Threshold of War

We don't often see with our physical, natural eyes the battle that happens in the spirit world between angels and demons, the "horses and chariots of fire" (2 Kings 6:17) and demonic forces (Ephesians 6:12), but now and then, that struggle becomes so intense that we get a glimpse of it if we have the eyes to see it.

This morning, I recalled my experience I detailed in my blog post Battle Strategy soon after I started this blog where I told about an encounter I had with front-line spiritual warfare and the phenomenal story of victory after intense, intense struggle. 

In that instance, the enemy stood on a threshold of battle where God was on one side and he was on the other, and the Lord did not allow him even an inch of space to move forward with his agenda. And the Lord gave some of us the privilege of watching and participating in the struggle. Why?

I think when Christians engage in spiritual warfare, it's not so much about an enthralling victory after a hard-fought war -- even though it's heady and beautiful and gives us so much hope -- but because it's an enormous faith-booster. It's a heart-change. The Holy Spirit goes to the very center of who we are and pours life into our decaying roots. 

As I've been engaging in some intense spiritual warfare over the last weeks and months, the Lord led me here to this place in the Word. In 1 Samuel 4:12 - 5:12, we get the bite of dystopia (see Utopia v. Dystopia: Symbols of Blessing) where the Ark of the Covenant is taken into battle against the Philistines... and is captured. Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's two priestly-but-never-acting-like-priestly sons are killed on the same day. A runner comes back to Shiloh where Eli the high priest sits on a chair at the city gates, waiting for news of the Ark. 

The runner bypasses Eli, shouts the news in the town, and the outcry is so great, Eli hears it. He's a big guy and doesn't get up from his chair, plus he's blind and creaky and ninety-eight, so he calls the runner over instead of getting up. "What is the meaning of this uproar?" he asks.

The runner says: "I've just come from the battle line. I left it this same day."

"What's happened?" asks Eli.

"Well," the runner says, "where should I start?" (my paraphrase) "Israel ran away from the Philistines like a dog with its tail between its legs and a whole bunch of them, you know, died. Your two sons are, uh, dead, too..." (Thus far, Eli's nodding along, okay, okay, okay, so far, okay, but what about the Ark?)

The runner says, "And here's the gravy, the Ark of God has been captured by the enemy."

Back to NIV translation: "When he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and heavy."

The worst that could happen, happens. It's not just that Israel ran away like cowards when they were the chosen people of God. It's not just that they sustained heavy losses. It's not just that their priests who went to the battlefront with them died. 

The ARK was gone. Eli had, like the Israelites when they demanded that they carry the Ark of God into battle with them, tied the Presence of the Lord to the symbolic gold and acacia wood of the Ark. No longer was the Ark of the Lord's Presence a place where the manifest Presence of the Lord met with His people through sacrifice and offering in the Tabernacle's Holy of Holies. The Ark itself had become holy.

And that... was wrong. So the Lord allowed the tragedy to happen -- so the lesson could happen.

In fact, when Eli's very pregnant daughter-in-law, married to Phinehas, got word that her husband had been killed, and that her father-in-law was dead, too, and to top it all off, the Ark had been captured, she went into premature labor, apparently hemorrhaging during delivery, because her life began to ebb away. The midwife caught her son and told her: "Don't despair; you have given birth to a son." But with her final breaths, Eli's daughter-in-law said: "The glory has departed from Israel -- for the Ark of God has been captured." And she named her son Ichabod, which means "No glory."

Poor kid. But why does the Scripture give us that little detail? 

Because it signifies that Israel had forgotten that the Lord isn't wedged between the cherubim of the Ark's cover, unable to get off that seat, unable to still be God. Israel still strapped God down on that Ark, forgetting that...

God cannot be bound by His creation. He does not exist to do our will. He does not exist to be pointed in the direction we demand Him to point so He can do our work for us. God is not our genie in the bottle.

So the Philistines carry the Ark of the Lord Almighty... to the temple of their god Dagon in Ashdod. 

I love this: While the Lord was busy teaching the Israelites a lesson about Who He really was (not gold and wood; not created to be ordered about, not created at all), He simultaneously let the Philistines, Israel's enemy, know... you don't mess with the God of Israel. Think you've won?

Think again.

Look at this: "They carried the Ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon (beside, not before... I wonder if they intended to worship it, too? Given people's proliferation of gods back in the day, it seems likely). When the people of Ashdod arose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord!"

Oops. 

But okay, listen, if I'm serving a god who cannot stand in the presence of Yahweh God... I'm serving the wrong god. And if I have to stand that god back on his feet again because he's not strong enough to stand on his own... I'm serving the wrong god.

But that's exactly what the Philistines did. "They took Dagon and put him back in his place." There you go, Dagon; now watch yourself, you're supposed to be powerful. Grow some backbone, okay?

"But the following morning, when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day, neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon's temple at Ashdod step on the threshold."

God abundantly and demonstrably showed His superiority to any other supposed deity who sets himself up, and no matter what circumstances the Israelites found themselves in, God was still on His throne, and evil couldn't even cross the threshold into His Presence.

Y'all, spiritual warfare is real; principalities and powers of darkness are real (Ephesians 6:12). Dagon was a statue, but the spirit behind him was a real spirit, and when the statue fell, the spirit of darkness had to bow to the Almighty God. 

It's been Satan's game plan from day 1. He wanted to be like God... so he tried to be. And he paid for it with eternity; he is bound for hell and will be bound in hell. In his anger and hatred, he tries to take as many down with him as he can, but when the Lord sets up a threshold, no matter how strong he is, the enemy cannot cross it.

And the Lord breaks the capabilities of the enemy. Hands? Broken at the wrist. Head? Snapped off at the neck. What happens when your head falls off? Here's a hint: Death is involved. It reminds me of Genesis 3:15 where the Lord looks Satan, in the form of the serpent, in the eye and says, in essence, "You might snap at the heel of My Son, but He is going to crush your head. Incapacitate you. Destroy you forever."

And that, my friends, is victory, present in Genesis, long before the ultimate and final victory when Jesus comes in the clouds with the sound of the trumpet and when the dead in Christ will rise (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The same way that the Israelites were defeated by their enemy, and utterly in the depths of despair because the enemy had taken their Ark...

God still presided on His throne (Psalm 11:4) at that time, God still presides on His throne today, and no spiritual force of the enemy can stand in His holy Presence. 

When we are surrounded by a world on fire, a world smothering beneath a blanket of sickness and strife, a world split apart by both pride and fear...

God still presides on His throne, and no force of the enemy can stand in His holy Presence. 

This song has been in my head all day yesterday and today. Read the lyrics, sing the song if you know it. Let's make it our battle cry today:

"Come set Your rule and reign in our hearts again.
Increase in us, we pray; unveil why we're made.
Come set our hearts ablaze with hope,
Like wildfire in our very souls,
Holy Spirit, come invade us now!

We are Your church; we need Your power in us!

Build Your kingdom here! Let the darkness fear.
Show Your mighty hand; heal our streets and land.
Set Your church on fire! Win this nation back.
Change the atmosphere! Build Your kingdom here, we pray!"

We pray! Hallelujah!