Man was made to be a warrior. Sadly, for thousands of years, many have refused. John mentions Israel's refusal to take the Promised Land after the spies bring back the report of giants and walled cities. They have seen God work wonders as He brought them out of Egypt, led them through the Red Sea, and then provided for them in the desert, but when the time comes to grab hold of His promise, they shrink from the call, and refuse to play their part.
"Their decision not to fight is what led to their wandering in the wilderness for forty years. We often cite that part of the story, talking about our own wilderness experiences, embracing the wilderness saga as if it were inevitable. No, that is not the lesson at all. We have forgotten it was avoidable. The reason they took the lamentable detour into the wilderness was because they would not fight. To be more precise, the wilderness was a punishment, the consequence of refusing to trust God, and fight."
Writing that makes me wonder about my current circumstances. Am I where I am because I've failed to fight for something? Am I stuck here because there is a battle I'm refusing to fight? Am I failing, or refusing, to be the warrior?
The reaction of Israel is one that we can see time and time again. Yes, war is a terrible thing, but hating it and saying we shouldn't get involved in one doesn't change the reality that it is out there. And yet that is what we try to do time and again. "What is it in human nature that just won't face the reality of war?" I remember a message a friend of mine gave a little over a year ago from Luke 14. He ended with verses 31 and 32, "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace." After the service we talked and I pointed out that the king has only two options, fight or negotiate for peace, because the war is coming to him. And by the way, there is no shame in negotiating for peace, it takes the strength of a warrior to be able to do that as well.
"We live in a world at war. We are supposed to fight back. It is apparently a difficult reality to embrace, as witnessed by the passivity that marks much of modern Christianity. We just want the Christian life to be all about the sweet love of Jesus. But that is not what's going on here. You may not like the situation, but that only makes it unattractive - it does not make it untrue."
We live in a world at war, and when we do fail it is due to passivity. Since the beginning that has been the case, and it is passivity that got us into this whole mess to begin with. Eve was deceived by the serpent, and then as we see in Genesis 3.6, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate." Adam was right there watching, and he failed to play the warrior.
"Adam doesn’t engage, doesn't intervene, doesn't do a damn thing. He is created to act, endowed with the image of a mighty God who acts and intervenes dramatically. Adam did not, and whatever else got passed on to us men from the first man, we know that paralysis - another word for passivity - is certainly one of them... It is essential that a man overcome this inherent passivity, this paralysis we got from Adam that lies deep in our bones. To be a man we must, with the help of God, overcome it intentionally, repeatedly, on front after front across the season of our lives."
There is part of us that wants to take the easy way, that wants to run and hide. But that's also the part that makes us sick to our stomachs. It’s because deep down we know we were made to stand and fight. We know deep down that if something good is going to be protected we're the ones who have to fight for it. We know deep down that if evil wants to advance it has to do it over our dead bodies.
"The assumption is that whatever else a man might be, he ought to be a fighter. I noticed this assumption in the rosters of the tribes of Israel as they came out of Egypt. The families and clans are arranged and numbered as fighting men (Num. 1). And remember - these are not trained soldiers, but runaway slaves. I doubt any of them had held a weapon in his life, yet it is assumed that if he's a man, he's a fighting man. Given who and what he is, Scripture assumes that a man acts, a man intervenes. Passivity has no place in the lexicon of true masculinity. None. And to overcome passivity, God has set his warrior heart in every man."
In my book next to that paragraph I have a verse reference written, 1 Corinthians 16.13-14. "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love." You might have seen it in the quotes section to the left. We are to act like men and be strong. We are to stand firm and alert, never letting evil advance. That is the role a man is created for. And there is the reminder that everything we do is to be done in love. Jesus said that the greatest love anyone can show is to lay down his life for his friends (John 15.13). It takes a warrior to do that. Every man dies, but not every man lays his life down.
God created us to be warriors who act, and He has given us His warrior heart. "Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it." You were made to be a warrior. "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong."
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
To God alone be the Glory!
Strength and Honor
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