Keeping An Eye Open & Keeping The Faith: Be On Your Guard

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(5) So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” (6) Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.’ (Judges 7:5-6);  ‘(15) When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work. (16) From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah (17) who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, (18) and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.’ (Nehemiah 4:15-18)

As much as we want everything to be ‘hunky-dory’ and run smoothly, without any hiccups, it is inevitable that someone or something will throw a monkey-wrench into the works, and stop it.  We know this, and if we take precautions, we can mitigate some if not all the mess that can be caused by that monkey-wrench throwing things off-kilter.  This is why we have (or should have) health insurance, for the potential occurrence that one day we contract an illness or get injured in an accident.  We don’t want to be ill or injured, but we take the precaution of having health insurance in preparation for the potential times our bodies break down or break apart.

It’s common knowledge we live in a hurricane-prone area, and (hopefully) most of us are prepared for those times, as what occurred during Ian or more recently Debby, when electricity goes out or we either can’t get to the grocery store or the grocery store is closed due to damage.  We are aware the potential of what could happen, prepare for what could happen, make plans what to do for what could happen, and we pray for the Lord to prevent it from happening.  Mitigating the damage is through the precautions we make.

There are two sets of Scriptures in the Bible that show people being aware, prepared, and planning accordingly.  The first is with Gideon and his men in Judges 7.  They are about to battle the Midianites, and Gideon has 32,000 men.  However, not all of them were prepared as God desired, so He tells Gideon to allow those who are scared to go home.  22,000 men left; they were unprepared in spirit and perhaps lacked Faith and thus scared.  This left 10,000 men, but again not all of them were as prepared as God desired, so God tells Gideon to have them go to the water (possibly the Jordan River or the Sea of Galilee) to have them get a drink. 

Of the 10,000 men remaining, 9,700 of them got on their hands and knees and stuck their faces in the water to drink.  300 men dropped to one knee, reached down to cup the water with their hand (or hands) and brought the water up to their mouths to drink.  The 300 men were told to stay and the others were told to go. 

Why the 300?  Though they were not in any danger at that time, they were aware of the possibility that anything could happen (a large Midianite army was in the vicinity).  They were in a position to keep their eyes up, watching to stay aware of their surroundings, ready to instantly get on their feet, arm and defend themselves.  The 300 men were aware of the possibilities, prepared themselves to take action, and planned their actions accordingly.  Thus, it was these men that God provided to Gideon to defeat the Midianites, which they did.

The second reference is after the Exile in the book of Nehemiah, when Nehemiah, with Ezra, led the Israelites back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the Temple.  Nehemiah had secured the resources from Cyrus, the Persian emperor, and started rebuilding the city walls.   The surrounding nations of Israel, unfortunately, did not like this news that Israel was returning and going to rebuild their capital city, and began signaling they would be taking action to stop it, and tear down what was already built.  The naysayers first used insults (in paraphrasing Nehemiah 4:3, ‘Your wall is small and weak, and looks like a little fox would push it over!’) and when insults didn’t stop the progress in the rebuilding, they turned to using the threat of force.

Despite the fear of possible attack by the neighboring nations, Nehemiah had the Israelites prepared by having them carry their weapons at the ready and had people stand watch for any possible incursion.  When the enemies saw Israel was prepared, they backed down in attacking them (though the war of words likely continued).  The Israelites when back to work on the wall, half the men working (with either a weapon in one hand and materials in the other, or the weapons strapped to them at the ready if they were engaged in building) and the other half stood watch with full armor and weaponry attire.  Nehemiah and the Israelites rebuilding Jerusalem were aware of the possibilities, prepared themselves to take action, and planned their actions accordingly.  Thus, it was God providing these people the ability to rebuild Jerusalem in security and safety, which they did.

In our world today, we have much in the way of news that can cause us to be in constant panic.  We can suffer complacency when nothing happens and become unprepared.  When something happens when we are unprepared, it can exacerbate the issue at hand.  Not having health insurance should an accident occurs may mean a flurry of bills that could destroy someone financially.  A man with his head in the water will not see his enemy coming to attack him, and the man not taking a threat seriously will not be prepared when the threat becomes an action.  Sticking one’s head in the sand (or water) does not make the problem go away, but wastes time in making the preparations one can prudently make.

We must also avoid to become burned out by the constant wave of negativity in the news.  ‘BE PREPARED, BE AWARE, PLAN ACCORDINGLY’ is something I stress, but something I don’t often add to it is once you become prepared, aware, and have planned accordingly – go and rest, do that which needs to be done, have fun and relax in the knowledge the Lord has given you the means to be ready, and in your preparations and planning include Him, through prayers and His Word.  Stay in the know, but don’t allow it to get you down – do what needs to be done, rest when you need to rest, have fun in all that you do (even preparing can be fun at a certain level) and use your skills and provisions to help others to prepare – and share the Gospel while doing so.

Don’t live in fear, live in Faith!  Mitigate fear by being prepared and planning for what may occur, with the Lord in the lead, providing His wisdom and discernment.