Thursday, March 3, 2011

There are a lot of wonderful stories in the old testament that I am familiar with and I am sure you have heard over the years. David and Goliath! Jonah and the whale! The Red Sea Splitting! Adam and Eve and the apple! Joshua and Jericho! Gideon with 300 dog lapper men! Moses and the 10 commandments! Moses and the burning bush! These are wonderful stories because of the power that God shows in taking impossible tasks and turning them into awesome miracles.

One that may have missed your listening ear is the one with the one sword. Have you heard about the victory over an entire nation with one sword? It isn’t one that is on the forefront of your memory banks. In fact you may have never heard of this story. I know I never heard about this story growing up in Sunday school. This may be due in fact to the spit wads I was making and shooting at others from the back of the room.

It might be well worth taking a look at I Samuel 13-14 where this story is buried. It is a story of King Saul’s son Jonathan. Here is the nation of Israel going into battle with the Philistine army with only two swords–Saul had one and Jonathan had one. None of the other army had a sword to their name. The Philistines took all the blacksmiths out of the country of Israel so that the army couldn’t make swords. So they had 2 swords for the entire army.

Why I named this jlog “One Sword” follows in chapter 14 where Jonathan and his armor-bearer decided to go up to the Philistine camp without telling the others with one sword, and seeing if God wanted them to attack the Philistine army with one sword. I love the passage in I Samuel 14:6 where Jonathan says, “…Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.” They didn’t have a few, but only one sword. ONE SWORD. Do you understand the significance of going into battle with one sword. ONE SWORD. It is absurd as my daughter would say. Yet Jonathan went and in the first 1/2 acre, he and his armor-bearer killed some twenty Philistine men. It caused the Philistines to go into panic mode and they began killing one another. The Israelites heard the commotion and began pursuing them and taking the swords that fell to the ground and brought about a great victory. With ONE SWORD.

What resources do we have at our disposal? If you look at the resources you have, you are looking at the wrong thing. It is the God of the universe that brought about the victory for the Israelites and it is the God of the bible that is waiting to bring victory to our lives, if only we would trust Him to do so. Do you have one sword? It’s enough for God to use to bring victory to whatever you are facing today!! God can take whatever resources you have and cause miraculous things to happen.

Limited resources create excitement along the journey!!