Love's Battle

Love’s Battle

In the 1980’s Pat Benatar sang a song “Love is a Battlefield.” In the lyrics of that song we hear:

We are strong,

no one can tell us we're wrong

Searchin' our hearts for so long

Both of us knowing

Love is a battlefield

There are numerous accounts in the Bible where God fights the battle and His people need not lift a finger. When these accounts are reduced to myth, legend, and bedtime story fantasy then the power of what God has done / is doing / will do -and- the character of God is tragically trivialized and thereby lost on us.

It is a fact that God delivered the Israelites from 400+ years of slavery in Egypt. Moses reminded the Israelites of God’s steadfast love in saying “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” God decimated the land of their oppressors and wiped out “the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived” Ex 14:28.

It is a fact that Israelites were given the land of Canaan to dwell in and God wanted them to know that He would be the one to fight their literal battles in order to give them a tangible/physical reminder of what God could do NOT ONLY in the natural world, but more importantly in the supernatural, and most importantly regarding our sin.

In Joshua 6 we read about the nation of Israel walking around the walls of the city of Jericho once per day for six days - then on the seventh they marched around the walls seven times, blew a trumpet, the walls collapsed, and the city was theirs.

Many generations later the powerful and ruthless nation of Assyria had besieged Jerusalem and it looked as though all hope was lost. Assyria’s king,  Sennacherib, taunted Israel’s king, Hezekiah, by writing a letter that read, “Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them…”

Because we have rendered the Sovereign LORD of the cosmos impotent, because we have reduced God Almighty to novelty, because the extent of our “faith” is an occasional superficial religious ceremony on Sunday bereft of the power and presence of God, because in reality we reign on the throne of our hearts, we are the sovereign of our lives, and we are the captain of our destinies… when besieged by the enemy our default response is to scour our contacts, search the internet, finagle circumstances, and brace for impact.

But that’s not what King Hezekiah did.

In Isaiah 37 we read:

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

“It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.”

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We can keep pretending that God is the LORD of our lives -or- we can fall into His arms of eternal grace, mercy, love, and kindness. There is synthetic faith, which is no faith at all, which comes because “that’s what my parents taught me,” or “all my friends are Christians,” or “I don’t want to go to Hell.” Those things are the directional signs pointing you to authentic faith with God, but they are not God. The street sign that reads, “Hospital” is not where you stop to receive medical attention.

Proverbs 21:30 tells us, “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.” Hezekiah understood that perfectly. Hezekiah plead to God Almighty for deliverance, but not for the selfish reason(s) that we do. Hezekiah prayed, “...deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.”

Is the goal of your prayers for your benefit, albeit masked in care and concern for others, -or- is your life’s axis the gospel of Jesus Christ “so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know” that Jesus alone is LORD?

God answered Hezekiah and said:

“I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew…

In 1 John 5:15 we read, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.”

One might reckon that God fights our battles to the extent that our lives are aligned with His will, His mission, and His eternal glory… but that perspective seems rather juvenile and cretinous.

God delivered Israel from 400+ years of slavery as part of God’s plan to redeem humanity from sin. God delivered the city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites as part of God’s plan to redeem humanity from sin. God wiped out the Assyrian army and protected Jerusalem as part of God’s plan to redeem humanity from sin.

If our battles are still our battles then we can, with all confidence, expect God to do absolutely nothing at all. But the moment our lives are no longer our own (Matt 16:25)… the moment that our plan evaporates and His plan reigns… the moment that we voluntarily enlist in the army of God… just then seas will be parted, cities will fall, and entire armies will be decimated to advance His plan, His mission, and His will for God’s eternal praise and glory - the redemption of humanity.

At the epicenter of Love’s Battle is the war for the throne of your heart. Until Jesus reigns exclusively and eternally upon that throne your battles are just that - yours and yours alone.

From Revelation chapter 5:

I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy… Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed!” ...And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy... because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

Pat Benatar was right.

We are strong… obstinate and hardened.

No one can tell us we’re wrong… just like a pre-teen.

We been searchin' our hearts for so long…

Both of us knowing…

Love is a battle

Our heart is the battlefield.

Surrender the throne for He alone is worthy.

Blessings,

-Kevin