20 January 2016 - the battle belongs to the LORD

[ Today's Readings ]

Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?

The criticism of Jesus comes under the guise of religion. But the motives are not religious.

They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.

The leaders of his day are like giants from a worldly perspective. They seem to have the resources, the power, and the knowledge. Jesus is the simple son of a carpenter. Yet he does not back down.

Looking around at them with anger
and grieved at their hardness of heart,
Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out and his hand was restored.

All of those factors of worldly power can be intimidating. We can become like Saul and say to ourselves or others what he says to David.

You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him,
for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth.

But David and Jesus know something which Saul forgets. If we learn it we can have courage in the face of worldly opposition.

All this multitude, too,
shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves.
For the battle is the LORD’s and he shall deliver you into our hands.

We are likely to face opposition from the world as we try to live out our Christian faith. The world conceals its true motives with a guise like political correctness and niceness. Of course, it cares very little about these things, but it is happy to use them as tools to advance a society emptied of the presence of God. We can't be bullied this way. But to stand against the world when it holds apparent goods against us is more difficult than when it tries to impose things which are obviously bad. We need the courage of David and the courage of Jesus. Perhaps we even need the righteous anger of Jesus to move us to active when fear would otherwise cause us to freeze.

Looking around at them with anger
and grieved at their hardness of heart,

But even more than this, we need to remember that it is good to which we are called. We need to be deeply convicted of this. We are called to save lives. We can't be bullied into inaction.

Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.

If we trust in the LORD's strength rather than our own we can rejoice in the knowledge that, "the battle is the LORD’s".