That I may Know HIM - A Devotional

Day 16: Horses and Riders

Day 16: Horses and Riders

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1. Fleshly Weapons

All weapons are not fashioned in the form of guns or bombs or bows and arrows and poisonous gases. Some are breathing, walking, talking weapons. This is an old martial lesson that the world has only lately begun to learn with the increased advent of suicide bombers. God Himself declares,

Judah, you are my bow! Ephraim, you are my arrow! Both of you will be my sword, like the sword of a mighty soldier brandished against the sons of Greece (The Living Bible).

Nations and peoples can become weapons in the hands of spiritual agencies, against other human agencies. In this passage, the nation of Judah is described by God as His bow; and the northern kingdom of Israel, designated as Ephraim, as the arrow that He would fire from Judah the bow, against the kingdom of Greece. Furthermore, both Judah and Israel are described by God as the sword with which He would fight Greece. Greece was going to directory feel the obliterating sting and slash of those nations, but God was going to be the puzzle behind the triumphs of those little nations over mighty Greece.

If those nations could be God’s weapons against another nation, is it also possible, on the reverse, that there are nations, agencies, governments, individuals, that Satan uses, or has raised up against God’s people and purpose in this age? Yes, many. Space will fail us to list Ishmaelitish nations and their rulers, witchcraft organizations and NGOs, individuals, and many more that fit the profile.

When we pray that God should break the bow and the arrows of the wicked, as He promises to do in many scriptures (Psalm 46:9; 76:3; Jeremiah 49:35; Hosea 1:5; 2:18), we should understand that it might involve the destruction of certain persons, establishments, or kingdoms that have submitted themselves to be made the instruments of Satan against the purpose of God. Again, when the Bible states that no weapon fashioned against us will prosper (Isaiah 54:17), the reference should also be understood to include the human instruments of Satan.

Spiritual powers (God and Satan) often employ natural agencies for the actualization of their plans in the natural realm. God told the prophet Isaiah that He was going to make that mortal man into "a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth" (Isaiah 41:15). In other words, whereas other blind mortals would see Isaiah as just a walking, talking fleshly composition of head and limbs, in the realms of the spirit, he would actually be a "sharp threshing instrument having teeth," which is exactly what it says in the Hebrew: "I will make you into," that is, "cause you to be...." If that be the case, is it also possible that some of the men and women that walk our streets are actually Satan’s machine guns, others his poisonous gases, or lethal syringes, machetes, bombs, AIDs, etc.? Could some of those ‘machine guns’ and ‘daggers’ and ‘swords’ and ‘arrows’ and ‘whips’ of Satan be some of the neighbours in our estate, or the colleagues in the bank, office, airplane, etc.? Could that well-dressed Oxford trained diplomat who speaks flawless English and polished Spanish be a sword in the hands of the enemy of my soul, against my destiny in God? What kind of weapon could Mrs. Potiphar have been, whom Satan set up, unannounced, against the destiny of the young and dutiful Joseph?

To Jeremiah, God said, "Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms" (Jeremiah 51:20). Earlier, He had told the prophet that He was making him a bulldozer and a caterpillar, in fact, a battle tank:

10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee ; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee (Jeremiah 1:10, 18-19).

Can a mortal man be all of these in the hands of a supernatural Force, against other mortals and their institutions? Is it possible that Satan also has mortals he thus fashions against other mortals and their institutions, for the furtherance of his agenda on the earth? Can a person or an agency be thus energized by strong forces beyond themselves for the actualization of specific goals on the earth?

2. Arrows, Bows, and Archers

An arrow does not fire itself; it needs a bow to send it forth. The bow, too, is useless without an arrow to send on assignment. Sometimes when an arrow stings somebody, they are quick to begin prayers against that arrow, ignorant of the bow somewhere out of sight, from which the arrow had been launched; a bow that might be ready to fire another slender missile while the victim remains engrossed with the initial ‘agent.’ Sometimes those we contend with, because they have stung us, might not be the main issue in our conflicts; they might have been pawns; victims also, like us. We need to note not only the arrows that smite us but also the bows from which they were fired.

What of the archer who uses those weapons? Any soldier is useless without his weapons, just as the weapons are mere decorations without the soldier. In Jesus’ parable on spiritual warfare, about the strong man that should be bound before his goods can be spoiled, Jesus showed that the effective culmination of the conflict is not merely in overcoming the strong man but, further still, in the appropriation of "all his armour wherein he trusted" (Luke 11:22). Only thereafter can the stronger man "spoil" the goods of that strong man. In other words, in effective spiritual warfare, we need to recognize and address both the men and the materials of the enemy; both the army and their armaments, both the enemy and his arsenals; otherwise we could win a battle today merely to start another the following day.

The Israelites sang a song of triumph after God had seen them through the Red Sea, in spite of Pharaoh’s advancing host; a song that offers great insights into the present discuss:

Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea (Exodus 15:1).

They recognized that they had been up not only against the dreaded horses of Pharaoh but also against their fearsome riders, both of which, according to their song, God had taken out of their way. If you should kill a horse, but the rider escapes, that escaped warrior could ride out against you some other day with some other horse, perhaps a stronger horse. Subsequently, the conflict could degenerate into the kind of unfortunate re-captivity against which Jesus warns in another parable on spiritual warfare:

Then goeth he , and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first (Luke 11:26).

Alas, the many times the crafty devil keeps distracting us with expendable horses on which to waste our missiles, while he keeps the pressure on our diverted futile labours of warfare!

And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand (Ezekiel 39:3).

In this passage, Jehovah the Man of War appropriately addresses Himself, firstly, to the "bow" that sends arrows on assignment, and, secondly, to the dispensable "arrows" . Implicitly, however, the primary reference is to the warrior behind those weapons, whom He disarms by the process.

May God, this day, break the bow out of the left hand of the warriors poised against you, and may He smite the arrows out of their right hand, thus rendering them impotent. Yea, may He also smite the warriors themselves, with blindness and madness, in Jesus name (Deuteronomy 28:28; Zechariah 12:4). May your God defend you this day as He overthrows not merely the pursuing horses that everyone readily sees, but also their riders - the intelligence that directs the horses, in Jesus name. Amen.