Men in Holes

What is our response when we are overwhelmed by life and our circumstances? Fight or flight? Face the moment or hide? Mitigate risk or “meet them in battle nonetheless”*? There are certainly moments (or seasons) when we have no “reasonable” hope for a good outcome, but God teaches us to expect his help – even in the face of overwhelming odds. In the 11th century B.C., the nation of Israel was facing antihalation from the surrounding people in Canaan, primarily the Philistines.

The story:

“The Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Mikmash, east of Beth Aven. When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns……..and all the troops with him (Saul) were quaking with fear.”

What allowed the Israelites to survive? What turned their circumstances?

One man with a sword and the confidence in God’s ability to bring deliverance:

“Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost…….. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few…… The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer”

More than a thousand years after Jonathan’s moment of courage and faith, a letter to the early Church addressed the same challenge for each of us:

““But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”” But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

*Spoken by King Théoden to his men (specifically in response to Gamling) in J. R. R. Tolkien’s  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Recognizing the overwhelming odds, he acknowledges that while they cannot defeat the armies of Mordor, they will still face them in battle.