The Battle to be Fought

 

The thought just came to me of the small band of men on that hijacked plane on 9-11.  In the air and aware they were destined for death and a major destruction in our country, those men had been able to secretly call one of their spouses, and after telling them of the situation they prayed together, said they loved them, but they must fight the hijackers.  And we next heard that the plane had crashed in the wilderness, killing those men and all aboard --- but no one else.  The fighters, who fought the fight they had to fight, did well.  They died, but their prayers were answered, and I’m sure they now live with Him who they prayed to.

The thoughts above arose in my mind because I have just finished listening to Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year, Day 63.  He reads Numbers 14, noting that the time is just after the Jews have fled from Egypt and God is telling them they must now fight to obtain the Promised Land, but despite the huge miracles they have just seen, and God’s great mercy in freeing them from slavery, they demur.  Fr. Mike then reads Deuteronomy 12, which is 38 years later, years of wandering in the desert.  Fr. Mike offers commentary that in Numbers the Jews refused to fight for the land God promised would be theirs; they refused to trust in His promise, and all of them ultimately died in the desert, and then their children had to go do the battle they had refused.  And, as we know, God gave their children victory, a victory which should have been theirs.

Fr. Mike comments that some difficult battles God permits to happen to us, in our lives, we must fight.  God will be with us.  We need to trust in Him. He was talking about the words of Numbers, and I later thought of those actions of 9-11.  Battles in front of us are battles we sometimes CAN refuse to fight, He gave us freedom, but the battles will have to be fought.

You can make all the assumptions you want about what huge battles we, this country, and/or the world are facing right now, but without a sincere trust in God, those thoughts only lead to fear.  And we must trust that God is with us.  And then like the men on that plane, have faith in God and do what we can do, where we are.  We don’t know the results of the times we are living, and perhaps the only thing we can do is pray and fast, but to refuse to do anything and make believe the times will go away, is what the Jews did in Numbers.  Will a small number have to die, as in the plane crash, or hugely more because of our lack of faith?