“Now no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.”
So all Israel went down to the Philistines, each to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, and his hoe.
The charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to fix the hoes.
So it came about on the day of battle that neither sword nor spear was found in the hands of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, but they were found with Saul and his son Jonathan.” (1 Samuel 13:19-22)
I believe that the body of Christ faces a critical mandate in this hour. We must begin to produce disciples who are properly equipped with the knowledge of God’s word (the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…Ephesians 6:17) and the anointing to effectively employ it in the face of the enemy if these dread champions are to be fully prepared in twenty years.
The enemy, for his part, will do all that he can to limit the production of this sort of armament. The Philistine ban on blacksmiths represents the world’s persecution on those who will stand for the true, uncompromising standard of God’s word in preparing a generation to do battle.
Let us not attempt to implement plow shares, axes, and hoes (intended to be domestic implementations) in the work of militarily advancing God’s kingdom. In other words, a me-centric understanding of scripture and the “live-your-best-life-now” application of God’s word will not suffice in the coming struggle. We must espouse a robust, thorough, militant application of the scriptures and be willing to “eat the scroll.”
Young People: Your preparation to be a dread champion of the Lord must begin now! We need fully trained, well-equipped soldiers in that great and terrible day. Think of the special forces soldier who spends a lifetime in training and preparation for one moment of destiny. Think of how that soldier devours training manuals and practices the application of his weapons over and over again. This is how we must live; devouring God’s word and applying it in our lives until we develop the skills necessary, by His grace, to be a champion.
