Open—A.C. Hayhoe
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Could we look just very briefly to a passage in connection with what our brother has just said from Second Samuel?
Second Samuel, Chapter 23.
This thought is with apologies to our brother Christopher Willis. If he is here for I've heard it from him and would like to pass it on. Second Samuel, chapter 23, verses 10 and 11.
He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary.
And his hand clothed unto the sword. And the Lord brought a great victory that day. And the people returned after him only to spoil. And after him was Shama the son of Aggie the Heraite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils.
And the people fled from the Philistines, but he stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines. And the Lord wrought a great victory.
A young man whose name was Shama, and he's faced with the responsibility of defending a field of lentils, the Philistines. The enemies of the Lord, are gathered together against him in a troop, and the people who were with him, who ought to have shared with him in this responsibility, fled.
From before the enemy, an occasion when this dear man Shama might well have felt he had a just excuse to do the same. Everybody else has given up. Nobody else seems to feel that this field of lentils is worth defending, and I believe our brother told us that lentils were a form of beans. In fact, he called it a bean field, and you really wouldn't think it was worth risking one's life to stand and defend that.
In the face of a mighty enemy. But it was part of a God-given heritage, and he wasn't going to see it taken by the enemy. Oh dearly beloved brethren, we have a God-given heritage of truth, and the very last epistle in God's word would tell us earnestly contend for the faith once delivered.
To the Saints, here's a young man named Shama. He finds this God-given heritage, is challenged. He looks around to see who's going to stand by him, and he finds himself all alone, individual faithfulness and a day of ruin. But he stood his ground. He defended that field of lentils, Oh dearly beloved young people, particularly as I think of what has been.
Entrusted to us.
What has been handed down to us so easily? Most of us have been spoon fed on the truth of God and it's being challenged today. You know, I speak the truth. It's being challenged in many cases in a practical way and it's not a very popular thing to stand where others flee. It's not a very popular, in fact it looks a very ridiculous thing to defend a field of lentils in the face of the enemy.
This man's name was recorded. I don't know the language, but I know the word Shama is found in the last chapter of Ezekiel Jehovah Shama. The Lord is there, so I would suppose. Perhaps that word simply means.
There where there was something to be defended, this man Shama was there to defend it. Are you? Am I?
Are we willing to stand for the truth of God?
Practically in our lives, as well as when we hear it mocked and ridiculed in the verse before we find that young man whose soared clave onto his hand.
That was the first that stirred my heart to serve the Lord.
His hand clave under the sword. A brother held up this book.
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And he said, thank God for those whose hands still cleave to the sword. What does your hand cleave to? What does my hand cleave to? Oh, it's so easy that our hand cleaves to the books of knowledge that men put within them. It's so easy for our hands to cleave to the necessary parts of our daily toil. But does our hand really cleave to this book? The sword of God's Word? Are we really there?
When the time comes for these things to be defended with our heart in it, are we ready, as shaman did, to stand and defend that which God has entrusted? I thank God for the privilege of being at meetings like these, of hearing the truth of God presented. But we go home more responsible, and we came. May each one of us individually take this to heart, to be faithful to him in a day of ruin.
Hey, Cortana.
I love you so far.
Away through the way the yelling sounded.