When the sword of the Spirit is dull

“The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening plowshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads.” (1 Samuel 13:21)

                For me, a smart phone is beneficial.  One of the reasons is because I can open the Internet and upload the contents of the texts or words that I read and meditate on the websites I manage [Naver blog, Facebook(several groups), KakaoTalk, KakaoTalk Story, Church website, e-mail].  Among the writing I am posting, there are some challenging Christian books that I am reading at the time.  I cite them and post them all over the websites I manage, and share them with other people.  Also, when I read the Bible at night before going to sleep, if I have any enlightenment, I write down my enlightenment and post it on the websites I manage.  Sometimes, reading the Bible at night gives me multiple enlightenments.  Even then, I post all those enlightenments here and there on my personal websites.  This habit is beneficial to my spiritual life.  What makes my life of faith beneficial, along with the habit of reading and meditating the word of God at night and writing down my enlightenments, is that after the Morning Prayer meeting, I enter the pastoral room and sit in front of the computer and meditate on the word of grace again like this as I write down my meditation.  Although this is the word I meditated on last night, and it was preached at the early Morning Prayer meeting, there is a new enlightenment that comes from preaching, which is the grace given to me at many times.  That is why after the Morning Prayer meeting, I have time to meditate on His word again while sitting alone in a chair in the pastoral room in the quiet morning hours.

            The verse I want to meditate on this morning is 1 Samuel 13:21.  I was reading the Bible last night, and I became interested in the word “to sharpen” (‘when they were dull’ in Korean Bible).  As I meditated on that, I came to think that when the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (Eph. 6:17) is dull (not sharpen (1 Sam. 13:21), then I have no choice but to be defeated by Satan’s attacks in the spiritual warfare.  And actually, looking back on my own life yesterday, from morning to afternoon, when the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, was dull, I was defeated by Satan's attack in the spiritual warfare and sinned against God.  I woke up on Monday morning and didn't read the Bible or pray.  I did this on the excuse that my body was tired.  I just wanted to rest.  So I stopped reading and meditating the word of God and praying to God.  Therefore, since I was so easily exposed to Satan's temptations, I did not win the spiritual battle but lost it.  Then last night, while reading the Bible, I came to enlightenment from 1 Samuel 12:21, 25.  So I wrote these words all over the websites that I manage with my smartphone like this: ‘Why can't I turn around, knowing that it's vain, of no benefit to me?  If I still do evil, I will perish  …’ (2016. 3. 28.).  Then, on my personal Naver blog, a certain person wrote this comment: ‘Yeah  ..  It’s not easy..  I can’t let it go …  I’m just sorry to the Lord.’  When the sword of the Spirit is dull, I see that my spiritual discernment and judgment are also clouded.  And when my spiritual discernment and judgment are clouded, I see myself floundering in confusion and not knowing what to do.  Furthermore, when the sword of the Spirit is dull, I see myself being more sensitive to the environment around me than to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  In such a spiritual state, when Satan attacks with one or more temptations, before I commit a sin in my words and deeds, I first see myself in the realm of my thoughts, losing the ability to fight and overcome those temptations with the word of God.  I remembered last night that it was a bigger problem than the sinning itself.

            Today's text in 1 Samuel 13:21, the word “to sharpen the goads,” means that since there were no blacksmith in the whole land of Israel (v. 19), all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plowshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened (v. 20) when they were dull (v. 21).  The reason why there were no blacksmiths in all the land of Israel was because the Philistines had said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!” (v. 19)  So, before the Israelites went to war with the Philistines at that time, only Saul and his son Jonathan had swords or spears (v. 22).  And the rest of the Israelites went to war with plowshares, shovels, axes, hoes, pitchforks, and whips. However, it seems that all of them were not sharp and went to war in a dull state.  So how could they fight and win the war?  But it wasn't just their dull weapons that forced the Israelites to lose the war against the Philistines.  Another cause was that from 3,000 men [Saul had 2,000, Jonathan had 1,000] (v. 2), Saul had only about 600 left (v. 15).  The reason the soldiers were so few was that they were scattered from Saul (v. 8).  And the reason the men were scattered from Saul (v. 8) was that all the people who followed Saul were afraid and trembled (v. 7).  Why did they tremble in fear?  The reason was because there were only 3,000 of the Israelites, and the enemy Philistines who came to fight them were thirty thousand chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and the people were as many as the sand on the seashore (v. 5).  So how could the people of Israel not tremble with fear (v. 7).  So, “When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were hard-pressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, in cellars, and in pits” (v. 6).  And those who were staying at Gilgal with Saul were trembling with fear at the thought of the danger that was to come (v. 7).  There, King Saul waited for 7 days according to the deadline set by Samuel.  But Samuel did not come to Gilgal until then and the remaining ones began to scatter (v. 8). When Saul saw that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash (v. 11), he forced himself and offered the burnt offering after he said “I have not asked the favor of the Lord” (v. 12).  But this was what King Saul did foolishly (v. 13).  In other words, King Saul did not keep the commandment that God gave him (v. 13).  In the end, King Saul sinned against God because he did not keep what God had commanded (vv. 13, 14).

            When we think of the time when we sinned against God, we were not standing firm in the word of God at that time.  At that time, we were in a spiritual state in which we could not but be defeated by Satan's attacks and temptations because we were either not properly equipped with the word of God, our weapon in the spiritual warfare.  The reason we have no choice but to lose in the spiritual war is because we are not led by the word of God.  We are led by our difficult situation rather than being led by His word.  When we are led by that situation, we react sensitively to the difficult situation rather than being sensitive to the word of God, and thus we are afraid and trembling.  In the end, we fail to trust God and rely on our own understanding (Prov. 3:5).  And we are busy running away from that difficult reality in fear.  This phobia and escapism are a natural reaction of the fear within us.  Even though God's work of salvation does not depend on many or few people (1 Sam. 14:6), when we are in fear, we are biased toward the number and small number of people, going back and forth and even scattered.  We no longer look to the God of salvation by faith, but look at the fearful situation and commit the sin of breaking God's command.  What should we do?  We must stand firm in the word of God.  We must sharpen the sword of the Spirit.  We must be filled with the word of God and live according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit with spiritual discernment, judgment, and spiritual sensitivity.  Then, in fear and trembling, we can no longer be defeated and overcome by Satan's attacks and temptations and live according to the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:16, 17).  “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like  …” (vv. 19-21).  We must be vigilant against these things by being filled with the word of God, the sword of the Holy Spirit.  Furthermore, we must sharpen the sword of the Spirit to combat these acts of sinful nature.  We must diligently sharpen our minds with the word of God to win the battle against ourselves, sin, the world, Satan, and death.  I hope and pray that we will win the spiritual battle with the power of God's word.