METHODS OF WAR --
MONSTERS SERIES, PART 6

David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
Joshua 5-8 (NASB)
11 June 2006
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What should you do when your heart melts as you see yourself lined up against the enemies of the Lord? The burden of this study series on monsters is to convince us that although spirit monsters, sin, and the evil world system are themselves invisible, their effects are not. Furthermore, believers in Christ have the intelligence report of the word of God on the nature of the war of the ages between God and the evil spirit powers. The challenge to Westerners like us is to convince ourselves that such a monumental invisible war is actually happening.

But every once in a while the war becomes visible in a very personal way and the face of our enemy is revealed. What do we actually do when confronted? This study will look back in history at the book of Joshua to learn methods of war from the Israelites. We will treat specific tactics of battle in a later study.

1. A WAR FOR HUMAN HEARTS

Did you ever wonder why more people do not come to Christ? Why don't they all just read the newspaper or watch the news and say: "Yup, we're all in spiritual trouble and need to be rescued somehow"? Why do not the millions of people who have already heard the good news of Jesus Christ just accept the rescue? The main answer is that sin involves spiritual darkness and deception. People make bad choices as a way of life because it is our nature.

But is there something else going on in God's war for the souls of men, women, and children? A. W. Tozer recounts the following story about two of the great pioneers of Alliance missions: "One year while Robert Jaffray and Rev. Gustave Woerner were traveling in Borneo visiting newly opened [mission] stations they came to a place called Kalosi which up to that time had been marked by a strange unresponsiveness to the Gospel. ...Here the two missionaries had occasion to stay overnight.

"Jaffray lay down at the usual time to sleep, apparently in normal health. In the middle of the night Mr. Woerner was suddenly awakened by sounds of a commotion in the room where Jaffray slept. He rushed into the room and found Jaffray struggling and groaning in agony. All of his motions were those of a man wrestling with someone trying to choke him to death, an invisible antagonist who seemed about to kill him. This continued for a short time and then suddenly ceased. Immediately Jaffray came to consciousness weak and badly shaken. Mr. Woerner prayed with him and ministered to him as he was able and Mr. Jaffray's strength returned slowly. By morning he was feeling well again.

"The struggle of the night before he never doubted as a personal engagement with the devil himself. He stated boldly that he had met in prayer and had conquered the 'prince' who had been responsible for the strange bondage of the natives in and around Kalosi. ...He saw in this 'prince' old Pharaoh who was holding the people in bondage and he sternly commanded him to 'let my people go!'...

Tozer continues: "Were we to stop here the whole thing might be smiled off tolerantly as the pardonable weakness of an intensely religious man, and nothing more. But there is a significant sequel. Almost at once the whole situation changed within that previously barren [region]. The indifference of the people melted like ice before the summer sun. The work of conversion that was sweeping across Borneo broke out at Kalosi and the men of the district began to turn to Christ in large numbers" (Let My People Go, Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1990, pp. 116-118).

What I learn from this event is that there is an invisible war for human hearts behind all of our attempts to lead people to Christ. It may be much more significant in some geographical regions than others, but it is always a factor.

2. ISRAEL'S METHODS OF WAR

The nation Israel, as the primary representation of the kingdom of God on the earth for many centuries before Christ, is an excellent example of how to face the enemies of God. The New Testament is the place to look for specific battle tactics, but the broad methods of war for fighting on God's side have not changed.

The background to Israel's first attempt to take possession of the land of promise is that the nation had been rescued from slavery in Egypt. The Lord drowned the Egyptian army in the Red Sea as they escaped into the wilderness. From there the Lord had made a covenant with them and given them the Law. As they traveled across the desert to the promised land the nation revealed an unbelieving and even idolatrous heart. They could have gone into the land rather soon after leaving Egypt, but they refused, and so God caused them to wander in the desert for forty years. In fact, God decreed that they would all die in the wilderness and never see the promise fulfilled. A whole new nation which had been born in the wilderness came back to the land under the leadership of Joshua son of Nun. We pick up the story in Joshua 5:2-3 as Israel once again faced the challenge of driving the enemies of God out of the land God had promised them: "At that time the LORD said to Joshua, 'Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time. So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth."

The first method of spirit war we learn is to set ourselves apart for God through submission to God and his covenant, repentance of our sins, and faith in him. Nothing else we learn will really matter unless we get this first thing right. The rather disturbing image of circumcision was God's way of picturing Israel's entrance into the Mosaic covenant with him. Since the time of Christ our entrance into the New Covenant is marked by faith and baptism. We are not on God's side of the war at all until we ask Christ to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And there is much more than simply entering the covenant. Those who seek to be on the Lord's side have to work through the total commitment of their lives to him. The Bible describes this as circumcising our hearts before him. It is also called sanctification which means setting ourselves apart for his use.

The second method of war is to be prepared for the Lord to show up. As Israel faced the seemingly impossible task of overcoming the entrenched inhabitants of the land, the Lord gave Joshua a visual awareness of what was actually happening, found in Joshua 5:13-15: "Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, 'Are you for us or for our adversaries?' He said, 'No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD.' And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, 'What has my lord to say to his servant?' The captain of the LORD'S host said to Joshua, 'Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.' And Joshua did so."

There are several very good reasons to think that this man with a sword is an appearance of the second person of the Trinity before the incarnation. First, "captain of the Lord's host" sounds like just another way to say "Lord of hosts," which is a name for God. Secondly, any mere angel would have refused Joshua's worship. While this was a custom in the ancient near east no angel would have allowed it in order to prevent confusion. Thirdly, only the presence of God himself ever makes the very ground holy. Fourthly, this being will, in the next few verses, speak as the Lord himself, not the Lord's messenger. Thus we conclude that the very God with whom the covenant was cut appeared to Joshua.

All this is to reveal that God himself fights for his people! The question for us when we are facing the enemies of God is: Do we believe in the reality and power of God, or not? Was Robert Jaffray's experience real or was he just dreaming that someone was strangling him? Did he only imagine that he had bound the strong man over Kalosi? We must be prepared for the Lord to show up because the battle is his to begin with.

Thirdly, we must not attack the enemy without explicit instructions from the Lord. Joshua's instruction are revealed in 6:1-5: "Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. The LORD said to Joshua, 'See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors. You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead.'"

When Christians undertake to attack the spirit monsters without God's instructions, we become like soldiers who attack without their commander's orders. It is a venture doomed to failure. Battles are won as the army of God follows his commands and works in harmony. I would observe that Robert Jaffray did not hatch the idea of confronting the demonic power which was resisting the gospel in Borneo. The spirit monster fell upon him, not the other way around. And just as the rules of engagement in earthly war permit self defense when fired upon, the believer is justified in engaging spirit monsters which may be attacking. In a previous study I made reference to two missionaries who met to pray against the strong man over Bamako, Mali. In that case, as well, the missionaries had very definite guidance from the Lord to do that very thing which was confirmed in multiple ways. This is not a game, but a deadly serious war.

Fourthly, though our battles are spiritual in nature, we should take ourselves to the location of the conflict when possible. The Lord sent Joshua to the very walls of Jericho: "So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, 'Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD.' Then he said to the people, 'Go forward, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on before the ark of the LORD.' And it was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD went forward and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them" (Joshua 6:6-8).

The location of spiritual conflict may be geographic. That is why prayer walks are vital ways to put pressure on the spirit world for God. Missions trips can have the same effect. The location of spiritual conflict may also be focused upon a person which is one reason why every believer has been commanded to visit the sick, the imprisoned, widows, orphans, and vulnerable people in every category. If an issue of spiritual warfare involves a particular person we should speak to that person directly even if it seems frightening. I am reminded of two Roman Catholic ladies I knew in Rockland County, New York, who refused to yield the ground under a new abortion clinic that was being prepared to open. These ladies were on site praying again and again as the construction workers began outfitting the empty office space. The owner of the clinic had gotten the lease by calling it a gynecological office, but the layout was clearly being prepared as a factory for abortions. So the women contacted the Jewish owner of the large building and invited him to walk through the office with them. He came, saw the layout, turned to the ladies with a shocked look on his face and said: "It looks like Auschwitz." Then he canceled the lease for the cause of misrepresentation.

As the life of Martin Luther displays, the scene of spiritual battle may be issues, such as the ninety-five theses or truth statements he nailed to the door of the church in Wittenberg. If we are not willing to go the field of battle, we are not in the fight.

Fifthly, we must use whatever means the Lord directs, no matter how unlikely it seems to us. One reason why the book of Joshua repeats the Lord's instructions for conquering Jericho is that they are so unbelievable: "Thus the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp; they did so for six days. Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times. At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, 'Shout! For the LORD has given you the city'" (Joshua 6:14-16).

Let me give a very mundane yet central example of this problem. Right at the moment when we are looking at the people with whom God has given us a divine appointment to share the good news of Christ we struggle to believe that what God has commanded us to do is preach the word of God. We have had so many experiences of people rejecting both us and Christ that we find it hard to believe that the gospel message is the means God ordained and it is the one he uses to release his power. I do not say that we should not be gracious and tactful, but after all the dancing around is done the presentation of the word remains the only method that works. We should be glad that God has not commanded us to march around people seven times, blow a trumpet, shout, and wait for them to fall over!

The reason that Joshua and Caleb were the only two Israelites who made it across the desert into the promised land is that the rest of the nation refused to trust in the Lord and the means he gave them for overcoming the enemies of God in the land of promise. Is the church any different? Very few Christians have overcome their internal resistance to this means which God has ordained and shared their faith with others. It would be as if a soldier of today were to say: "I don't trust these M-16's. I'm going to throw tomatoes at the enemy instead." Jericho was won as a spiritual battle because Joshua faithfully led Israel into battle in exactly the manner he was instructed by the Lord.

But the next battle with the city of Ai did not go well because Israel failed to follow the Lord's instructions. We all have a tendency to wonder whether we really need to follow God's instructions exactly, but this episode in Israel's history shows that spiritual victory can turn to defeat on nothing more than the failure to follow instructions: "But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of the LORD burned against the sons of Israel" (Joshua 7:1). A relatively small number of Canaanite defenders of the city of Ai routed the army of Israel. We should expect defeat in the face of our own faithlessness and disobedience.

The sixth great method of war is seen in Joshua's response to the defeat: "Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads" (Joshua 7:6). I must admit that the content of Joshua's prayer seems rather hopeless. But he went to the right place with his problem and talked to the only Being who could change the outcome. We will talk more about the enormous impact of prevailing prayer in another study, but let me pose the embarrassing question: When was the last time you spent a day literally on your face before the Lord in prayer regarding the spiritual defeats which the church of Jesus Christ is experiencing at the dawn of the postmodern era? The vast majority of children born to us and raised in the church do not follow the Lord as adults. Our culture, which was once informed by wholesome Christian values, is on the verge of redefining marriage to include people of the same sex, and our public schools now sponsor gay clubs with tax dollars. A poll by George Barna reveals that the vast majority of Christians do not think that premarital sex is wrong, and evangelicals seem to be abandoning their holy marriage covenants at the same rate as people who just think marriage is a human contract.

Maybe it is time for Christians to stop focusing on why they are dissatisfied with what they receive from their churches and face the evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ has reason to be dissatisfied with what he is receiving from us. While we complain about the quality of the bagels at the coffee hour thousands of churches a year close in America never to reopen their doors. It is time to do the work of prayer, perhaps beginning with asking God what is so wrong with us that we do not seem to care about the disintegration of the church and Western society.

Fortunately, the story of Israel gives us the most powerful reason for hope. Through faith and obedience--circumcising our hearts--yesterday's defeat can become tomorrow's victory: "Now the LORD said to Joshua, 'Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land'" (Joshua 8:1). Defeat at the city of Ai became victory. It can be the same for us if we will accord ourselves with the methods of war found in the word of God.

You can see by this study that the methods of spiritual war are about the great spiritual realities with which most of us are already familiar. Success against spirit monsters is not primarily about techniques, though it is well for every believer to learn specific battle tactics.

Jaffray did not succeed against the demonic prince over Kalosi, Borneo, because he used particular methods or techniques. Jaffray prevailed by the power of a sanctified life. Only a person whose entire life has been turned over to God will be trusted with the privilege of wielding God's power. Have you qualified yourself in the same way? Is there some area where you are trying to keep possession of your own life? Surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you will not find yourself surrendering to the monsters. I advise you to get on your face before the Lord, name the area where you need to surrender to him, and then get up on your feet and change it. You will soon discover that you have tapped into the very power of God!