Winning the Spiritual War
By Randy L. Steele
There was a story about three big burly bikers who pulled off the side of the road, got off their motorcycles and walked into a diner. They saw a skinny little man sitting at the counter quietly eating his lunch. The burley bikers just couldn't help themselves, so they walked over and began to taunt the little man and took his food away from him. The little man got up, went over to the cashier, paid for his meal and, without a word, walked out of the diner.Joshua 11:6-8 Laughing and chortling to each other, the bikers said to the waitress, "Boy, he wasn't much of a man, was he?" The waitress said, "No, I guess he wasn't." Looking out the window, she continued, "He must not be much of a truck driver either. He just ran his tractor trailer over three motorcycles."
We are like that manin the first part of the story. We don't particularly like conflicts. There are some people, I suppose, who enjoy a good fight. But most of us prefer to avoid it. And that's scriptural. The Bible says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men" (Rom. 12:18).
Inevitable. The Bible also teaches, however, that once we become born again, we are engaged in a spiritual conflict. From the moment of our spiritual rebirth, we are thrust into the spiritual warfare that exists between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.
Because we don't like conflicts, we tend to respond to spiritual warfare in much the same ways as we do
to earthly conflicts. Thus, some of us try to avoid it, which of course is impossible to the true child of God. Others seek to defuse it, but it can only be accomplished through spiritual compromise. Still others refuse to fight and that involves irresponsibility and disobedience.Perseverance. Instead of these responses, God expects us to fight our enemies in this spiritual battle. In the early chapters of Joshua, for example, we find Israel coming into the land of Canaan, seeking to become everything that God has for them to be by covenant right. But that covenant right wasn't waiting for them on a silver platter. They had to take it. They had to possess it. They had to fight for it.
In the same way yet in a spiritual sense, you and I have embarked upon possessing our possessionsthat is, becoming everything God has for us to be by covenant right in Jesus Christ. If we are to grow up in the things of Christ, we can't just sit back and let it happen, for it won't. We have to go after it. We have to seize it. We have to fight to become like Christ.
In Joshua 11:6-8, God shows us why we can expect to win in this spiritual war.
1. God is the One to fear
First of all, God wants us to be courageous. Verse 6 begins: "Then the Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid because of them'" God is referring to the northern alliance of kings that have set themselves up against God's people.Fear can be a tremendous crippler. This is illustrated in Numbers 13. Two years after they have left Egypt, Israel has come to the brink of the promised land. They send out twelve spies to look the place over, and the spies come back and give their reports. Joshua and a man named Caleb step up and say, "Let's go and possess the land, but the other ten say, "We can't take it. It's full of giants, and the cities are fortified. There are too many of them." They so fear the enemies that they forget the promise of God. As a result, God causes the whole generation to perish in the wilderness.
Fear can be a tremendous crippler, but it can also be a tremendous enabler. It depends on what you are afraid of. If you fear God, that fear will enable you to move forward in the fight. Jesus underscores this very theme in Matthew 10:28: "Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
Source of courage. In Exodus 1, we read that the king of Egypt, threatened by the multiplying number of Israelites, tells the midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill all Israeli boys at birth. Though the Pharaoh of Egypt is the most powerful man in the known world of that day, Shiphrah and Puah disobey him and let the Israeli boys live. Do you know why? Verse 17 says that it was because they feared the Lord. The fear of God, you see, can help us greatly in overcoming the fear of man.
Why is it that you and I don't share the gospel message of Jesus Christ more than we do with those around us? Why is it that we do not live out of faith as much as we do?
Why is it that we do not speak out for righteousness in a dying culture any more than we do? Is it because we fear man more than we fear God? If so, remember what God says here in verse 6: "Do not be afraid because of them"2. God fights our battles
Verse 6 continues, "for tomorrow at this time I will deliver all of them slain before Israel." We don't have to be afraid of our spiritual foes because it is God Himself who will step up and fight for us.To have the Living God fighting on our behalf is of inestimable value, is it not? It's a tremendous encouragement and hope. Be glad that we serve the God of the Bible. Be glad that you are not engaged in a spiritual battle serving the god of the deists.
Supposedly, the deistic god is one who creates all things that exist, puts it all together, establishes the laws of nature and then stands back and watches it run down.
True story. I have a friend who for many years was a pilot. He loves to tell the story of the time he, flying across country, had to put down at a small regional airport in Mississippi to fuel up. He radioed the airport for instructions for landing, and a lady's voice came over the airwaves telling him to set down on runway 29. Just a bit after that, another plane came in and asked for landing instructions and she told that plane to put down on runway 11. My friend was familiar with that airport and knew that runways 29 and 11 are the opposite ends of the same runway!
So he immediately jumped on the microphone and screamed, "Lady, what are you doing? You have two planes coming in and landing at opposite ends of the same runway! What do you want us to do?" There was silence for a moment, then she came back on the radio with her best Mississippi drawl and said, "Well, ya'll be careful now, ya hear?!"
If you served a god of deism in spiritual warfare, the best he would do for you is stand back and say, "Ya'll be careful now."
Thankfully, we do not serve the god of deism; we serve the one and only true Living God. When we are facing the pain of living in a fallen world, therefore, it's encouraging to know that God is actively fighting on our behalf. When there is spiritual ground that we need to possess in this life, it's wonderful to know that God Himself is helping us to take it.
3. God is all-sufficient
Verse 6 ends with this instruction to Joshua: "You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire." Here, God is telling Joshua what to do when the battle is won. (To hamstring a horse is to cut the hamstring muscle that is to the back of each leg so that the horse will not be able to run with the speed nor pull with the strength that it had before.)God is teaching us here that in our spiritual warfare, we need to destroy the spoils of the world. There are two basic reasons for that, I think: (1) He wants to impress upon us that He is more powerful than any earthly resource that you and I can have. (2) He wants to remove from us the temptation to rely on worldly resources. Christ Himself is all we need in life and in battle.
This theme, which runs through the scriptures, is first established in Exodus 14. Just when it looked as though the Israelites were hopelessly trapped by the enemy, God enabled
them to cross the Red Sea on dry ground. And after they have done so, God closed the sea up over the Egyptians, drowning all their horses and chariots. Hence, the very first verse of the Song of Moses recorded in Exodus 15 talks about God hurling the Egyptian horses and their riders into the sea.God established this issue in truth for Israel, you see, at the very beginning of the nation: You don't need horses and chariots; all you need is Me.
Likewise, David writes in Psalm 20:7, "Some boast in chariots, and some in horses; but we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God."
And in Isaiah 31:1, God says: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord".
Even in our own day, beloved, our experience bears out the truth of God's word. In all of life, in every aspect of our existence, we ultimately need nothing except God and Jesus Christ.
4. God keeps His promises
Going back to Joshua 11, we read in verse 7, "So Joshua and all the people of war with him came upon them (the enemies) suddenly by the waters of Merom, and attacked them." In other words, they followed God's instructions and went ahead to engage the enemies in battle. To be victorious in our spiritual warfare, we must be obedient to God's commands.What is the outcome of the battlethe battle between God's people and the alliance of the wicked northern kings? We read in verse 8: "The Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, so that they defeated them, and pursued them as far as Greater Sidon and Misrephoth-maim and the valley of Mizpah to the east; and they struck them until no survivor was left to them." It was a total victory.
God promised Joshua in verse 6 that He was going to deliver the enemies to Israel, and verse 8 says here that God did exactly that. All through the book of Joshuaall through the scriptures, for that matterwe find God over and over again doing exactly for His people what He promised He would do. The spiritual truth for us is simply this: God never tires of acting faithfully towards us in our spiritual battle against Satan.
Closing Thoughts
Years ago, there was a television show in which a soldier showed up at a mobile army surgical hospital with no orders, going no place in particular. They checked him out and found that he was fine. There wasn't anything wrong with him. As the show progressed, we learned that this soldier, having spent the last month on the front lines, simply got up one day and said, "I've had enough. I'm tired of fighting." and he packed up his gun and his mess kit and took off. He was AWOL (absent without leave).You and I have that desire sometimes, don't we? There are times when we'd love to just pack up our Bible and be spiritually AWOL. There are periods when we get tired of going to Bible studies, Sunday School or even the worship service. We get tired of reading the scripture and praying every day. We become weary of living by faith, especially when we are going through a long period of oppressive circumstances.
But the scripture says the Lord never tires of being our faithful God. So, let me close by reminding you of that great classic passage in Isaiah 40:28-31:
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. oRev. Randy L. Steele is pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 14651, Albuquerque, NM 87191.