above everything and that we have treated all alike with the love of Jesus Christ?

We must send the call out.

Here in America our land is under siege. Our children, our neighbors, our communities are being threatened. There is so much coming against our nation from the enemy that it is countless. A couple of weeks ago we talked about what we should be personally doing, in our own lives about spiritual battles.
I want to bring us to this corporate battle. It is the whole church of God around the world, in our nation, against the enemy who wants to dispossess us from being God’s people.
King Jehoshaphat called everyone: rich, poor, slave, free, men, women and children. There was no one who was not necessary to come seek the Lord together. Every, single person from every walk and class of life was essential and valuable in the commission.
God declares in 2 Chron 7:14 that: “If my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from heaven and heal their land.”
We, the people of God, must call all to humble repentance. We, the people of God, must call all to come to seek the Lord with us: small and great, men, women, children and families.
We do this by setting an example in front of them of holy, loving lifestyles and by repeatedly inviting and calling out to them to follow us as we follow Christ. At school, at work, in our neighborhoods, in our families: it’s not a private thing. It’s not enough to just go into our closets and work out our private, personal salvation. Yes, that is first. Yes, that it right. But if we want to see revival, if we care enough and love our neighbors enough, we will reach out to them to call them back to seek God.

We must humble ourselves in unity.

King Jehoshaphat calls all of Judah out to fast. This is a humbling thing. To fast and to present themselves in worship to the Lord makes a clear statement: God is over them as Judge and they are pleading for His mercy. They are not assuming that they are good enough to be heard for what they have done. They are throwing themselves at His feet in humble petition, and the King is the one leading this!
In a court, what happens if you do not show up to the case? You automatically lose your case. Whoever shows up and stays there for the duration can be heard out.
Fasting puts us in a vulnerable, weak state. It declares our subsistence, not on physical bread, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of our God, the Judge of all. When we fast, we deny our own appetites, our own desires, and fully focus every part of ourselves, spirit, soul and body, for a season so that nothing distracts us from waiting on God for His answer.
We don’t allow anything to prevent us from coming boldly to the throne room to petition our God. We don't allow our case to be thrown out by our failure to appear before the Judge.
Corporately, fasting together creates a unity of purpose that focuses our prayer powerfully and effectively.

Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord.
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

God answered with a musical prophet. These musicians, both men and women, the Bible tells us, would “prophesy” with their instruments and voices in corporate, temple worship (1 Chron 25:1). It is one of these musical prophets that God comes upon to give them their word from the Lord.
The wilderness of Yeruel is where God would fight this battle with them. Yeruel comes from the Hebrew word, “yara,” and means to be unified together and established based upon many, many small substances being brought together in unification. It has the idea of raindrops converging together to form one substance of a mighty body of water all focused in one direction together.

Yara-El: Founded by God in Unity.

Their corporate fasting and worship had created a unity among them that was powerful and effective before the throne and would soon lead them to a powerful victory through praise!

We must praise the beauty of God’s holiness--Rejoice!

And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.
So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:
“Praise the Lord,
For His mercy endures forever.”
Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.

A lot of times we think of worship as music and praise. While it really incorporates the entirety of ourselves as a living sacrifice walking in obedience to the Spirit, there is a huge element of worship including fasting, prayer, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord, both personally and corporately.
King Jehoshaphat did a noteworthy thing: He consulted with all the people. They helped to choose who would bravely go before them: those who were unafraid and courageously walking in faith by God's command. They put the musicians before the soldiers. These worshipping musicians must have walked in a mighty act of faith, voluntarily weaponless except for the Almighty God who went before them!
The word, “Rejoice” is built on the word for grace, for the favor that God gives a humble petitioner, already thanking and rejoicing that they know that they will be given what they need before they even ask. It is a huge act of faith and such an honor to God that His people would rejoice in His goodness to them in front of the world!
They rejoiced before they won as an act of faith because they fully believed that God’s promise was true. They rejoiced as if it had already happened.
Jehoshaphat knew that he could appeal to God in this way, because he understood God’s nature as a just and holy Judge. You see, Jehoshaphat’s name means: the Lord is Judge. He meditated in this concept of righteous judgment and trusted fully in His vindication of judgment from God alone.
Jehoshaphat knew personally the importance of a judge being just and holy in his judgments. If a judge was corrupt, then corruption would spread through the land.
Meeting together in the Valley of Tekoa, or the Valley of the Trumpet, they praised God for His holiness, high and loud, lifting up their voice and sounding out the proclamation —God is Holy! God is not a corruptible Judge. He cannot be bribed. He will not err in judgment. God will be faithful to His promise unwaveringly. He is both absolutely, stunningly holy and as well as abounding in love and mercy.
It is this kind of wholehearted, unified abandonment to praise that touches the heart of God.
In Ephesians we are told that the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God. We are told that after we have armed ourselves, having done all, to “Stand”, positioning ourselves, praising God for the mighty work He has already completed on our behalf.
We often get discouraged when we see the enemy mount up against us. We think it will only bring pain and at the most- at best- we will just survive it.
The reality is, that God is intending to use these things for our good. In Romans 8:28, Paul explains to us as believers that “God uses all things for the good of those who love him, who are called according to His purpose.” A good judge throws out any frivolous lawsuits and penalizes the offending party for wasting the court’s time and for trying to harm another person vindictively.
Even more, a good, just judge will also award compensation to those in the right—or as King Jehoshaphat told his judges, “the Lord will be with the good!”
Once again, we see God positioning Himself to fight for His people. It is His battle. He will cause our enemies to destroy themselves. You see, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Satan’s house never has unity, because he is the author of confusion, selfish ambition, jealousy, covetousness and dissension. His own house cannot stay united because true unity comes from God alone. All the enemy can do is create a semblance of fake unity—one focused on a common enemy, while they themselves are also one another’s enemies. In the end they will be routed by the unity of the Church.

We must gather and bless the Lord.

When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies, and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah until this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies. So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.

When we are victorious over our enemy, there are the spoils of war. In a large army camp, they would have had huge flocks of animals to feed the soldiers. They would carry with them other foods, oils, dried fruits, spices. These all carried a significant value. They would carry with them all kinds of jewels and gold and treasures that they had raided or brought from home. They would have massive amounts of weapons and armor and horses and chariots.
Sometimes we think that when the enemy mounts up his forces against us, it is really a lose-lose. Either way, even if we survive, there will be no benefit. We approach these battles with dread, wishing we were never required to go through them. But God intends these things to bring us greater blessing than we could ever imagine!
Jesus echoes this concept in Matthew 5:12: "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Instead of just surviving, the provision and blessing of God is multiplied for God’s people as a result of these battles.
The people of Judah gathered together in the Valley of Blessing to gather home all that God had just provided for them and to bless His Name together, gratefully acknowledging what God had overabundantly supplied for them.
When we are victorious in spiritual battle, there is provision for our communities. There is provision for our weapons and protection.
Most importantly, the slaves they would have brought as captives to serve them are set free.
If we want to see our communities set free, the Church must walk in love first to God, then in love and justice toward one another. We must send out the call and invite all to seek God in humility with us.
Finally, let’s rejoice together in the beauty of God’s holiness, because He will only render a good verdict for His people as the Judge of all the earth. Let’s praise the Lord as if God’s word is really true! Let’s walk in front, boldly marching ahead, confident in His holiness.

Bless His holy name!

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The Battle Belongs to God!

2/4/2024

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Have you ever felt hopeless?
Have you ever watched helplessly as a dear friend or child, or even your spouse walked into damaging choices, and felt like the enemy was simply too powerful and too strong?
  Have you ever watched as people around you start dividing, fighting, arguing and treating one another as enemies?
  Have you ever felt like you wanted to fight, but you're not sure who to fight, and you don't seem to have any effective weapons or skills?
Have you ever just felt like hiding in a hole, and waiting until it all blows over?
What do we do when we are faced with impossible odds, failing leadership, aching needs, horrible oppressions, and a fight that is being forced on us, whether we can handle it or not?
A number of years ago Jeff and I faced a business crisis. We had just completed our taxes, a project I look forward to with a bit of dread and procrastination, and we found that we owed a sum of money that we did not have saved up --$10,000. With our large family and many pressing needs, saving for an unknown amount throughout the year can be very difficult at times. We were concerned and looked through out Quickbooks to find any account still owing that we could see if they could pay sooner--but there was nothing. The days ran into one another continuously until April 15th was upon us, and still there was no money available. We had waited and prayed and waited again.
This is the story we have today. In 1 Samuel 13, Saul, the new king of Israel, was scared. As he sat there with his son Jonathan, he was pondering all that he had...and all that he didn't.
He had only three thousand men following him, and the people of Israel had been oppressed by the Philistines for many years. The Philistines would regularly raid Israel's villages, carrying of women and children as slaves and killing their men. Their enemy would take everything they had worked hard for, loved deeply, and fought like a drowning man to keep alive. Every time they would come up for air, they would be pushed back down.   They felt like they were struggling just to survive each day, waiting to hear news of another family member or friend who had been taken down by their relentless enemy.
In fact, the Philistines were shrewd about their oppression. They had gone through the land of Israel, killing all the blacksmiths who could create weapons. Year after year, in order to even have their harvesting tools sharpened, the men of Israel were forced to travel into the land of their enemies to have their tools sharpened—the enemy controlled their harvest, their defenses and their lives.
The oppression had carried on for so many years, that the people had lost the concept of freedom.

The men that were left, trembled.

And Saul, he had made the wrong choice. He had thought it made sense at the time. He had thought it would fix it. But it only made things much, much worse.
The prophet Samuel had told him to wait for him seven days, and Samuel would offer a sacrifice to the Lord asking for his help and deliverance. But as Saul had watched the men's confidence wane day after day, so had the men themselves. Saul had noticed fewer and fewer men in the camp, and his captains had reported that more of the men had gone into hiding—holes, thickets, pits, wells...anywhere to hang out until the Philistines went away.
  But the Philistines weren't going away. They had crowded day after day into the valley of Michmash until it seemed an impossible number---30,000 chariots, 6000 horsemen, and so many foot soldiers and people that it was like the sand on the seashore, way too many to count.
Their enemies started sending raiding parties, three groups of them, toward the Northeast, west and southeast. Saul knew it was intended to draw him and his men out, but there was no way he could stop them all.
So on the seventh Saul had made a decision. Samuel hadn't come yet, and there was a political crisis. He would offer the sacrifice himself.
But it backfired. Samuel had come up just as he had finished offering the sacrifice, and had told him that God would no longer establish his kingdom...that God would give his kingdom to a man after God's own heart, and that he, this nameless man, would be commanded by God to be a Commander over His people. And then he left.
Saul was frustrated. He looked around at the men who had watched his public humiliation, and saw the last vestiges of confidence evaporate from their eyes, leaving only a hopeless despair and terror. One by one, he watched them slip away from the camp. By the end of the day, there were only 600 men. 600 weaponless, defenseless, hopeless men.
Often in our lives our spiritual enemy, satan, seems to have us cornered. He attacks and pillages, he goes after our jobs, our income, our homes, our children, our marriages, our churches, our country, and our dreams. He steals and kills and destroys everywhere he goes. We often notice how attacks often seem to come against multiple sides at a time. Perhaps your kid is struggling with bitterness, at the same time as you are diagnosed with a health problem. Perhaps your boss has laid you off, and you find that your best friend betrayed you. Maybe your spouse has left you and you're in a losing custody battle.
Satan attacks our pastors and church leadership to take them out so that we won't know where to find our spiritual weapons, how to be trained to fight against him to protect our spirits and families from his constant and relentless attacks. He lies to us and convinces that his army is so vast, so numerous, so strong and so completely invincible that we haven't a hope.
He goes after our weapons. The Philistines had murdered the blacksmiths, those who were skilled at crafting the weapons. The Bible tells us that the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds, to make every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
What is our number one weapon? The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God! The enemy goes after our time in the Word. He convinces us that knowing God’s Word is not all that important. He interrupts our quiet time with the Lord, the time when we have space to listen to the voice of the Spirit. He convinces us that sports, tv, work, yard work—everything that demands our attention—is more important than investing in knowing God’s Word with our families. He does everything he can to take out those who would teach the Word of God, to discourage, to steal their time, their finances and their health. All because the Word of God is powerful. It is a mighty weapon that advances against his agenda and pushes back on the gates of hell.
Samuel seemed late. The enemy tries to point out that even God is late to this battle because God doesn't care and won't make time to help us.  We wait, and wait, and wait...and when we don’t see God coming, we panic.
We don't know what to do, so we try to fix it ourselves. Saul had an identity problem. His courage, morale and obedience to God's word would go up with the people's approval--and down with their disapproval. More than anything--more than God Himself, Saul wanted people to think well of him. To like him. To support him. And when he saw that they were scattering, he chose to directly disobey God to win back people's approval. The Apostle Paul addresses this in the New Testament, "Am I now," Paul asks, "trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ!" (Gal. 1:10). If we only do what it is right because other people will validate it, then when the time comes when it is crucial for our marriages, our families, our own spiritual relationship with God, we will sell out what is most important for what can never please God or give us victory over our enemy!
We don't know what to do, so we hide. We hide in our streaming movies, we hide in our video games, we hide in our alcohol, our drugs, our fleeting friendships or intimate relationships. We hide in our sports, jobs, ambitions and goals. We hide in a monumental list of tasks that we hope will make us feel like we are going somewhere good. We hide in the praise and popularity of people who don't even know the real us hurting inside. We do these things to distract ourselves from facing the enemies that are amassing.
But God sees us hiding. He knows our pain, he sees what the enemy is doing, and he hears our crying at night when we think nobody can see our break down.
And not only does God see, know and hear, but He also has a plan and people who will fully follow Him!

Now it happened one day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor, 'come, let us go over to the Philistines' garrison that is on the other side.' But he did not tell his father. And Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men. Abijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, was wearing an ephod. But the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. 1 Samuel 14:1-3

Now I want us to notice what it's saying in this passage. Prince Jonathan knows that his dad is not dealing with the situation. In fact, in our story, only Jonathan and Saul have weapons. They know God’s Word! They both have power to fight. But Saul sits still, apathetically refusing to use what God has given him to restore the kingdom of God to His people. Jonathan has seen the way his dad appealed to his own fleeting popularity and charisma with the people instead of to God, and the result of that disaster. And now his King Saul is just sitting. He has no plan, he has no defense, no attack, and no direction from God because he has lost favor. The priest he is using to gain insight and direction from God is from Priest Eli's house, whom God had already rejected due to the embraced violence and immorality in the priest's household. So the priest isn't hearing from God, and neither is Saul. So when Jonathan and his armorbearer sneak out, they are going without a plan, without public, family or royal approval.

But Jonathan sees the need and values his own life less than the protection of his people. He values his own reputation less than the reputation of God.

'Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of one was Bozez {slippery|, and the name of the other Seneh {Thorny| Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, 'Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us; For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.' v. 4-6

Jonathan and his armorbearer are facing this very deep and craggy ravine. On the other side is the Philistines' garrison. They have heavy armor and a sword and shield, and Jonathan is proposing to mountain climb. On one side, it was very slippery, and the other side hurtful. In order to get to the Philistines, they will have to be in pain, carry everything they have while perhaps painfully climbing down one side and risking a slippery fall up the other. There is nothing about this situation that speaks of human wisdom, experience or expertise.

But Jonathan's focus is not on the challenges and impossibilities, it is on the need and the great God who can fill it. You have to notice his wording here to his armorbearer—he doesn't say that God told him to do this. He doesn't say that God gave him this plan. He doesn't say that God has told him He would help him.

He just knows His God.

He knows how merciful and powerful God is. He knows that God's favor rests on the righteous. He knows God's deep compassion for those who are broken, hurting and oppressed. He knows that God is so vast and His power so unlimited that it makes absolutely no difference how much “help” God receives on our end, it is enough.  And he knows the inheritance that he had already received as a gift from God to God’s people. The land of promise was theirs already.
     So he says, “It may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.”
Is there a ravine in your life? Do you see an enemy stronghold, an impregnable fortress? Does the enemy taunt from across the chasm, “Look, this chasm is too deep, you are too clumsy, you aren't strong enough, you don't have the right equipment, you don't have enough people, you don't have enough experience, you don't have a plan, you haven't heard that God will help you this time!
If you cross that chasm, you can see that you risk falling. You can see that it will be painful. And you can clearly see that the enemy's fortress is indestructible to you.
But where is your focus? Is it on your failings? Is it on your weakness? When the enemy taunts his lies in your head, do you look at yourself and say, “yes, I'm puny. I'm weak. There's no way I can cross that chasm. There's no way I can have victory over that sin. It's too hard. It's too deep. I'm going back to my hole.”

Or is your focus on the strength and character of your God?

“So his armorbearer said to him, 'Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.' Then Jonathan said, 'Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we will show ourselves to them. If they say thus to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand still in our place and not go up to them. But if they say thus, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up. For the Lord has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign to us.” v. 7-10

So here's Jonathan's plan. Because he doesn't know if God's going to help them, he has decided that the best way for God to give him a sign that they will have victory is to go all the way to the bottom of the ravine, stand there, and make sure the Philistines can see them. They are losing the element of surprise. They are giving their enemy the hilltop advantage. Jonathan is basically turning their situation into the worst military move you can make and giving God the opportunity to gain as much glory as possible out of the situation. And if the Philistines respond with a desire to fight with their advantage, that's God's sign that He is going to give the Philistines into their hand.
   And while it seems that Jonathan is going into this without any promise at all, there is one promise that is hidden to us, but fully present with him. He walks with this promise. The whole meaning of his name is infused with this promise:

Jonathan. “The Lord has given.”

It is a statement of fact. Jonathan knew the inheritance that God had given him, and the Philistines had no right to be on their land. God had given them this inheritance, God had given the responsibility to His people to protect and guard it, and it was God’s job to establish His kingdom. Jonathan knew intimately and walked in his identity as a child of God, a Prince of Kingdom that could never be taken away or revoked. His kingship had been revoked by the actions of his father. But his place in the kingship of God could never be revoked.
Jonathan walked in faith positioning himself on the free gift of God already and irrevocably granted him.  The gift of God, the inheritance given to the people of God had nothing to do with their ability, strength, or worth in comparison to others. It had everything to do with God’s glory and love for all of mankind.

There is a free gift of God that has been given for you.

The Bible says that “while we yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It says that the consequences of our sin are eternal death and bondage to an evil and oppressive enemy, but that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When Jesus died on the cross, he set you free from the power of the enemy. The Bible says that if we repent and turn away from practicing sin, declare “with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved.”
It says that God showed His own love for us by giving us His very own son to rescue us from the power and bondage of sin and give us an indestructible and eternal inheritance in God's family forever!

When we walk in faith by positioning ourselves on the free gift of God in Christ, we can claim back the strongholds of sin and destruction in our lives.   “Sin no more has dominion over us.” (Rom. 6:14)

Not only that, but God has a plan for the world to see His glory, for our families, our workspaces, our communities and neighbors to see His glory and to come to the free gift of Christ!

Let's go back to our story and we what God does with a person who stands on God's character and inheritance:

“So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, 'Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden!.' Then the men of the garrison called to Jonathan and his armorbearer, and said 'Come up to us, and we will show you something!' Jonathan said to his armorbearer, 'Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel. And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armorbearer after him; and they fell before Jonathan. And as he came after him, his armorbearer killed them. That first slaughter which Jonathan and his armorbearer made was about twenty men within half an acre of land. And there was terror in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and the raiders also trembled; and the earth quaked, so that it was a very great trembling. Now the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and there was the multitude, melting away; and they went here and there. Then Saul said to the people who were with him, 'Now call the roll and see who has gone from us.' And when they had called the roll, surprisingly, Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there. And Saul said to Ahijah, 'Bring the ark of God here (for at that time the ark of God was with the children of Israel). Now it happened, while Saul talked to the priest, that the noise which was in the camp of the Philistines continued to increase; so Saul said to the priest, 'Withdraw your hand.' Then Saul and all the people who were with him assembled, and they went to the battle; and indeed every man's sword was against his neighbor, and there was very great confusion. Moreover the Hebrews (Israelites) who were with the Philistines before that time, who went up with them into the camp from the surrounding country, they also joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise all the men of Israel who had hidden in the mountains of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, they also followed hard after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day....” v. 11-23a

God gives Jonathan and his armor-bearer great strength to battle, and then sends an earthquake, terror and confusion to their enemies! No longer is it God's people who are trembling, it is their enemies.
All the terrified Israelites jump out of their hiding spots. All the Israelites who are in the Philistines' camps, whether traitors or captives, join in to fight on the Lord's side! Everyone can see that the battle has been decided.
And what about them being weaponless and unskilled in war? God has that covered too! He causes the enemy to use their own swords against one another in their great confusion and terror.

God doesn't need what you don't have—he wants you to give everything you've got.

The battle against our enemy is already decided. There is already victory that has been decided in your favor. God's Word tells us that we as believers in Christ have already been given everything that has to do with life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
We don't wrestle against flesh and blood---people aren't our enemies, the devil is. Evil is. Sin is. It says in 2 Cor 10:3, that though we walk in our bodies, the weapons that we fight with in this war aren't physical weapons. They aren't fighting words. They aren't manipulations.
They are spiritual weapons and armor---truth, salvation, the Word of God, prayer, the gospel, Jesus' righteousness. It says that these tools of our warfare are “mighty in God for the purpose of pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God by taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.”
The battle is to win our minds, thoughts, and hearts. It is to win the minds thoughts and hearts of our families, of our spouses, of our friends and neighbors.
When we were facing our business crisis, when we owed money we could never raise in time, God came in time. As the date approached, I felt in my spirit that we were to pay the money anyway. We wrote out our checks to the state and the IRS for $10,000, addressed and stamped them, and sent them in the mail, praying as we let them go into the blue, mail slot.
On April 15th, I walked to our post office and input the vintage combination lock into our slot, reached in and pulled out a check, written out to our company, for $10,000. It had never been in our accounts because it was a retention check---one that would be retained for an extra length of time, in our case, for a year. For whatever reason, it had not been entered into our books or billed out.
God is not slow concerning his promises, as some counter slowness, but He is patient toward us (2 Peter 3:9). If he seems to wait, wait for Him. If He seems absent, cry out to Him. Examine your heart, walk in obedient faithfulness! He will come. God always keeps His promises.

  What do we do when we are faced with impossible odds, failing leadership, aching needs, horrible oppressions, and a fight that is being forced on us, whether we can handle it or not?

We...
Know our God
Focus on the Size and Character of our God
Give Everything We Have
Position Ourselves on the Free Gift of Jesus Christ and our Inheritance with His people
Pull Down the Strongholds so We Can Walk in Freedom!

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The Power of Praise

The Battle Belongs to God!

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