What's It Worth To You?

Judges 6: 2 - 5 And the hand of the Midianites prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites Israel made them Den's in the mountains, and caves, and strongholds. It was, when Israel had sown that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the East, even they came up against them. And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the Earth, unto Gaza and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. They came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it.

Now let's take a look at another scripture. What I want you to notice between these two encounters is the stark contrast between what the Israelites did, and what one Israelite did.

2 samuel 23:11 and after him was, Shammah, the son of Agee the Harrarite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines.

Notice the next verse, verse 12 but he "Shammah" stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines: and the Lord wrought a great Victory.

So in our first scripture text, when the adversary came in, the children of Israel fled to their dens, and caves, and strongholds in the mountains. Simply put, they tucked their tales and ran away and hid. And this was not the first time. This had been happening for 7 years.

The Israelites were so accustomed and so adjusted to it, that they had made themselves hiding places, to run back to when the Midianites showed up.

Let me say something about this right here. This is wrong. It is totally, absolutely unequivocally wrong for the child of God to be running from the devil, and hiding out in a fraidy hole.

When you examine the armor that God has given to us, there is no armor for the back, because the child of God is never supposed to run away from the enemy.

Admittedly in life, there are times when the battle gets hot, and we experience extreme pressures against us, and the warfare is heavy, but the Holy Spirit knows no retreat, and all of our armor is designed for fighting not for fleeing.

So when we see these Israelites running away to hide, it should rub us the wrong way. Do you feel me? You know what Im talking about?

Patrick Henry said, give me Liberty or give me death. What he was saying was I will die fighting before I will let you take my Liberty. In other words Patrick Henry was saying my freedom is worth more than a mere existence, more than going through the motions, a slave to another kingdom.

So In our two texts there are extreme differences. In the first the Children of Israel planted their seed, and tended their fields, then just as harvest time came, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came in and destroyed all their crops. They nullified everything they had done. And when the children of Israel saw them coming, they ran for their lives.

So now back to our 2nd text. 2 Samuel 23:11-12 It says, and after him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Harrarite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. 12 but he "Shammah" stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines: and the Lord wrought a great Victory.

We are looking at a contrast here; we are looking at the whole nation of Israel, who ran away in fear when they were threatened, and one man named Shammah, who stood his ground, and refused to run. Even when all of his fair weather friends left him alone, Shammah refused to leave his pea patch. He wouldnt run.

Now try to put yourself in Shammahs shoes. Did it make sense for him to stand there and oppose not just one or two or five Philistine soldiers, but a troop. We dont know exactly how many that is, but we can suppose somewhere between 20 to 100 soldiers.

To tell the truth, it wasnt logical for Shammah to stand there and fight. Logic says, he who quits and runs away lives to fight another day. And all of Shammahs friends believed that. They left Shammah standing alone in the middle of his pea-patch.

I want you to think about this for a minute.

Would you have risked your life for a pea-patch?

Was it worth it?

Who decides what something is worth?