Behind Enemy Lines

I am a teaching director for a Community Bible Study class that meets in Athens. We are studying Revelation this year. If one of your resolutions was to study the Bible, then come out and join us. We meet Mondays at 7 p.m. at Milledge Avenue Baptist Church.
As the teaching director, I do a teaching each week. Following is the text from Revelation 12:10-17. If you prefer, you can listen.

Behind Enemy Lines

On March 23, 2003, Capt. David Blakeley of the British army led a squad of nine soldiers on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq. They were ordered to reconnoiter an airfield for the potential airborne insertion of British paratroopers. The airfield was 75½  miles away. Their intel told them that the area they would be traveling through was “relatively benign.” What they discovered fairly early on was that it was swarming with Iraq’s Republican Guard and Fedayeen. 

Early in their mission they actually found themselves in the middle of an Iraqi camp. Capt. Blakeley said, “They didn’t do anything because it was so outrageous. They didn’t expect us to suddenly move through their position.” By the time they had gone 49 miles, sporadic fire became more intense. They found cover in some trees. When they saw 15 pickup trucks carrying dozens of the feared Fedayeen in their distinctive white uniforms, the British knew that they were trapped behind enemy lines. They continued toward their objective only to find themselves boxed in by a canal. They debated proceeding on foot the last 25 miles, but they believed that the speed and firepower of their armed vehicles was an advantage. They made a radio call for air support. 

Blakeley says this: “I was told by a senior officer there was no air support. It was like swallowing acid. They didn’t say wait it out. We were not told they would try. I was told there was nothing available. It was crushing, devastating. We were totally on our own, abandoned.” 

They made the tactically wrong decision to fight their way back through. They fought their way through five ambushes, past Iraqi bunkers and machine guns, with rocket-propelled grenades firing over them. Blakeley said, “It was like Star Wars. The intensity of the fire was like nothing I have ever seen. We were stupidly lucky.” They reunited with American forces, their vehicles riddles with bullet holes. Blakeley had a bullet hole in his trouser leg. Another soldier had a round imbedded in a pistol on his chest. If you are interested in the whole story, it is told in a book entitled Pathfinder—ASpecial Forces Mission Behind Enemy Lines.

The last half of Revelation 12 informs us that there is coming a time when Christians on this world are going to find themselves behind enemy lines. There is going to be a great victory in heaven where Satan is cast down to earth. While there will be a great celebration in heaven, there will be the wretchedness of warfare on earth. Satan will be forced to take his battle from the courtroom of heaven to the streets and deserts and forests of earth. He will make “war on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” In other words, Christians alive when this happens will find themselves enduring a true hell on earth. 

But here is the thing: the battle has already been won. The war is over. Good has already triumphed over evil. Jesus pronounced it on the cross: “It is finished.” Everything else is just empty skirmishes, like the fourth quarter of a high school football game when one team has a lead of 30 points or more. They keep playing. They keep blocking and tackling each other. They keep hitting each other. Players can get hurt, but the outcome of the game is no longer in doubt.

So what application does this passage have for us today? We are not yet in the last 3½ years of the end times when this takes place. Satan is still in heaven accusing us. We are not yet trapped behind enemy lines. Yes, all that is true, but we are still engaged in a holy war against evil. The outcome of the battle is certain, but it still rages, and there will be casualties. But Revelation 12 gives us great hope because it reminds us of a Sovereign God, a Superior power and a Certain victory. There may be casualties, but the battle is over, and we can rejoice.

The war between Good, with a capital G, and evil, with a lowercase e, has been ongoing since the serpent talked the woman into tasting the forbidden fruit. Evil has been mucking up God’s creation ever since, and sometimes it seems to be winning. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said at a news conference after the horrible mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, “Evil visited this community today.” He was right, in a sense. But the reality is that in this sin-sick world, evil is making regular visits. Evil visited Athens today. Evil was here yesterday. Evil will be back tomorrow. 

Yet, we can have hope. Why? Because it is not a fair fight. Evil cannot measure up to God. Revelation reminds us that “salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of our Christ have come.” Everything that God is, Satan is not. God is omnipotent. Satan is not. God is omnipresent. Satan is not. God is omniscient. Satan is not. God is unlimited. Satan is so limited. It is not a fair fight. There is no chance of Satan winning the war. Zilch. Zero. None. Nada. If a Las Vegas bookie were to lay odds, they would be simply 1 to zero.

Are you familiar with the story of Gideon in the book of Judges. God commanded Gideon to fight 135,000 Midianites. Gideon had an army of 32,000 soldiers. That doesn’t seem like a fair fight, does it? The Israelites were outnumbered four to one. So what could they do about this? Well, God could have commanded Gideon to draft a larger army, to conscript more soldiers, to get his numbers up. Of course, that is not what God did. Instead, he asked Gideon to reduce his army to only 300 men. From four to one to 450 to one. That’s not a fair fight is it? Of course not, because this one has on its side the power of God. It really is not a fair fight.

Revelation reminds us what the devil is doing, even now. He is accusing us. In the courtroom of heaven, Satan is the prosecutor who is constantly accusing us before God. It says night and day. Nag, nag, nag. This courtroom never shuts down, and this prosecutor never shuts up, and he is always pointing out our sin. He accused Job of being a big phony. He will accuse us of worse. And the interesting thing is, he has the facts on his side. He potentially could convict us by telling the truth about us. We are guilty. We are lawbreakers. We do deserve punishment. But we have the Superior Advocate. His defense is the same: “I took care of that.” Satan keeps on accusing, and always the answer is the same. “Satan, I took care of that on the cross.” The battle is over.

A military leader who goes into battle without weaponry, without a plan and without courageous soldiers is a fool who is doomed to defeat. We are assured of victory because we have a superior weapon, we have an ironclad strategy and we have soldiers willing to fight to the death.

Our weapon, our ammunition, is the blood of the Lamb. “They have conquered him [the accuser] by the blood of the Lamb.” Our weapon is not good deeds. It is not ministry. It is not wonderful worship. It is not a healthy church. It is not great Bible studies. All of those are good. They are byproducts. But the weapon is the blood of the Lamb that was shed on the cross.

In his book Eternity in Their Hearts, Don Richardson wrote about the difficulty that missionaries initially had in communicating the good news of Jesus Christ to the Chinese people. But one missionary had a breakthrough. He was studying a particular Chinese ideograph, the one which means “righteous.” There is a drawing of it on your outline. It is two images put together. The top half is the image for a lamb. The bottom half is an image for me. In other words, “I under the lamb am righteous.” It was a revelation to the Chinese, and they asked, “Which lamb must we be under to be righteous?” Of course, the answer is the Lamb of God.

A superior weapon needs a means of delivery. The blood of the Lamb is delivered by the word of our testimony. The word of believers reveals the saving power of the blood of the Lamb.

One of the first examples of the power of testimony is in Acts. Paul came to know Jesus in a dramatic fashion on the road to Damascus. On his way to Rome, he told that story repeatedly as he appeared before key government officials. Paul emphasized that it was not anything he had accomplished through his own efforts as a law-abiding Pharisee, but rather that he had been transformed by what Christ did on the cross.

Telling the story of Christ is not always an easy story to tell. Sometimes it requires courage to deliver that word of testimony. John wrote of believers who stood fast even in the face of death. “Death had no hold on them.” They did not even let the prospect of death dissuade them. 

Hebrew 11, the Hall of Faith chapter, highlights the faith of Abraham, Moses, the Israelites crossing the Red Seam Gideon, Samson, David and unnamed prophets: “³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” Sounds like victory. 

But the chapter ends this way: “³⁶ Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. ³⁹ And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” Doesn’t sound so much like victory.

I hope that none of you are ever faced with a life and death situation that hinges on your being faithful to your testimony of faith in Christ. But let us never forget what Jesus Himself told the disciples. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” We are called always to die to ourselves. On one level that means giving God control of our lives as opposed to the self will, but on another level it means be willing if necessary to literally die for God if that is what He calls us to do. That seems so counter intuitive. 

Here is a slightly sanitized version of what George C. Scott said in the movie Patton: “Now I want you to remember that no soldier ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb soldier die for his country.” Yet, in the Bible Jesus won the battle by His death on the cross, and at times Christians will be called on to win the battle by their deaths. The battle has been won, but there will be casualties.

The eviction of the devil touches off rejoicing in heaven. At long last, God has delivered on His promise of a world without sin. Not until Satan is thrown from heaven for the final time does heaven even become a place without sin. These verses describe that time. But even as heaven rejoices, there is a warning of woe to those on earth. Beware, bad days are coming.

Unlimited God now limits Satan to the earth. His first target is the chosen nation. But unlike the British soldiers who received no air cover, Israel is rescued on the wings of the great eagle. There are some who suggest that this could be an allusion to a rescue affected by the United States. That is possible, but we don’t really know what it means. Imagery of an eagle is in the Old Testament as well. But however it takes place, Satan is unable to complete his persecution of Israel. God provides them a safe haven in the wilderness. John saw the serpent pour water like a river. Some suggest that this describes a swarm of military might sent after the Israelites. Or maybe it is Satan being the great imitator. If God can swallow the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, Satan will swallow Israel in a river. Only God opens the earth and swallows the river, be it water or an army, to protect the Jews.

Foiled in his bid to destroy Israel, Satan turns to offspring of the woman, that is those who “keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” In a word, Christians. The battle is over, but there will be casualties. And like the Brits who had no air cover, God is going to permit Satan to have his way for a time.

Chapter 13 is going to give us more detail about this persecution. Suffice to say that it will be a hard time to be a believer. The only way that we will be able to survive is to understand that the battle has already been won, appearances to the contrary.

There is a scene in Band of Brothers, the mini series about Easy Company where Capt. Ronald Spiers talks to a soldier who admits that he is paralyzed with fear. Here is what he told him, “The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function.” Christ in the garden of Gethsemane accepted the will of the Father, that He must die to win. Some Christians will have to do the same in the end times. Some Christians today are martyred. There will be casualties, but the battle has already been won.

The victory is the Lord’s and it has already been confirmed. It is just as sure as a replay of yesterday’s NFL playoff games. But there will be casualties, as least as we measure casualties. We are the soldiers in God’s army, called to faithful service. We have the perfect weapon, the blood of the Lamb. And we each have the ability to wield that weapon through our own testimonies. That testimony is manifest in our words, but also our actions, our ministry, our worship, our prayer life. But it is most evident in our witness. The cause of Christ needs soldiers who are willing to die for the cause if necessary.

During the battle of the Chosin Reservour in the Korean War, the 1^st Marine Division was cut off behind enemy lines. The Army wrote them off as being lost because they were surrounded by 22 enemy divisions. Yet they made it out inflicting the highest casualty ratio on an enemy in history and destroying seven entire enemy divisions. Marine Command Lewis “Chesty” Puller was quoted at the time as saying, “They are front of us, behind us and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29 to 1. They can’t get away from us now.”

That should be our attitude, to resolve to share the word of our testimony regardless of the circumstances. I remember years ago watching a winless high school girls basketball team play against a team that was better skilled, more experienced and better prepared. The outcome of the game was evident from early on. There was no chance that the winless team was going to have a breakthrough moment. But even so, I was impressed by their effort and their attitude. They played passionately and purposely, even as they fell further and further behind. They listened to their coach, they encouraged one another, the put forth maximum effort, they never quit. 

Based on Revelation 12, there is coming a time when Christians on this world are going to be winless, or least circumstances will make it appear so. But what we must always remember is that no matter what the scoreboard says, we are playing for the winning side. Yes, there will be casualties, even deadly ones, but the great promise from God Himself is that victory is assured. Our task is simply to choose to be His good soldiers, sharing the blood of the Lamb through the word of our testimony.