Sunday, July 29, 2012

Psalm 18:37


Copyright Ó 2012 J. Neely
Psalm 18:37

37 I have pursued [radaph] mine enemies, ['oyeb] and overtaken [nasag] them: neither did I turn again [shuwb] till they were consumed. [kalah] KJV-Interlinear

37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them, And I did not turn back until they were consumed. NASB

All of your life, you will live in a live battlefield.  The battle of life is ongoing, and will never end until God removes you from this life, which is to say, when God removes you from the battlefield.

And even though you may never see any physical conflict in a battlefield sense, the ongoing battle is one of the spiritual realm, not of this world.

This is not a war of guns and beach landings and battleships and planes and rockets and such.  This is a spiritual battle of ideas, between good and evil, and you are exposed to it every moment of your life, from the day of your birth, to the day of your eventual death.

We have studied the concept of parables.  The entire Bible is full of parables, or living real world examples that teach spiritual principles.

And since the battle began with Satan and his rebellion against God, so this worlds history has been filled with real world historical wars and battles that can be used to illustrate how you should function within your spiritual war.

War in this world is caused when evil raises its head and good has to do something about it.

If good did nothing, then evil would bring havoc and pain and suffering and ruin on everyone.  Thus war is the good side of life, bringing evil under control or at least into check.  Those who oppose war, are fools, since they are in effect saying that evil should rule and good should surrender to evil.

But from the Biblical point of view, war has to be the stand that is mandated in order to control or to get rid of evil.

And so when good goes to war, it needs to conduct that war in accordance with several principles, in order to win that war. 

David followed those principles and he won most of his battles and all of his wars.

The first principle is that of offense.  No defensive posture ever won a war.  Offense if the only posture that brings a battle to its successful conclusion. And thus David pursues his enemies.

The word for pursue, ‘radaph,’ means to continually pursue, to run after, to put to flight, to push and push and push until the action is completed.

In World War 2, when the Allies landed in Normandy and Southern France, and Itally, they pushed and pushed and pushed until the entire war was ended.  They kept on pushing, leaving the enemy virtually no time to regroup, to recover, to reorganize.  Only when the Allies let up, did it eventually cost them a high price for being lax.

David did not turn or let up, until his enemies were consumed, ‘kalah,’ finished, destroyed, done, spent, dead.
The battle is not over until the enemy is dead, or there is at the very least, a person remaining who can raise a hand to sign the surrender.

When Christ returns at the Second Advent, the entire population of the evil world will die. There will be no one to sign anything.  Satan will be chained and thrown into prison for a thousand years, while the Millennium proceeds.

And so the principle as it applies to your spiritual life.  You will not be carrying a gun, or flying a jet, or shooting off rockets, spiritually speaking, but your offensive will be in your daily studies, in your daily memorization of verses, in your daily confessions, in your daily prayers, in your daily application of the biblical principles that you learn, in your honesty, in your humility, in your empathy, in your responsibilities and obligations and obedience to God.

That is your offensive.

When you become lax, don’t study, don’t confess, don’t do that which you are expected to do. When you get cranky, when you make small things into greater things, when your worldly priorities becomes greater than your spiritual priorities, then the cost of that course will take its toll on you and in your life.

When the Allies reached the shores and if they had sat in their ships, if they took the beaches and remained there, if they move a bit and then waited, then the enemy would have had time to regroup and the cost would have been far greater.

So it is in your spiritual life.  Your battle is one of a moment by moment battle.  You monitor yourself on your battlefield, by means of your confession, by means of your daily studies, by means of your spiritual activities within your daily life.

Your objective is not to vanquish evil all around you, but to vanquish evil within you.

You cannot control the world, but you can control yourself.  And your victory comes when God removes you from this life, and within your soul is the spiritual structure and muscle and assets and possessions of spiritual productivity and growth, and thus success for eternity.  That is your victory.

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