PREPARING FOR WAR

2 Chronicles 32:1-33:13; Romans 15:23-16:9; Psalm 25:16-22; Proverbs 20:16-18

“They organized a huge work crew to stop the flow of the springs, cutting off the brook that ran through the fields. For they said, ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come here and find plenty of water?’ Then Hezekiah worked hard at repairing all the broken sections of the wall, erecting towers, and constructing a second wall outside the first. He also reinforced the supporting terraces in the City of David and manufactured large numbers of weapons and shields.”

“For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.”

“May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.”

“Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice.”

Easter is coming. First, though, there is a war to be fought. The battle is not for land or political control; it is for eternal life and personal control. Nonetheless, it is a fight to the finish. There can only be one survivor. Life or death. Salvation or damnation. Saint or sinner. Christ or Satan. I’m no authority, but it’s a safe bet that few, if any, of us take the spiritual conflict that is Passion Week seriously enough. Oh, sure, some of us give up things we can afford to be without during Lent. We go to church a couple of extra times and think we have experienced the sacrifice and joy of Easter. Pity us. That’s just the way Satan wants it. If we don’t make Passion Week real, if we do not pause to appreciate the deep realities of what happened those 2000+ years ago and the impact those things have had on all the years since, Christ’s sacrifice will have no more significance that a nursery rhyme or bedtime tale. The sheer repetition of the story has numbed us to the radical reversal of fortune Christ’s sacrifice and Resurrection began in the hearts, souls and lives of all those who call Him Savior. May that not be the case this year. Let us begin to fully and completely engage today in all the emotions and pain and joy that the Easter Season raises. But initially, let us prepare ourselves – and allow the Lord to prepare us as well – for the spiritual war to come.

Hezekiah’s preparation for his upcoming war with Sennacherib of Assyria was more than prudent. It was sheer genius. He began by looking for the good things that could be used against him in the wrong hands. He took the steps needed to insure they did not become weapons in Sennacherib’s control. He cut off the water to his own fields.

It’s funny how life and death situations have a way of clarifying our priorities. Cutting off the water was a death knell for the Hebrew fields and crops for the year. It was a sacrifice that would set the people back for months, if not years, even if they were fortunate enough to survive the coming crisis. But Hezekiah was honest enough with himself, his people and his God to recognize and own the fact that abundant crops would mean little to anyone but the victor. Further, he honestly admitted there could be no victory for the Jews as long as their agricultural bounty and water could be conscripted for the enemy’s use. This makes me wonder what good things I am holding onto that my Enemy might use to enslave me. The list, I fear, is daunting. Job; finances; family obligations; charitable work; recreational time; boy toys; and even religious activities all can be taken advantage of and become potent weapons of Satan when not restricted to the appropriate priority in our lives. Yes, even religious activities can become our adversaries when they get out of balance or become more a panacea than a living enactment of faith. All of us know at least one someone who literally hides behind the appearance of religiosity. They can do “pious” with the best of us. But when the chips are down, their so-called “faith” is revealed as little more than an ineffective, toy shield which was never constructed or reinforced to withstand the stress of actual battle.

This year is as good as any and better than most to take stock of all we have and all we can do without. Especially, we are wise to take a hard look at anything we are clinging to as if our life depended on it that is not Christ. Even good things become bad when we want them too much or begin to think we cannot live without them. A good, basic rule for this Easter season might be that if something doesn’t help us float or fly, jettisoning it could be the best option.

Which gets us to the next point. By shutting off the water to his fields, Hezekiah also did another brilliant thing strategically: he reduced the area he had to defend. There is a lot in each of our lives we think we have to fight for. Passion Week is a time for us to think again. There is no benefit to fighting battles we cannot win, or to contesting ownership of things we cannot and should not control. Children, for example, are only ours for a season, no matter how much we would will it differently. Nothing is more pathetic than the clingy or possessive parent who tries to hang onto his/her child well past adulthood. We may want to fight to protect our kids, but there comes a time when every man and woman must fight for themselves. We cannot fight everyone’s battles. Our best option is to try to ally as many as possible with Christ, so He can fight with and for them. Alienating others by trying to protect them from every challenge or adversity is lousy strategy in any context.

Finally, Hezekiah fortified what he had to protect in anticipation of the coming onslaught. The best time to enrich our marriages is not necessarily in the middle of an attack.  Marriages that last are those prepared for the hard times by thoughtful consideration and nurturing before the stressors come. A consistent savings and investment plan is the best hedge against a recession. The next couple of days is a great time to take a look around and identify and strengthen the weaknesses closest to our hearts and homes. Maybe we are not as committed to our spouses as we said we’d be. Perhaps that little white lie is now bearing the wrong kind of fruit and needs to be pruned clean off our lives. Or maybe, we’ve just gotten lazy and taken things for granted that actually needed our attention. Whatever the weaknesses of our lives may be, as in the walls of Jerusalem, we can be sure some vulnerabilities exist. We do well to fix and fortify them now, before the storm.

There is certainly a time for feeling all the emotions and passions of Passion Week. Before then, however, there is a time to prepare ourselves to more fully experience and appreciate them. Some think this is done best by simple reading and contemplation. I say that is just another form of retreat from the reality of the lashings and the injustice. We are sinners about to see the very real effects our sins can have on other people, especially those who love and care for us the most. It is no answer to our regret and pain to reduce them to a cliché. Christ died a real and painful death as the price and consequence of our real and painful sins. Until we accept the fact that our hands also had hold of the hammer that drove the nails through His Body and into the Cross, we will never fully appreciate Easter. That is a revelation requiring some advance preparation. Let us all gird our loins for the coming battle with ourselves, as well as with the Evil One.