1 Chronicles 8:1-9:1

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war…

In chapter 7, we looked at how God calls us to be fighting men and women, ready to go out to war (11b). In the words of a book title, we are Born to battle. Like it or like it not, as a Christian you’ve enlisted. There’s a war on and you’re in the army now.

In chapter 8, I see three key characteristics of a Christian warrior:

a.)    Bravery (40)…brave warriors… It undoubtedly takes courage to live the Christian life. My pastor at the ‘Elim’ church in Wigan often said, ‘If it’s worth being a Christian, then be a real one!’ But we know that being the genuine article is far from easy. It takes guts. Let’s not pretend otherwise. What do you need courage for today? Right now ask God to supply your need.

b.)    Zeal (13b) …who drove out the inhabitants of Gath. You may know that Gath was in Philistine territory. It was where Goliath hailed from. It was a stronghold of pagan religion. A Christian soldier is zealous to see God’s Name glorified and false religion exposed and driven out. A Christian soldier is zealous to overcome all opposition to the glorious gospel. Also, he/she has zeal to see the enemy overcome in their personal life. They want to drive out bad attitudes, wrong motives, sinful words and thoughts that will not submit to the Lordship of Christ. They have a passion for holiness. They hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt.5:6). They deeply desire to get rid of everything in their lives that is displeasing to God. This is not a fight where we seek to bring people to conversion using worldly weapons (2 Cor. 10: 3, 4). Such an attitude is mistaken. We are in a spiritual battle in which we use weapons such as praise, prayer, fasting and the preaching of the gospel. Our fight is not one in which we seek to kill people, but rather bring them to life through faith in Jesus.

c.)     Skill (40)…who could handle the bow. God gives special abilities to each of us and He asks us to do all that we can with what He has put into our hands. There are areas of expertise that we each have been entrusted with, and we are to use them by His power and for His glory. (Think again of Psalm 144:1)

In the middle of this line, standing between the two statements in (13 & 40) we have Saul. We are going to be thinking more about this man, Israel’s first king, very shortly. Although he was to go badly off the boil ultimately, he started out well. But note the point that there were great soldiers both in his ancestry and his progeny. We reproduce what we are. There were warriors in Saul’s line both before and after him. May we be Christian soldiers of such bravery, zeal and skill that what we reproduce is a blessing to the generations to come.

If you’re a Christian, you can’t get away from soldiering. It’s just a question of whether you’re playing army games or really engaged in the fight.