Dealing with the Enemies of God[1] Ps 9:9-20; 1 Sam 17:32-49; 2 Cor 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41
Introduction
The readings for today are united around the theme of the enemies of God and his people. Since no-one likes enemies, unless we conscious recognise Jesus as the centre of all things[2] the intensity of this topic will cause us to seriously sin through hostile reaction or pathetic submission. In a high hymn to Christ by Paul we are told, “all things were created through him and for him…and in him all things hold together.” (Col 1:16-17). Anything and everything exists through and for Jesus, so that he might exercise his Lordship over it all (Matt 28:18; Acts 2:36; 10:36; Rev 17:14)[3]. Jesus has a passion to “fill all things” (Eph 4:10) with his presence, image and likeness and the means of this is the Church (Eph 1:23)[4]. A Christ-centred view of the world means no-one, and nothing is accidental or purposeless. This isn’t hard to accept about the good things of life[5] but it is very difficult to handle in our struggle against the enemies of God: the world, the flesh/sin, and the devil[6].
David
David and Goliath is one of the most famous little guy beats big guy stories in history. Yet nowhere in the text does David seem conscious of his size or youth (1 Sam 17:33, 42). By faith he was conscious that the LORD had delivered him from the paw of the lion and the bear (1 Sam 17:36-37). So when king Saul said, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”” (1 Sam 17:37) this word from Saul was no pious slogan but the key to victory. This is why the faithful of Israel sang, “With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our enemies.” (Ps 60:12; 108:13)[7].
David however knew that God had raised him up[8] for the very purpose to slay those who his enemies. This is sober stuff, later in life David penned this psalm, “Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;” (Ps 144:1). Whilst it may sound terrible to Christian ears, the Lord had trained David up to kill people, people, that is, who were ruthless enemies of God’s righteousness kingdom (Pss. 9:8; 58:1; 96:13; 98:9).
Conflict about the gospel should never intimidate us. Jesus promised, “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.” (Luke 21:16-19) “not a hair on your head will perish” means but not a single thread of our existence will be condemned at the judgement[9] but will endure everlastingly. This is our invincibility in Christ. Now to Jesus.
Jesus
The story of Jesus being awakened by the disciples to save them from perishing on the Sea of Galilee is well-known (Mark 4:35-41). The apostles lack faith and are filled with fear as the boat is sinking[10] because they only seem to come to realise who Jesus is after he takes authority over the forces of nature. What is intriguing in this story is that when Christ “rebukes” the wind (v.37) this is the term often used in Mark for Jesus’ subduing evil powers (1:25; 3:12; 8:33; 9:25). And the command that the wind “Be still!”” (4:39) he also uses to silence the screams of demons (1:25). Jesus shares the power of God over both unruly evil spirits and the stormy seas (Job 26:11-12; Ps 65:7; 66:6; 106:9; 107:29-30; Nah 1:4). It is plain that any enemy force which opposes the kingdom of God is completely subject to the authority of King Jesus.
Let me ask a more probing question. If God the Father is sovereign over everything that ever happens, (Rom 11:33-36; Eph 1:13 etc.), “Who needed the storm?” Not Jesus, who in trusting the Father knew that the storm had arrived in God’s right (kairos) time and for his glory[11]. The disciples however certainly needed the chaos to see the power of God displayed in Christ on their behalf, “And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41)[12]. The disciples could see that the forces of nature had to obey Jesus, but they had no idea of why[13] such “miraculous powers” were at work in Christ (Mark 6:14). The obvious but unhelpful answer was that creation had to submit to Christ as its Creator. We are however in a rather different space than these disciples.
We know that the whole of creation had to submit to its Creator in his human form because he was perfectly submissive to his Father even to death on the cross and therefore there was no limit to the working of God’s power in the Spirit through Jesus (Matt 12:18; 28:18; Phil 2:6-7). Knowing about the death and resurrection of Jesus should be enough for us, but as people of weak faith we need stories like this to encourage our faith in Jesus as Lord over everything that will ever happen to us. Paul exemplifies this reality.
Paul
In 2 Corinthians 6[14] Paul speaks of severe afflictions and the power of God, he mixes up the horrible and the glorious very purposefully, “in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honour and dishonour, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” This combination of apparent disaster and deliverance is not accidental, unfortunate, or tragic, but exhibits the highest possible degree of order[15] as the death-and-resurrection of the Son of God (cf. 2 Cor 4:7-12; Eph 3:13; Phil 3:10; Col 1:24). Disaster-and -deliverance are a share in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. The message that Paul preached was matched by the shape of his life[16], a life of repeated suffering-and-restoration. This was a life journey of exhaustion and being continually infused with resurrection power[17].
Christian
To understand the all-encompassing ways of God[18] is to understand that not only had David been prepared for Goliath but Goliath had been prepared for David just as the storm had been prepared for Jesus and so on.[19]
If David had Goliath and Jesus was crucified by the Romans at Jewish demand, much as the early Christians were likewise attacked[20] who are our enemies in the modern world. We need enemies. I have noticed in visiting the Middle East and having some migrant friends from there, if you are a believer in Jesus from an Islamic nation, your faith will go very deep. In recent weeks I have been meeting and praying with brothers from Myanmar/Burma and India and have found the quality of their spirituality to be unusually humble, prayerful and sacrificial. This has nothing to do with natural ethnicity or race. Rather, what the author of the Hebrews says about Jesus, that as a Son he had to be made “perfect through suffering” (Heb 2:10; 5:7) is a universal truth. Suffering itself does not make our character more holy, but suffering submitted to Christ and sharing in the life-transforming power of his Spirit (Heb 9:14) does make us more godly (2 Tim 3:12). The reason Jesus had to suffer so much to bring in the kingdom of God was that death, sin and Satan were enemies that had to be destroyed (1 Cor 15:26 cf. 2 Tim 1:10; Rev 20:14; 21:4). This process goes on today.
The Church always needs to suffer in some way[21], because the fiercer our enemies the greater the revelation of Jesus according to the gospel truth of his death -and-resurrection. The enemies confronting us are no less irrational, idolatrous and demonised than the Hindu fanatics and merciless Burmese soldiers drawing out of Indian and Burmese Christians unprecedented grief, fasting, prayer and submission to God. I opened The West Australian the other day to articles about identical twins both engaged to the same man, someone proclaiming that they are a “gender smoothie” (non-binary i.e. neither male nor female), another attacking the rock and roll songs of another era as sexist, programmes to get boys out of the “man box” and so on. For decades we have been faced with a progressive social revolution which by negating and opposing everything traditional and Christian is seeking to create a new world of meaning. Part of our problem is that unlike the first Christians or the Church in India or Myanmar, we still have a democratic society where many Christians still think they can overcome their enemies by forming or lobbying political parties. To make politics our hope is a profound spiritual mistake[22]. Our need to embrace conflict reminds me of an old story.
Conclusion
Do you remember the promise of Christ in the Great Commission that he would be with us always? Let me quote the King James Version, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt 28:18-20 KJV). An African preacher was teaching on this text in an English church, when every now and then he would exclaim, “nogonolo” the congregation thought he must be saying something in his own language. Until someone got the message, no “go and make disciples” means, no “lo I am with you always”. The absence of the powerful presence of God in the daily lives of believers is because we are not consistently mission minded.
Since the universe was created by or for Jesus in every respect and in every event it is charged with meaning, a meaning revealed in submitting to his Lordship. Nothing that has or will ever happen to you is empty, meaningless or “accidental”. The negative and destructive powers which daily assail us[23] sin, sickness, death, should NOT be thought of in a Christless way as “that’s how things are and have always been” they are enemies of Christ and the gospel (Phil 3:17-19). Until we see things as Jesus sees them we will be robbed of his presence and life-transforming power by which in the End he will “bring everything under his control” (Phil 3:21). The giants in our lives, the storms that surround us, persecution for the faith, illness, misunderstanding from relatives or friends, ageing…death, none of these things are neutral but are all God-given opportunities for “the obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5; 1:26) and to live out the proclamation “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom 8:37). Let us never waste such opportunities.
[1] Certainly, sinners are hostile towards God (Rom 5:10; Col 1:21; James 4:4)
[2] “Jesus as the Centre of it All” is a popular song, but it is first of all biblically rather than emotionally driven.
[3] Famously put by Dutch politician-theologians Abraham Kuyper, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”
[4] “the church, the fulness of him who fills all things in every way.”
[5] Think about the misuse of Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
[6] Eph 2:1-3 brings the three together, “”And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body1 and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”.
[7] For a New Testament application see Romans 16:19-20, “For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”.
[8] In the tradition of the raising up of judges to deliver Israel from their enemies e.g. Judges 2:16, 18; 3:9, 15.
[9] Cf. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)
[10] The expression, “already filling” indicates the vessel was about to go down.
[11] In John’s language, “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19).
[12] Matthew’s version is even more about Jesus’ capacity to save, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” (Matt 8:25).
[13] Especially in Mark, Jesus prophecies of his necessary death only come in the second half of the story (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:34).
[14] See also 2 Cor 4:8-12; 11:16-33.
[15] The order which is at the basis of the wisdom of God in the Lamb slain and risen at the foundation of the creation of the universe, old and new (Rev 5:6; 13:8).
[16] Recall Christ’s words of warning, ““The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.” (Matt 23:2).
[17] This reminds me of comments from Jacquie Pullinger about her ministry to drug addicts in Hong Kong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Pullinger
[18] “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Rom 11:33-36)
[19] In the order of the way Paul sees things, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:10), where prepared must be an eternal preparation, rather than some impersonal causality in space-time.
[20] Acts 4; 5:17ff; 9:23; 12:3; 13:4; 14:2,5, 19; 17:5, 13; 18:12; 20:3.
[21] Even if it might be only through internal struggles.
[22] “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12)
[23] “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”” (Rom 8:35-36).