|
Start Stomping!
by
Major Stephen Court
http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf/vw-issue/0F73D227F83BC9D38025766900332492?opendocument&id=5C46762EE4B97FA880257669002F15DE
DUSK fell on the remote hills and sparse treeline, playing
tricks with your vision. Was that a wild animal skirting
across the valley or, more innocuously, a shadow? As night
settled into its quiet somnolence, the highly decorated
Commander parachuted into enemy territory. The Reclamation
Operation began. And that, folks, is the beginning of the end
of human history. Jesus undertook to reclaim enemy land and
re-establish the Kingdom of God on Earth.
The Salvation Army has a healthy view of spiritual warfare,
recognising that, in this gigantic reclamation operation,
spiritual warfare is the means to the end of the return of
Jesus Christ as global King. To many people, spiritual
warfare, as engaging a subject as it is, can become the end.
That it is a reclamation operation connotes that the Earth is
now not under the control of God. People tend to get all tied
up in knots at this statement, as if it is somehow a poor
reflection on the sovereignty of God. This is poor thinking.
Understand this: God created everything. He set the rules in
this closed system called humanity. These include such things
as free will and consequence. God, having set the rules, plays
by them. When people, choosing with their free will, sinned,
the consequence was that Satan, who had bamboozled them,
lawfully took the dominion over the Earth that had been
delegated to them by God. Do you follow? And so the Bible
correctly states that Satan is the god of this age and the
power of darkness in this world. He owns it. That is why Jesus
initiated the massive reclamation operation.
Recently, my wife Danielle described the whole scenario by
comparing it to D-Day and VE-Day in the Second World War.
Although the decisive victory was won at D-Day, much fighting
remained. Some battles were lost. Casualties mounted. There
was much carnage, before VE-Day arrived. This is important to
emphasise because many Christians believe, incorrectly, that
Jesus crushed Satan at the Battle of Golgotha and that all we
have to do is mop up. No, no, no! Such thinking has some
serious consequences affecting our battle readiness, our
battle performance, our battle willingness and the wellbeing
of others.
You see, Jesus did not crush Satan at the Battle of Golgotha.
Yes, he defeated him. Yes, he humbled him. Yes, he won in such
a way that we can compare it with D-Day. But the Bible calls
it a bruising, not a crushing. This bruised enemy is
dangerous. History records that the wounded foe is a dangerous
enemy.
Back in Genesis 3:15, when God is explaining the consequences
of sin to Eve and to the serpent, he asserts that her seed
will bruise the serpent’s head, and the serpent will bruise
his heel. Jesus will bruise Satan. And he did that at the
Battle of Golgotha. But look at Romans 16:20: ‘The God of
peace will soon crush Satan under your feet’ (New
International Version). Two things are pertinent here: a) God
will soon crush Satan. That means Satan isn’t crushed yet; b)
He will soon crush Satan under our feet. There is a boatload
of good stuff right here. First, it shows us Jesus’ modus
operandi, the way he does things. We know that Joshua’s life
foreshadows some of the things that Jesus does centuries
later. They share the same name. They both lead their people
out of the wilderness into the Promised Land. And so on.
You may remember that after Joshua took Jericho the
surrounding nation states were terrified. A southern coalition
was formed by five kings to rid Canaan of the Israelite
intrusion. The Battle of Gilgal was an historic victory. The
five kings attacked the Gibeonites at Gilgal, knowing that
Joshua would get sucked into the fighting to honour the brand
new covenant he had entered into with them. It was a
supernatural battle. The Bible reports that the sun stood
still, waiting for Joshua to finish off the five armies of the
Amorites. Not only that, but God directly pitched in by
hurling great hailstones at the enemy and killing more of them
than the Israelites did.
When the battle was obviously lost, the southern coalition
kings hid in a cave at Makkedah. At the end of the day, Joshua
and his army rolled the stone away and yanked out the
frightened kings. Now, Joshua could have easily killed them on
the spot. Instead, he had his captains place their feet on
their necks. When you place your foot on the neck of the foe
you are exercising your complete domination over your foe;
Joshua was sharing the domination with his soldiers and
allowing them to share in the victory. Then he chopped off
their heads.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. You
probably remember Ephesians 1:22 and 23 on our position in
Christ. We are the Body. Jesus is the head. All things are
under our feet. All we have to do is start stomping.
|
