Preparing for War - #4 Economy of Force

Preparing for War – WEEK 4

We begin with the fourth week of our 9 week basic training course on “Preparing for War”. 

Carl von Clausewitz  1780-1831 was a Prussian soldier and German military theorist

ONE - OBJECTIVE: purpose is ultimate destruction of enemy forces… and the will to take  every thought captive to Christ. We cannot allow the evil we encounter in our lives to even slightly remain in our thoughts…..we need to utterly destroy.

TWO – Offense/Defense: Sometimes a good offense is a Stronger defense. The strength is our confession that Christ is the son of God.

THREE – Mass: Concentrate our forces to overwhelm our enemy. Open our eyes. We cannot do it on our own.

Economy of Force – Employ all combat power in the most effective way possible.

The principle of economy of force is profound and underlies every dimension of warfare, from technology to training, from tactics to strategy. Why is there both an art and a science of war? Warfare brings to the surface the incapacity of man.

Do you understand what I mean by our incapacity?

We never have enough men, enough money, enough supplies, enough time, enough will-power.

Sounds like our lives doesn’t it? If I only had a better job, if I only made more money, if I only had more time to spend with my kids, to do the things I enjoy, to do this to do that.  If I only had a car that didn’t have to check the oil in it every week…..a big enough house…..there is always something….it is never enough. It will never be enough.

And that is where Economy of Force comes into play. It is strategy.  An Art & SCIENCE. Great generals of war are made great because of strategies. If it was just a mathematical formula than anyone could be a great general. We could type into the computer and output a formula that says….nope….we will lose today.  Don’t do it!

a.         Little Known Fact

            111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

One hundred & eleven million, one hundred & eleven thousand, one hundred & eleven

Twelve quadrillion, Three hundred & forty-five trillion, six hundred & seventy-eight billion, nine hundred & eighty-seven million, six hundred & fifty-four thousand, three hundred & twenty-one.

The oddity of the math isn’t always something that we can understand……why does it turn out in that manner. GOD. The walls of Jericho from two weeks ago.  How, why….GOD. I shared with you that math and science could account for this….but it was GOD that provided the information. It was faith that followed it.

Information equals economy.  Economy equals wisdom. Wisdom equals GOD.

Proverbs 1:1-7 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; To give prudence to the simple,

To the young man knowledge and discretion— A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, To understand a proverb and an enigma,

The words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,

But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Knowledge + Understanding + Wisdom = God’s direction for us to win the battles.

Ecclesiastes 2:26  For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight;

a.      War

a.      Remember the Alamo.

b.      Custer’s Last Stand at Little Big Horn

c.       Force 10 from Navarone

d.      The Dirty Dozen

b.      Bible Battles

a.      Gideon

Judges 1:1-22 ¹ Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.² And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ ³ Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. ⁴ But the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” ⁵ So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” ⁶ And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. ⁷ Then the LORD said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.” ⁸ So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. ⁹ It happened on the same night that the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. ¹⁰ But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, ¹¹ and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. ¹² Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. ¹³ And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.” ¹⁴ Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.” ¹⁵ And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.” ¹⁶ Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. ¹⁷ And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: ¹⁸ When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!’” ¹⁹ So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. ²⁰ Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!” ²¹ And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. ²² When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia,^[a] toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath.

God made a decision to show his power and abilities by reducing the force to a small band of 300 warriors. These were not necessarily the best, bravest; strongest……they were just the ones who happened to drink water like a dog.

b.      David and Goliath

1 Samuel 17:3-11  The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.  And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze.  And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders.  Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him.  Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.  If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”  And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.”  When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

1 Samuel 17:36-51   So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail.  David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off.  Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.  So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him.  And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking.  So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.  And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.  Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.  Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.  So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.  Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

Funny that both of these stories relate to the victorious side initially as dogs.

The best Superbowl commercial I ever saw was Wilson Sporting goods.

God has given us the opportunity to win the battles.  It might require us to do something a bit unusual or unorthodox…..march around our enemies…..blow some trumpets…..break some pitchers…..or maybe it is just something as simple as following his commandments and doing his will.

Proverbs 4:4-7

      “ Let your heart retain my words;

      Keep my commands, and live.

       Get wisdom! Get understanding!

      Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

       Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you;

      Love her, and she will keep you.

       Wisdom is the principal thing;

      Therefore get wisdom.

      And in all your getting, get understanding.

James 1:5-6 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting,…. for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

There is never enough we can do to get to heaven. By God’s grace we can be granted “enough” ….but not by our own will. But when ask Him for the wisdom.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Man’s wisdom is that of a fool and cannot provide the answers.

The reason I couldn’t find any real life situation of battles is that it doesn’t really exist….not without God.  Without God we do not have the knowledge and wisdom. He is the great equalizer. He elevates us above our opponents. Above our enemy. And most importantly above our sins.

Ephesians 1:7-9  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace  which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will,

The mystery will be reveled and we will be confident in the “economy of our force”. And that force will be enough to thoroughly defeat our enemy……and then we can shout…

‘The sword of the LORD and me!’

INVITATION