It’s Veterans Day, and I don’t think I can improve on what I wrote last year…

It’s important to remember that God values warriors. Consider:

• God is referred to in scripture as a warrior: But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior… (Jeremiah 20.11, NIV)
• One of the last pictures we have of Jesus is as a warrior.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. (Revelation 19.11 – 14, ESV)

• Many of God’s key men were warriors:
  • Abraham led his men on an armed mission to rescue Lot. (Genesis 14.11 – 16)
  • Joshua was a general who led a series of campaigns to capture the promised land.
  • Gideon (and most of the judges) led the Israelites to conquer their oppressors.
  • David, of course, was a warrior demonstrated first in his defeat of Goliath. (1 Samuel 17.31 – 49)
  • A significant chunk of scripture is devoted to Davd’s mighty men. (1 Chronicles 11:10 – 12:22)
  • The first recorded Gentile convert was Cornelius, a Roman centurion. (Acts 10)

I’ve been challenged in adult Sunday School classes about being “too military.” But I don’t write this stuff…I just report it! If God didn’t value warriors both for what they do and for the fact that warriors remind us of spiritual warfare, God wouldn’t have devoted so much space to honoring warriors. Here are some snippets of 1 Chronicles 11:

• He wielded his spear against 300 whom he killed at one time.
• He took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and killed the Philistines. And the Lord saved them by a great victory.
• He wielded his spear against 300 men and killed them.
• He struck down two heroes of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. And he struck down an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall. The Egyptian had in his hand a spear like a weaver’s beam, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.

Those were some tough men!

This is a day to honor all the men and women who have served and are serving in our armed forces. God bless them.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6.10 – 13, ESV)