Going into battle hungry: A lesson

The Story:
Saul had never known such anxiety as he was feeling right now. Fresh in his mind were the events of his sin against God--how he had sacrificed the offering without the priest because of his impatience. More poignant in his mind was Samuel's pronunciation of doom on him. "You have done a foolish thing," he had said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, He would have established your kingdom of Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after His own heart and has appointed him ruler of His people, because you have not kept the LORD's command." Saul's regret was not over his sin, but over the fact that God would establish someone in his place. He vividly remembered the raids that the Philistines had brought against him and the Israelites in the time following his sinful action, until they had no swords left-only his son Jonathan and himself still carried a spear and swords. The fresh air under this pomegranate tree did nothing to encourage him, and his body guard of six-hundred men--including the priest's grandson--did little to give him a sense of security. He knew he was at the mercy of the Philistines. That was why he had commanded all of the Israelites to fast until he had avenged himself on his enemies. Perhaps if they fasted, God would have mercy and save him from his enemies.

Saul's heart lept in fear as footsteps pounded on the dusty path.
"The lookouts come, your majesty!" the surrounding men cried out to him. He could sense the uncertainty in their voices, too. The seconds that passed were long as he awaited the news. Was it good, or bad? He could only imagine the worst. The situation seemed so hopeless, yet he couldn't help but harbor some hope in his heart.

The lookouts came up, panting with excitement. The excitement translated into their voices as they told how the Philistines seemed to be in a panic, an unprecedented confusion so vast that it shook the ground. Their only explanation was perhaps some of the Israelite soldiers had secretly led an attack. "Muster the forces and see who has left us," they cried.
Saul sent a messenger at top speed to rally the troops. It wasn't long before they were gathered and accounted for. Jonathan! Jonathan was the one missing--and so was his armor-bearer!
Saul turned to Ahijah, the grandson of Eli the high priest.
"Bring the ark of God," he ordered. He would not be going into battle without it. But even as he was talking, the confusion of the Philistine camp became greater. "Withdraw your hand," he said instead. It was too great an opportunity. Then he assembled the troops who already showed hope and excitement, and ordered them to advance on the Philistines.

As they charged upon their adversaries they found the Philistines fighting each other in their utter confusion. It was too good to be true! As time went on, Israelites who had deserted the army began to appear and join their brothers in the battle, making their force greater. They pursued the Philistines who fled before them, exhilaration pulsing through the veins of every man as he wielded his weapon in defense of his wives and children. They steadily gained ground and began to enter the woods in their pursuit. The day was half gone by the time they traversed those woods, and the stomachs of the men were feeling their oath to Saul. Jonathan, Saul's son was in the heat of the battle. His excursion with his armor bearer this morning had used some of his energy and he began to feel the effects. Suddenly a man ahead of him stumbled. The man quickly picked himself up and looked back to see what had caused him to fall. A beehive! A large, fallen beehive! The hunger that tore at that man's stomach was almost unbearable. The honey that oozed from the comb nearly melted his tastebuds and other soldiers began to pause and look hungrily at that golden sweetness. They would have immediately pounced on it, but for the fact that they could hear fresh in their minds the oath they had taken to not eat anything until sundown. They knew the consequences of breaking an oath.  Jonathan ran up and paused to see what interested them. He saw the beehive and cried out in joy as he quickly approached it. Sticking the end of his staff hungrily into the comb, he brought it to his mouth and ate. The honey satisfied and refreshed him immediately--he could feel his energy returning with haste. As he ate, however, the men cried out in fear.
"No, Jonathan!" they cried. "Your father bound the army under a strict oath, saying, 'Cursed be anyone who eats food today!' That is why the men are faint."

Indignation filled Jonathan's heart. He had been away when his father had ordered the men to take the oath, and had not known about it. "My father has made trouble for the country," he said. "See how my eyes brightened when I tasted a little of this honey. How much better it would have been if the men had eaten today some of the plunder they took from their enemies. Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?"

But men from other sections of the army were passing them in hot pursuit of enemy men, and they joined in again. Jonathan was much revived and ran and wielded his sword and spear with greater energy and efficiency than before, but the lack of food was telling on his fellow soldiers. After they had pursued the Philistines from Mikmash to Ahijalon, the men were exhausted. They fell upon the Philistine camp and slaughtered animals right there, eating raw meat because of their ravenous hunger.

Someone came up to Saul. "Look, the men are sinning against the LORD by eating meat that has blood in it!" the man said.

Remembering his former sin that had cost him dearly, Saul would not take the risk of angering the LORD God again. Perhaps he could even appease God now.
"You have broken faith," he said to the man who had spoken. "Roll a large stone over here at once." The stone was rolled to him, and then he said, "Go out among the men and tell them, 'Each of you bring me your cattle and sheep, and slaughter them here and eat them. Do not sin against the LORD by eating meat with blood still in it.'"

So everyone brought their ox that night and slaughtered it there. Then Saul built an altar to the LORD; it was the first time he had done this.

*******

So. In this true story, Saul, king of Israel had commanded his Israelite men not to eat until sundown, because he wanted victory over his enemies. I don't know for sure if he was asking his men to fast before God so that God would perhaps have mercy on him, or if Saul wanted them to fast to show dedication and loyalty. Either way, they took an oath that they would not eat until sundown. First of all, is this a very good idea? If Saul wants victory over his enemies, is it a positive thing to not eat anything before the intense exercise that will ensue? As we see, this is NOT a good idea! Jonathan, who had not been there when his father made the men swear, regained his energy because he ate, and had more success than his fellow soldiers.

The Sin:
This was a wrong thing for Saul to do, for three reasons. First, he was making the men suffer for his sin. It was his sin in the first place, his sin of sacrificing the offering without priest Samuel merely because he was impatient and thought he could do it (guys, God is holy. Only the consecrated priests were supposed to sacrifice the offerings on behalf of the people), that had caused God to remove His blessing from Saul--which included in a large part, God's blessing over battles. When God's blessing was over an Israelite battle, I don't think there is one instance where they weren't successful. By making the men fast, Saul was either trying to win back God's approval, or secure his success by enforcing loyalty and dedication.
The second reason, is that the Philistines weren't just Saul's enemies. They were God's enemies, too, because of their sin. By making the Israelite soldiers fast, Saul's men weren't able to destroy the enemies of, not only their king, but God, as fully as they should have. You saw it in Jonathan's words, "How much better it would have been if the men had eaten today some of the plunder they took from their enemies. Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?"
The third reason Saul was wrong to make the men go without food, was that he caused them to sin before God. God had commanded them not to eat meat with the blood still in it--we can find this in His covenant with Noah, in Genesis 9:4, as well as in Deuteronomy 12:16.  Yet the Israelite soldiers, because of the oath Saul had commanded them to take, were ravenous with hunger to the end that they sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, by killing Philistine livestock and eating the meat with the blood still in it.

The Lesson:
What can we learn from this historical event? Let's apply the story to our own lives. We ALL have battles, don't we? For Christians it may be the battle against our flesh, or it may be the battle of a trial, physical or spiritual. We see in this story that the men who went into battle hungry, didn't have nearly so much success as they could have. Their energy failed them, they weren't fit to fight, they weren't prepared to fight their battle with the greatest level of success.  You know where I'm going with this, don't you? Do you, as a Christian, ever go into a battle hungry? Do you ever encounter spiritual conflict, when your spiritual belly is empty? When your plate of spiritual meat and potatoes still sits untouched on your bookshelf? Yes! I have. When you go through that battle, do you find it a struggle to keep your head above water? It's kind of difficult to be eating in preparation for the battle, while you are fighting the battle, no? Don't you always realize that you really should be 'doing your homework' before the test? You would be so much more ready and equipped to fight this battle, right? 

So, here is our lesson for today: Don't go into battle hungry. Be eating the spiritual food of God's word before the battle He takes you through, so that you will be prepared, and be equipped to wield your sword with energy and success. That doesn't mean you don't eat during your battle. You can see how Jonathan stopped to eat honey in the middle of the battle and it reenergized him for the rest of it. We don't eat and eat and eat, and then stop for a few weeks at a time, and then do it again. We eat, and we need to eat, consistently in order to, not only get strength, but keep up our strength. So please, let us not starve ourselves until we find it too late, and we are in the midst of a battle on an empty stomach. Let us together, feed ourselves consistently on God's word and prayer, so that we might have greater success for His glory in our battles!

Congratulations if you made it all the way through this post! Do you have any thoughts on this subject? Did you like the semi-retelling of 1 Samuel 14? Let me know in the comments below <3

I hope you have a great week!
Jewels <3

*The story section of this post is a re-telling, or dramatization, of the Biblical event found in 1 Samuel 14. As a human author, I am subject to error, although God's word is inerrant.*

Memorial Day

Hello everyone!
This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but, as usual, I'm late for everything :)

Recently I watched a documentary, chronicling the journey of a man who visited a missionary, and traveled with him around Albania, Montenegro, and Kosovo. Many of the villages they visited were war torn, desolate, lots of depression and darkness surrounding them, places where violence is not uncommon. There was one village where every single man and boy living there were taken and shot all at the same time. Every man and boy died that day and were buried where they lay, in mass graves. What devastation! 
They went to villages that had been bombed and every single building damaged in some way. The village was just getting back on it's feet and some of the buildings still destroyed from the bombings. 

They went and visited Gypsies, who lived on the outskirts of town and were forsaken, looked down upon and lived in makeshift tents. 
They visited many villages where there was not one believer living there. Places where there was constant unrest, where believers had to meet quietly and secretly and be baptized in the same way, because false rumors about the Christian faith had spread and the lives of the believers were in jeopardy. 

I can't imagine what it would be like to live places like these! I can't imagine living in a place where I had to fear for my life because I was a Christian, or because of the unrest between various parts of the country, or because it's not uncommon for a person to be shot on the side of the road. I can't imagine living in a place where every man and boy had been lined up and horrifically murdered in one day, with the fear of what if it happens again. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a place where I had to gather in secret to worship God or to be baptized, because my life and that of my fellow believers would be in danger if we didn't. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a place where, if I spoke out of Jesus Christ, I could be killed or rejected and abandoned by family and friends alike. 

Do I fully realize what if means to have the kind of freedom I have? No. I don't. And that is why we need days like Memorial Day, where we specifically remember and meditate on the great gift of freedom that we have. To remember, and not forget, those who have lived and died to give us our freedom, and to preserve it. The blood of many a brave soldier has stained our ground, the bodies of many brave soldiers buried beneath our soil, the tears of many a torn family soaking our earth. All to give us leisure, security, freedom. No, folks, freedom is not free. We must never forget that. But we do. We do so easily. Tomorrow, we probably will forget what today has been all about. If not tomorrow, surely next week will it make no difference. Why are we such ignorant, ungrateful, prideful people? We really are. 

We have a duty to preserve and protect our freedom. If a gift is given us that was purchased at so great a price, it would be shameful of us to take it for granted, throw it away, and not keep and preserve it. When the lives of so many have been given on our behalf, to give us what we enjoy, it is shameful of us to not preserve, keep, guard, find great value in and be grateful for the gift we have been given, is it not?

There is another memorial today. It is a memorial, a remembrance of One who sacrificed His life to give us as believers in Christ, ultimate freedom. Freedom from our bondage to sin and death. This One who gave His life on our behalf, is Jesus Christ. But this memorial is a little bit different. Because Jesus didn't stay dead, He did more than that. He rose from the dead, triumphing over death.
But just as we have an obligation to give thanks to and for all those who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom, and an obligation to preserve and keep that freedom, so we have an obligation to Christ, to give Him praise, honor and glory, and to live our lives according to the freedom that He has given us as believers. Freedom in this sense doesn't mean that we are free to think say and do as we please. This freedom is from our slavery to sin. 

Before salvation, we, in a sense, had an obligation to sin. We were bound to sin and governed, controlled and characterized by it. In a way, we couldn't help it. We could not be good and righteous on our own. Sin is ingrained in us. But, the difference is, we served it willingly. We were happy to be enslaved to it. We are naturally rebellious people. We willingly rebelled against God and His design and character.  

But, in Jesus' death, we have been forgiven of our debt, freed from it, freed from our bondage to sin and death, and now we have a spiritual freedom to live for Christ. That is the key--to live for Christ.  If you have accepted God's gift of freedom, you have an obligation, in a sense, to live for Him. It would be shameful for you and I to throw that gift out the window. Same with the freedom we enjoy in America, it was bought with the blood and life of another, therefore, it should be extremely valuable to us, and we should not live in ignorance of it. We have an obligation to live up to it, to enjoy it at it's fullest potential, to preserve and keep it. We need to live with our lives characterized by the freedom God has given us, characterized by the Holy Spirit that He has given to us to guide us and empower us to live for Him.  If we are truly saved, we need to live a life that gives evidence of that spiritual freedom.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all those who have served, and are still serving our country.  I don't think any of us, except those who have actually been a part of the battle for freedom, really know how expensive our freedom is, and the great sacrifice that has been, and continues to be made, to purchase and preserve it, the grief that the families of those who have given their lives on our behalf, have experienced, or what Veterans have and do experience, physically and emotionally, and I'm sorry that we have not been more grateful and respectful of the price that was paid for our freedom. May God forgive us for our ignorance and arrogance, for taking for granted and so easily forgetting the sacrifices that were given on our behalf, to purchase this great freedom we enjoy.
                                                                                                                                                                   
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own     inheritance." ~Psalm 33:12                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." ~1 John 3:16                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
 Blessings in Christ,                                                                                                                                  
 Julia <3                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

*The photos in this post are mine; please do not use without permission*

Passover, Jesus' death, and Resurrection Sunday

Greetings!

Recently I was listening to a sermon about the Passover.  In the sermon, the pastor talked about the first Passover, the one where God had been sending plagues to the Egyptians because for 400 years they had enslaved the the Israelite's, God's people, and refused to release them at His command. The last of these plagues was one where all the firstborn in the land, man or beast would die. But God provided a protection from His wrath for the Israelite's. He told them to take a spotless lamb, kill it, take a hyssop branch and, using it, apply the blood of the lamb to their doorpost. They were to roast and eat the lamb, at the same time being prepared for traveling because God knew and had warned them that the Egyptian Pharaoh would set them free after this plague and they needed to be ready.  

When the angel of death passed through the land, the angel would see the blood that had been applied to the doorpost of each Jewish house and those under the roof of that house would be spared. This, the Israelites did, and were spared the effects of the plague. At midnight, the angel of death swept through the land killing all the firstborn of every male, man and beast. When Pharaoh discovered that his firstborn son was dead, he called Moses and Aaron, the ambassadors of the Israelite's, and commanded them to take the children of Israel and leave. 

It was with great rejoicing that the Israelite's left Egypt and their slavery behind, and thus began their great journey.  God commanded that the Passover was to be kept every year in remembrance of how He had passed over them, spared them from the plague of death. The way they were to celebrate this event was by taking a lamb, killing it, and eating it as they did that night--without breaking any of it's bones, God commands in Exodus 12:46, which interestingly reminds me of the prophecy in Psalm 34:20 and the fulfillment of that prophecy in John 19:33 and :36. (These events are found in Exodus 11-12)

Anyway, fast forward about 2000 years and you come to the death of Christ. As you probably know, Jesus Christ died at the time of celebrating the Passover. In the sermon I was listening to, the pastor was talking about what Jesus must have been feeling during that time. He said that at that time, around 2.5-3 million people would be gathering in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. According to Bible regulations, there was to be one spotless lamb sacrificed for every 10 people. You're talking some 250,000 lambs being slaughtered. Each lamb probably contained more than a gallon of blood. The way it would happen is the lamb would be sacrificed, and the blood would be taken and poured at the base of the altar. Now, with more than a gallon of blood per lamb, and 250,000 lambs or more being slaughtered, where would all that blood go? Well, there was a little conduit from the base of the altar that led down to the brook Kidron. The blood drained through this, flowing into the water.

This brook lay in the Kidron valley which separated the Temple mount, from the Mount of Olives. The Garden of Gethsemane was at the base of the Mount of Olives. So as our Lord passed through on His way to the Garden of Gethsemane in the night that He was betrayed, He passed over a river of blood made from the blood of over 100,000 sacrificial lambs (they celebrated the Passover on two days--one day for the Judeans, and one day for the Galileans, so half the lambs were sacrificed on each day). What a picture that must have been to Him to have been probably at the temple, watching all these lambs being sacrificed and then passing over this river of blood, knowing that they all were a picture of what He was about to do; how He was to, very soon, become the ultimate sacrificial Lamb and His own blood was to be spilled at the cross of Calvary. 

The Bible tells us that in the Garden of Gethsemane He was so emotional that He began to sweat blood (Luke 22:44). He suffered such emotional strain at what was about to happen to Him, that He began to sweat blood. He then was arrested and taken through six trials-three Jewish, three Roman (John 18:12-14, Matt. 26:57, Matt. 27:1, Matt. 27:2, Luke 23:6-12, Matt. 27:15-26). Imagine the stress! All His disciples having abandoned Him, being interrogated by these leaders, having false witnesses being brought in to try to accuse Him of something, anything that He did wrong, being mocked, spit upon and hit, and very likely not being able to sleep at all. He then is taken and scourged, brought to a hall, a purple robe being placed upon Him, a reed in His hand and a crown of thorns upon His head, and He is mocked, spit upon and hit some more (John 18:19-23, Matt. 26:59-68, Luke 23:6-12, Matt. 27:24-31).

After that, He is made to carry His cross-piece along a road and the fact that along the way a man named Simon was recruited to help Him carry it, shows that He was probably very weak at that point (Matt. 27:32). He is taken a place called Calvary, or Golgotha which means the place of the Skull, nailed to the cross and tortured. Death by crucifixion was supposed to be a shameful, slow and painful death, and the victim usually died from exposure or exhaustion. Sometimes it even took up to a week for a victim to die. The Romans were experts at this. So there Jesus hung, with the accusation title of 'King of the Jews' hung above His head (Matt. 27:37).

The people came to mock Him and happily watch His suffering (Matt. 27:39-43)--and remember that this was the Passover. In the middle of the celebration of this feast, these people are coming to joyfully watch and take part in the sufferings of another person. This shows the pure wickedness and evil in the hearts of man. The Bible says that even the robbers whom He was crucified with mocked Him (Matt. 27: 44). Now, in crucifixion, breathing was hard and painful. Yet these robbers are using their breath, to mock Jesus Christ. Again, what wickedness and evil in the hearts of man! 

After Jesus suffers this painful agony, mentally, emotionally, physically, even experiencing the desertion of God the Father, He cries, "It is finished!" (I love those words) and takes His last breath (John 19:30)

In the sermon  I was listening to, the pastor only went to the part of what Jesus might have been thinking as He passed the brook Kidron, but as I was sitting there listening, I thought, what a depressing story! Imagine the darkness, pain, loneliness, agony, stress and grief! Imagine how He must have dreaded the coming events--So bad that He even sweat blood. And it struck me, why is this holiday that is coming up so joyous? I honestly, in that split second, forgot about the ending of story. Why is this upcoming holiday such a joyous thing?  

And then I remembered. Because He didn't stay dead. He didn't stop there. He rose again. He rose from the grave. The grave could not keep it's prey, death could not keep it's grip upon Him, He rose again. This wasn't just a spiritual rising. It was physical, but in a new way. He could go through doors and walls, but He ate, and talked and His disciples could feel Him--He was not just an apparition (Luke 24:36-43).
Christ is risen indeed. This is why we can have true peace. Because death has been conquered. Sin has been defeated. So no matter what happens in this life, it doesn't matter--Jesus Christ is risen! If we are a believer, we have forgiveness of sins, we are cloaked in Christ's righteousness, and we will live forever with Him in Heaven--if life brings troubles and things don't go our way, what matter? We have been forgiven. We are made new. We will be with Jesus. It is finished. This is why we celebrate Resurrection Sunday with such rejoicing.  

And the glory of it is, when a sinner, by God's grace, sees that he is guilty of sin, sees that he is in rebellion towards a just God, has broken God's law, the punishment of which is death (Rom 6:23) and falls on his knees--physically or not--in repentance, God looks on him, sees His only Son, Jesus Christ, suffering in agony on the cross of Calvary, bearing the weight of the sin of the world--past, present and future--upon His shoulders, the blood of the ultimate sacrificial Lamb pouring from His hands, His feet, His side, and He is satisfied.  It is enough. The demands for forgiveness, cleansing of sin have been met, and He is satisfied (Isaiah 53). Amazing, isn't it? 

Notice also, the parallel in the observing of the Passover that I wrote about in the beginning of this post.   The wrath of God has been announced, He is coming to bring judgement in the land of Egypt. But He makes a provision so that the Hebrews wouldn't have to suffer and experience His wrath, that is the blood of a lamb. Translated to now, the wrath of God has been announced. He is coming to bring judgement on the world. But He has made a provision for us, so that if, by faith, we accept His provision, we won't have to suffer and experience His wrath; that is the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Those who applied the blood of a lamb to the doorpost of their homes, were spared the wrath of God. In the same way, those who apply the blood of the Lamb to the doorpost of their hearts, are spared the wrath of God. I sincerely hope that you have already accepted His provision and applied to your heart the blood of the spotless, blameless, ultimate sacrificial Lamb that was sacrificed for you.

"He has made Him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God in Him. "~2 Corinthians 5:21

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." ~1 Peter1:3

"Greater love has no than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends." ~John 15:13

Blessings,
Julia <3
*Pictures one, two and four from the top are mine; please do not use without permission.*

Christmas Truce

Hello friends!

This is a video our pastor showed us at our monthly youth group meeting. You may have already heard about it, (I hadn't); it is a British Chocolate commercial based off of a truce made on Christmas during World War 1.   It is very good and I encourage you to take 4 minutes and watch it. 

I think this video portrays well the humanness of the soldiers fighting in war. It seems like we often think of wars like that in massive numbers, and sometimes don't remember that each soldier was an actual human being that had feelings and courage and family and a desire for peace, maybe a longing just to have fun and a good time. 

It is amazing to me that these men could go back to fighting each other after this. But it's also amazing and encouraging to see that even in the midst of such horific pain and sorrow and tragedy, God can give moments of peace and love and joy like this. 

 Isn't that what He did in coming to this wretched earth as a human, to live and die among us; to rise again, three days after His death, conquering sin and defeating death, giving us wretched, sinful humans hope and forgiveness and and the joy of being at peace with Him? He came, a beacon of light and hope in the midst of a dark, miserable, sinful world. Now He is changing us, little by little into His perfect, beautiful Image. Again, the light of His character in us in the midst of our dark and miserable and wretched sinful nature. 

The following verse is about the birth of Christ:

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." ~Isaiah 9:2

I hope you enjoy(ed) this video! :)

Blessings,

Julia<3