I picked up my copy of The Israel Bible the other day. I’m still getting used to reading back to front and left to right and I doubt that I’ll master Hebrew. It’s a good thing that there’s a parallel English translation! As it turned out, my eyes fell upon Psalm 20:8:
They [call] on chariots, they [call] on horses, but we call on the name of Hashem our God.
(This is verse 27 in Christian Bibles, but Hebrew Bibles number the superscription as verse 1. The Hebrew word HaShem translates literally to ‘the name,’ the Hebrews being reluctant to say aloud YHWH, the personal name of God.)
The verses immediately before and after verse 27 are instructive:
Now I know that Hashem will give victory to His anointed, will answer him from His heavenly sanctuary with the mighty victories of His right arm. (Verse 7)
They collapse and lie fallen, but we rally and gather strength. (Verse 9)
David had experienced victory and he attributed it to God and God alone.
Reading this verse prompted me to recall the phrase ‘peace through strength’ used by Presidents Trump and Reagan and much earlier by George Washington. The phrase is apparently from the Roman maxim ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum’ which means ‘If you want peace, prepare for war.’ Emperor Hadrian is attributed with the phrase ‘Peace through strength – or, failing that, peace through threat.’
King David was certainly not a pacifist, but he never mistook his sword for his salvation. In contrast, his enemies trusted in their own strength. That’s why they called upon chariots and horses. David trusted in God. That’s why he called upon Hashem. In fact, David consistently asked God about important matters such as whether he should attack an enemy and whether God would grant him victory. He did not go into battle without first ‘inquiring of the Lord.’ Not only did he intercede for Israel: he had thousands of Levites, musicians and singers leading worship before the Ark of the Covenant.
When David was king, Israel’s army was small relative to those of the surrounding enemies and lacked the fighting chariots of the Arameans and Philistines. Although he had his version of the SAS, his ‘fighting men’, his victories would have been hard to explain but for faith in God’s deliverance. It is interesting that in Deuteronomy 17:16, God commanded that the future king of Israel must not build up a large stable of war horses nor send men to Egypt to acquire them. Undoubtedly, God wanted Israel to know that He was their salvation, not their king nor their military, and certainly not another nation.
It occurred to me that we in PIFA could adopt the maxim ought to be ‘Pax per intercessionem’ or ‘Peace through intercession.’ Our role is so critically important at this critical time in human history.
During WWII, Rees Howells and his students at the Bible College of Wales transformed the college into a ‘war room’ of continuous intercession. Their efforts were regarded as effective by many of their contemporaries, especially with respect to the Battle of Britain and the evacuation at Dunkirk.
Although we are not in a physical war in Australia and the Pacific region today, intercession is urgently needed in the face of the so-called culture wars that are undermining biblical principles for human flourishing. Full-term abortion, euthanasia, unbiblical expressions of human sexuality, abuse of economic and political power, insecure national borders, pushing Christian voices out of the public square and exploitation of the poor are just some of the issues. It seems to me that the culture wars are aimed at the family and the nation, the two main building blocks of God’s Kingdom on earth.
During the reign of King Solomon, Israel and Judah flourished. The borders were secure (1 Kings 4:24) and there was peace. By this time, Solomon had ‘forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand horsemen’ (1 Kings 4:26). All the people dwelt safely, with ‘each man under his vine and his fig tree’ (1 Kings 4:25). Oh, that this would be our experience today – maybe not literally but figuratively speaking.
The vine and fig tree represented profound peace, security and economic independence in ancient times, and they are also mentioned in Zechariah 3:10 and Micah 4:4 where they are part of prophetic looking forward rather than lived reality as in 1 Kings 4.
As I have done in most of my contributions to this newsletter, may I encourage you again to keep on in interceding for our nation. Be encouraged by King David’s practice of intercession. Be encouraged by the impact of Rees Howells and the Bible College of Wales. Be encouraged by the fact that you are not alone. Sisters and brothers in PIFA and many more are praying against the culture wars and seeking God’s protection and provision for our nation. Let’s dare to believe that through our intercession, everyone will live under the vine and the fig tree.
