ESV: Daily Reading Bible

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Heroes Unlimited

1 Chronicles 11:10 Now these are the chiefs of David's mighty men... 11 Jashobeam, a Hachmonite, ... wielded his spear against 300 whom he killed at one time....22 Benaiah ... struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. 23 And he struck down an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits [7] tall. The Egyptian had in his hand a spear like a weaver's beam, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear.
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Matthew 10:1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; [12] 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
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It is interesting that David is a Christ-like messiah. His chiefs, valiant in battle are prophetic figures of Jesus' spiritual army. We read in Matthew about Jesus empowering the disciples to heal every disease and affliction and yet in the next chapter we are told that, "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, [1] and the violent take it by force." (Matthew 11:12) Why? What is it about his kingdom that would invite violence? What is the nature of this violence? Is it physical violence or a metaphor? Or both? Well David and his men certainly encountered violence in a very physical way, and so did Jesus, but the verse seems to point to a much more epic battle field. Jesus' sweat, like drops of blood, in the Garden of Gethsemane, indicate an engagement with violent forces much more powerful than our natural eyes can see. The decisive victory of that war has already been won, but we continue to ride out the final battles and rescue the prisoners of war. The healing that Jesus has commissioned us to do is not just physical either, although physical healing is an integral part of the blessing that He often imparted. There are many deep layers of the human life that are damaged and needing help. It almost seems trite to say that one can have everything healthy on the outside but still have a wounded heart, but its true. He is sending us to be heart healers. The greatest good that we can do is then to engage in the epic war as holy paramedics. The greatest violence that can be done against Satan and his crew is an act of healing.

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