Proven Fighters

In Psalm 18, we find a passage that can serve to remind us of the strength we have in the Lord, in
Whom we can have hope:
(1b) I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.

Like it or not, but we have been called to the battlefield, spiritually speaking.  We have a powerful Savior, our Advocate, who stands with us, intercedes for us, and gives us the amazing capacity to fight against the enemy.  Recognizing this, we have to make up our mind to stand against him and to recognize that sometimes we may have to go it alone.  But, it's always better to have allies with us, and so we can be challenged to find people who will pray with us and fight with us, in order that Satan's schemes may be thwarted and God might be glorified.

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The Bible tells us that we have powerful resources in order to be effective in spiritual warfare; in fact, the Bible itself is a weapon - called the "sword of the spirit" in Ephesians 6.  Earlier in that chapter,
we can read:
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 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.

One of the developments in the Middle East that has occurred recently is a decision to provide weaponry to a group of people known as the Kurds.  According to The Clarion Project website, the President "has decided to supply weapons to the YPG, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units."  The site goes on to say, "The YPG is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria."  The story says that the U.S. is working with the SDF.

Turkey is not happy about this development.  The site reports that "Turkey views the Kurdish forces as terrorists and a threat to Turkish sovereignty. Turkey previously threatened U.S. troops in areas near Turkey’s border with Syria."

The Clarion story concludes by saying:

The U.S. views the Kurds as crucial to the takeover of Raqqa, Syria, ISIS’ de facto capital, as they have proven themselves to be one of the most organized and effective fighting forces against ISIS to date. The Kurds assured the U.S. they intend to exit Raqqa after the battle is won and leave the governance of the city to their Arab partners.

In the heart of the turmoil in the Middle East, there is this ethnic group that has the potential to be a powerful ally.  Marginalized in Northern Iraq by Saddam Hussein, the Kurds have been fighting for their own nation for some time now.  Author Stephen Mansfield did an interview for The Meeting House program several years ago about this group, in association with the book, The Miracle of the Kurds: A Remarkable Story of Hope Reborn in Northern Iraq.

Mansfield wrote in a piece on the HuffPost website that Saddam "declared war on the Kurds of his nation" and "killed more than a million of them, many with Sarin and mustard gas, some of which burns in Kurdish flesh still." He writes, "Mercifully, it was the atrocities of Saddam that finally moved the West to act on the Kurds’ behalf."

He says that the Kurds "declared themselves a democracy, passed a law that offered foreign investors sweeping incentives, and began fashioning the 'Kurdish Miracle' now celebrated the world over." He writes, "In a land that once grieved some 4,000 villages destroyed by Saddam, there are new and stunning hospitals, schools, restaurants, five star hotels, parks and airports."

In calling for a Kurdish independent nation, Mansfield writes:

Ranging over 15,000 square miles, a Kurdish nation would be much larger than Israel, a lynchpin of U.S. policy in the region. She would also be a valuable ally — a pro-democracy, pro-U.S. and majority pro-Israel people in the belly of the Middle East. Her more moderate version of Islam — women have recently sat upon the Supreme Court in Kurdistan and there is a “Christian Department” within the region government — is a version the U.S. will want to encourage in the decades to come.

So, here you have it - the potential for the rise of a powerful Mideastern ally, and a group of people that can provide some inspiration for us.

One lesson we can contemplate today is that you have to be forthright in fighting the enemy. The Kurds are surrounded and for years they were a punching bag for Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, but as Mansfield writes, in face of ISIS, "Only the Kurdish fighting force, the Peshmerga, stood their ground and proved themselves worthy. Yet until recently they have had to go it largely alone in this fight, much as they have for most of their modern history."  So, there is another component of spiritual warfare: sometimes you have to go it alone.  When you find yourselves surrounded by people who do not want to fight, you may have to take up the full armor of God and move forward; and it may give you a chance to lead.

But, we can be reminded in that in a dangerous world and dangerous spiritual conditions, we all need some good allies.  People to stand with you, to provide encouragement, and to be a source of good prayer cover in the battles you face.  You can be challenged to assemble a strong team in order to move forward in the things of God.

Finally, the story of the Kurds helps us to remember that there can be hope on the other side of atrocity.  Because hope is not dependent on the physical surroundings - where there is the presence of Jesus, there can always be hope.  The persecution or opposition may not be removed, but we can possess the proper attitude and activate the Lord's power in order to withstand.