"The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."
The scripture quoted above is what God said to a man named Gideon. It is how God greeted Gideon, which is beautiful and powerful. For God to say He is with a person, and to call that person a mighty warrior, is the essence of the code of God's warriors.
We explored in part 2 the first part of the divine warrior code:
Presence-God's very real presence, giving invincibility and perfect victory to the warrior.
This makes sense because the presence of God would distinguish a man or woman by making him or her successful in everything he or she does! We see this with all of the warriors I listed in part 1. Naturally speaking, sometimes a warrior wins, sometimes a warrior loses. If a warrior always lost, then he or she would dishonor the title warrior. But if he or she always won, then that would be another matter entirely. We will skip the concept of bravery and focus now on the concept of power, or ability.
By ability I mean what the Bible calls being "mighty." I see this word in three ways:
1. Natural ability or potentiality
2. Supernatural ability or potentiality
3. Natural or supernatural training, encompassing numbers 1 or 2
Now the line between these three are not clear because all ability, natural or supernatural, comes from God. The difference is this: natural ability tends to bring honor to the individual, whereas supernatural ability tends to bring honor to God. (Or it is at least viewed as beyond the person.)
Some people are born strong, or skilled at being aggressive or evasive in combat or fights. They were simply born this way. Now they can increase in their natural battle skills through practice, experience, and training. But the ability came from the womb.
Nimrod seems to be an example of natural battle skills. He was mighty before the Lord as a hunter and warrior. In other words, it seemed that somehow his natural ability was acknowledged by God and mankind.
Abram's men are described as "trained," which would seem to encompass natural ability, potentiality, training, and experience. Yet is it also very clear that God gave Abram and his men supernatural success and victory because Abram and his men were greatly outnumbered and fought against kings.
Divine warriors like Joshua, Gideon, and David seemed to possess a combination of natural and supernatural ability. The natural is what I've mentioned as being born ability. But the supernatural involves the very presence of God Himself giving invincibility and perfect victory, as long as the warrior stayed in submission to God! If the warrior rebelled, then victory was no longer a possibility. We see this in the situation with Achan in the book of Joshua. When Achan sinned, it caused Israel to be defeated. In the story, Joshua's response is significant. He seemed genuinely distressed by the defeat, as if defeat was a most unnatural occurence. Of course any defeat causes sorrow, but Joshua responded as if he never expected to be defeated. This was so because God promised this very thing to Joshua:
"No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life." Joshua 1:5
But when there was sin, then there was victory for Israel's opposition. This is crucial to understand, especially in light of political events of today. Neither Israel, nor America, nor any other group or individual can claim immunity and perfect victory unless they are in perfect submission to God's will! Even then, God may will for his warrior to die to bring Him glory. But whether in life or death, God is only on the side of those who are on His side!
With Gideon we don't immediately see natural abilty or potentiality. We find God Himself seeing something in Gideon that is not obvious to the reader of scripture. We also see the Spirit of God coming upon Gideon and empowering him as a warrior. The same happens with David, who seemed to have some natural ability with a sling shot. God's presence and power with the warrior results in victories that bring God glory. He caused Gideon to win a battle with only 300 men, as opposed to about 32,000 men! This, of course, is supernatural, yet the men with Gideon had to possess certain distinctions instructed by God. God even told Gideon in His first meeting with him to "go in the strength that he had."
So as far as power or ability goes, there is a cooperation between natural ability/training and supernatural ability/training. With warriors like Joshua, Gideon, Samson, and David, the Spirit of God would come upon them in the power and fierceness of a divine warrior. God's presence with and in the warrior would at times creat terror and dread upon the enemies of God. In other words, the "fear and terror of God," would cause nations to feel paralyzed! All would know that they had better not bother those who obey God!
The divine warrior's code encompasses God's presence and God given power. Next, we'll focus on the necessity of prowess, or bravery....
Read part 4 here
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