They say that sometimes our greatest challenges in life are encountered after our greatest victories. Why? Because through victory we can set ourselves up with pride into thinking, “Oh man, I have this thing licked,” and then, boom! The enemy comes at you from a different direction. But it could ultimately be the very same battlefield that we’ve previously encountered, and this is what I want to point out.
In the last blog I mentioned, “Pas-dammim: the place, or dell, of bloodshed.” It was a wide-open battlefield. As in the case of Eleazar in the Chronicles’ account, we see that the Philistines are a very formidable force against Israel. So much so that all the men of Israel have fled. They’re nowhere in sight, and they’ve taken off in fear. But David and his warrior, Eleazar, position themselves in a barley field and take on the Philistine opposition. It is made clear that they route the Philistine army completely. They do so to the extent that when the other men of Israel came back, all they had to do was loot the dead bodies of the enemy. So as David and Eleazar took off, Eleazar accomplished this great feat.
Now going back to 2 Samuel 23:10 and looking at Eleazar, we want to learn from his example. The Bible says that Eleazar took his weapon in his hand. He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary. The Scriptures say that his hand “clave to his sword, and the Lord brought the great victory.” From this account we can understand that Eleazar took down the entire Philistine militia with just one weapon in his hand. What was the weapon? His trusty sword.
First comes the natural, and then comes the spiritual. What is your trusty weapon? What weapon are you putting your trust in while in the conflict of life? People may have a lot of different answers. They might say, “prayer.” Well, a lot of praying isn’t praying the Word, it’s simply bellyaching to God.
Somebody else may say, “Worship is your greatest weapon.” As much as I’m a worshiper and I love to do so, it’s not your greatest weapon. It is amazing that people will always point out Jehoshaphat, and then they’ll try to base a religion on that portion of Scripture. They’ll say, “God always puts the praisers out front.” No, He doesn’t always. I can point to several examples in battle where He didn’t. We like to take our pet little thing and base our Christianity upon it.
Quite often the reasoning is, “Well, God did it with Jehoshaphat, so He’ll do it with me.” With that thought process, I guess every time that we have a conflict in our life, we should run in a circle several times, shout, and blow horns. Hello! Don’t make a doctrine out of one example in Scripture. Don’t think that if it worked the first time that it will work every time. No, it won’t. There are many strategies that the Lord uses to accomplish victories in your life. You have to know what strategy to use and when to use it!
This was Joshua’s problem at Ai. There was sin in the camp, but Joshua also did something wrong. He went to battle before consulting the Lord and got whooped. The Bible says that after he was defeated, that’s when he consulted the Lord, and then the Lord gave him a different strategy. So when he employed the different strategy, the people of Joshua’s army accomplished the victory. If one strategy worked for someone in the Bible, don’t presume it will work for you.
We don’t always want to research the Word on our own, and we don’t always want to hear from God for ourselves, so we look at one little illustration and base our life upon it. Big mistake. I’m all for worship, but there’s only one weapon in the whole armor of God that the Lord has provided for me to use to accomplish victory over my adversary. That is the Sword of the Spirit. He didn’t say, “the sword of worship,” even as much as we like to worship. He didn’t say, “the sword of declaration,” unless you’re declaring the Word.
He did say, “and praying always,” so we are to pray according to the Ephesians’ discourse. But make no mistake about it; our greatest weapon is the Word. You can try to skirt, walk around it, or walk away from it, but the only weapon that God has placed in your hand in which you are to accomplish ultimate victory over the adversary is the Sword of the Spirit which Paul says IS the Word of God.
Eleazar was very accomplished with the sword. He was skilled and familiar with it. It was a weapon with which he wielded with tremendous confidence. He had no doubt fought many battles with that sword before this encounter. It had proven to be reliable. He took care of it himself, and he sharpened his own weapon. He kept it oiled and in battle-ready condition. I’m sure it was kind of like a modern-day soldier with his rifle. You have to know how to take that thing apart and put it back together blindfolded! You have to be very familiar with it and know your weapon.
Have you allowed the Word to prove itself reliable? Maybe you’ve tried every other means. But have you employed the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God? It is the offensive weapon, according to the Bible, that God has made available to every one of us as believers. Don’t depend on somebody else to take care of your weapon. What would happen if you were to lose it? Let’s say you go out to the field and one weapon comes up missing. What happens in that situation? Everybody around you is miserable! You’re miserable. Here’s the point. When we go into battle, we should not be concerned whether or not our weapon is going to work. We should wield it with complete confidence and assurance that it will do what it says!
~ PG
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