In the year 2015, more than two hundred Nigerian soldiers were dismissed from the army for not obeying orders, they were accused of fleeing rather than fighting the Boko Haram militants. One of the dismissed soldiers explained in an interview with a leading news channel that what he did was a tactical withdrawal. He claims that the enemy was more equipped than them, they had better weapons and they (the Nigerian soldiers) were outgunned. You can’t fight a battle and win without proper weapons against a highly armed enemy. As long as the enemy has better weapons than you, you are bound to lose the war.
One of the most secured places of a country is not the banks were money and gold are kept but it is the armoury where guns and other weapons are stored. Once you have your weapons raided by the enemy, you will struggle to fight and win, your next option will be to flee from the warlike what the dismissed soldiers did.
The Philistines Policy
The Philistines knew that to defeat their enemy (the Israelites), they had to make sure that the latter does not have weapons. They came up with a policy to ensure that this is achieved. The Philistines made sure that no Blacksmith was found throughout all the land of Israel for the fear that the Hebrews might make them swords or spears: (1 Samuel 13:19). Blacksmiths were the people responsible for making weapons from iron. The Philistines’ strategy was to disarm their enemy. Even today the enemy of the children of God: Satan, is on a drive to disarm those who believe in God so that they become unarmed and easy prey.
This chapter is entitled “Spiritually disarmed” which is a description of a situation whereby a person is stripped of his/her spiritual weapons and is based on 1 Samuel 13:19-22.
The Philistines realised that for Israel to be rendered weak with regards to warfare they must be disarmed, they must not have weapons, and for this to happen there must not be any blacksmiths. The Bible doesn’t tell us how exactly this strategy of making sure that there are no Blacksmiths was executed. Probably the Philistines offered the Israeli blacksmiths better job opportunities somewhere, or they abducted them, or maybe they even killed anyone who did the weapon making business in Israel. Whatever method they used, it proved to be effective. There was no longer any blacksmith in the land of Israel which meant that there was no one who was able to make them any swords or spears to use to fight the enemy.
Our weapon - Sword of the Spirit
The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6:12 that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…” Our warfare as children of God does not involve physical swords or guns and bombs, no, but it’s a spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:13 goes on to say “Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” The armour is then listed out on the verses which follow but our main focus in this sermon is on verse 17 which says “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”.
Our sword is the word of God, the devil is aware of this weapon and he is making use of the same strategy which was used by the Philistines of making sure that in the land of Israel there is no blacksmith. Satan wants to remove among the children of God those that can make swords, by this I mean he wants a situation where no one can rightly teach the word of God. If people lack the word of God, they can easily be attacked by Satan and they cannot fight back.
Of Ploughshares and Mattocks
The shortage of blacksmiths caused all the Israelites to go down to the Philistines to sharpen their ploughshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles. The chosen tribe of God, going to have their tools sharpened by the Philistines. The devil makes sure that you won’t have anyone who can teach you the word of God correctly and in the end, you go to him for Bible study lessons. He directs you to his false prophets, false theological colleges and false churches. You will notice that among the tools which were being sharpened by the Philistines for the Israelites, none of these items was spears or swords. The Philistines are comfortable with sharpening your ploughshares and mattocks but they won’t sharpen swords for you because that will indirectly mean that they have also empowered you with weapons to fight against them.
Satan is not against you getting all the worldly things, he has no problem in giving you earthly riches, but when it comes to you getting the word of God, he is so against it. He doesn’t want you to come to the knowledge of the truth which is in the word of God. He gives you bottles of anointed water, anointed oils, calendars and posters with a picture of the pastor and his wife, wrist bands, necklaces with a cross, he gives you all relics and different religious paraphernalia you can think of. But he doesn’t give you the word of God, because it is in the word of God that people will know the truth which exposes him (the devil).
There is nothing bad in having your farming tools sharpened but the one who is doing the sharpening has a hidden agenda. There is nothing wrong for a person to have wealth but the one who is giving you that wealth has ulterior motives. The devil wants you to have sharp farming tools but he doesn’t want you to have a sharp sword, even a blunt one. He wants you to be a millionaire but doesn’t want you to be rich in the word of God. He wants you to be empowered with the things of this world yet spiritually weak.
If you are to listen to the radio stations when they air Church adverts, the testimonies are all about ploughshares and sickles. Very seldom do they give testimonies about the sword of the spirit (word of God), very few testify that they now know the word of God than before they were born again. It’s all about worldly things, ‘I managed to buy a residential stand, I managed to have a white wedding, a managed to buy a new car’, those are the kind of testimonies you hear. It’s all because the Philistines are the ones in charge of the smith’s industry so they allow you to have your garden shovels but never the swords.
There is nothing bad with having your farming tools but when the war comes, you can’t successfully fight using gardening equipment, you need swords and spears. A shovel is a good tool for agricultural activities of the economy but not for the war. The ‘gospel’ being preached today is about economic issues, ‘I see your car, I see your business, I see your success’, yes we do need the material things but when it comes to spiritual battles, that message is irrelevant.
Having made sure that there were no blacksmiths in Israel, on the day of the battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people except for Saul and Jonathan his son. When it was wartime, Israel didn't have any weapons. As we are already in this spiritual war, some professing Christians do not have the word of God and yet they expect to overcome the devil. They just have wrist bands & church uniforms but they don’t have the word. Saul and Jonathan were the ones who had the weapons, even today only a few people are left holding on to the infallible word of God and many are ignorant about it. People are left with ploughshares and sickles, they are left with church doctrines and man’s traditions but without the word of God.
Why you need the Word
The war against sin needs the word of God, that’s why Psalms 119:11 says “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” You need the word of God in your heart to overcome sin. Matthew 4:1 tells us that Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. As Jesus was tempted, He quoted scripture. In responding to the devil he started His statements with the words ‘it is written’ then went on to quote scripture. On Matthew 4:4 He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, on Matthew 4:7 He quoted Deuteronomy 6:16 and on Matthew 4:10 he quoted Deuteronomy 10:20. The word of God helps us to fight temptations as they come.
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4
Without the word of God, you are spiritually disarmed. Without bread (food) you will become physically weak, malnourished and in the end, you die. Without the spiritual bread (Word of God), you will become spiritually weak and you can die spiritually also.
The word of God is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. (Psalms 119:105). Without it, you will be living in darkness. Those who walk in darkness are at risk of falling into the devil's trap. In the dark, people can dress anyhow because they can't see what they are putting on that's why there is a lot of controversy around Christian dressing. In the dark, people can speak whatever they want no matter how foul or offensive it might be because they think that no one is seeing them, that’s why we have a lot of hate speech and vulgar language. Anything goes in the dark as long people’s lives are not illuminated by the word of God.
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” Romans 10:17
The word of God builds our faith. For us to believe that God will fight our battles and help us to conquer, we need to go back to the word of God. Recorded testimonies which are in there will build up our faith that God can do for us what He did for others.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 2 Timothy 3:16
Through prayer we get to tell God what is in our hearts, but through reading His Word, we get to know what He wants from us. You can't say that God is silent when your Bible is closed. Those Holy Scriptures were written by various people who were inspired by God Himself. 2 Peter 1:20-21 says “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” These men were just typists but the real source of the message was the Spirit of God. As we read the Bible we get to hear what God is saying to us.
Those who are Holy Spirit-filled make use of the Bible. You cannot be led by the Spirit of God and yet discard or contradict scripture. There are some professing believers who reject the Bible saying that they only make use of The Holy Spirit as their guide, but is this proper? Jesus Himself being full of the Holy Spirit when He went into the synagogue on Luke 4:16-19, He was given the book of Isaiah and read from it on Isaiah 61:1 which says "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”
Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). If we are true worshippers, then we must be led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14) and we must also be led by the truth and truth is the word of God (John 17:17). You can’t choose one and reject the other.
In order to discourage people from reading the Bible, Satan makes use of various tactics. In one method he uses people to do evil things and yet claim to be following the Bible. For instance, a man can stand on the pulpit, twist some verses and defraud money from his followers. It would appear as if the Bible is to blame in such a case but not at all. Imagine a kitchen knife, its purpose is to cut vegetables, meat and other things in the kitchen but we have people who are behind bars because they used that knife to kill another human being. Can we blame the crime on the knife or on the person who misused it? Of course, the knife is not the problem and we cannot ban knives from our kitchens. The same goes with the Bible, some people have misused scripture for their own benefit and the destruction of others. We can’t reject the Bible simply because someone has abused it, but rather we must reject that wrong use of the scripture and not the Bible itself.
The Bible helps us in making correct decisions in life, whether in business, social, relationships, leadership and many other areas. There are many lessons contained in the Bible to learn from and apply in our everyday lives.
Don’t allow the Philistines to spiritually disarm you, don’t allow Satan to weaken you spiritually by depriving you of the word of God. Stay away from the agents of Satan who only desire to make mattocks for you but not swords. It is also for your advantage that you become your own blacksmith, start on your own to make your own swords. Start your personal study of the Bible, come up with a reading plan and follow it than to wait for someone to do it for you. We are approaching the second coming of Jesus, if you are not rooted in the word of God, you might easily be swept away with deceptions but if you are grounded in the word, you will overcome.
Arm yourself with the Word of God.
