day no. 14,859: blood on three, part 2

We worship a God who has infused enmity and warfare into His creation.

Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her Offspring;
He shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise His heel.

Enmity is not by accident or a by-product or side effect of something else God is attempting to do the way sawdust is made when cutting boards to their proper length. Enmity is part of the plan. It is to the glory of God and the good of man that enmity is infused into the story. To allow evil to exist without fighting it is to concede to evil. Evil is by nature an assault on goodness. Since evil exists as only a negation, it cannot continue without attempting to corrupt or overtake goodness. Without it being at war with goodness, it would cease to be anything since on its own it has no essence to sustain itself without reference to good.

God ordains enmity in order to demonstrate His justice.

Exodus 15:3
The LORD is a man of war;
the LORD is His name. 

And God does not take His corner of the ring for granted. He is ready to throw down. In fact, the entire reason He left Heaven and took the form of a man was to destroy the stronghold of the devil.

1 John 3:8
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Hebrews 2:14-15
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.  

Jesus was sent on a seek and destroy mission from the git go. He is a destroyer. He did not fear the darkness, the darkness feared Him.

Mark 3:27
But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

Luke 11:21-22
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; 22 but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. 

Jesus entered the strong man's house, bound him up and then plundered his house. Satan's grip on the earth was undone by the coming of Jesus. He broke into Satan's playground and pinned the bully to the ground and extricated His elect prisoners on His way out.

Colossians 2:15
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.

When Jesus completed His perfect life and laid that spotless sacrifice on the cross. In doing so, He rendered death defenseless. It's sword and sting fell flat to the ground. He dealt death its final blow by taking upon Himself the death we deserved... the death that could not bind Him or hold Him because it had no claim upon Him.

Acts 2:24
God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

Going forward, He is building an earthly embassy where His saints gather to huddle up and then break to go out and do damage to the works of the world, the flesh and the devil.

Matthew 16:18
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And God outfits His soldiers with Heavenly armor and weapons in order to draw blood and inflict damage upon the surrounding darkness.

2 Corinthians 10:4-6
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

In doing this, we walk in the same way that Jesus walked and warred against the darkness.

1 Corinthians 1:19

For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

Romans 12:21

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

God is good and His goodness overcomes evil. Evil cannot overcome Him.

John 1:5

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

When we walk in the light, we too, conquer darkness underfoot.

Romans 8:37

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 

Hebrews 11:33

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.

And in the end, we are called to be conquerors. Just as He conquered Satan, sin and death, we too, trample Satan underfoot by the Gospel of peace.

Romans 16:20
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Ephesians 6:14-15
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

And the final rally cry is one to conquer. To hear His Spirit and respond by conqueroring wherever He may call us.

Revelation 2:7

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Revelation 2:11

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

Revelation 2:17

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Revelation 2:26-29

The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 3:5-6

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 3:12-13

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' - 

Revelation 3:21-22

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 5:5

And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.

Revelation 12:11-12

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!

Revelation 15:2

And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire-and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

Revelation 17:14

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.

Revelation 21:7-8

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

To deny our heritage is to be cowards. To refuse to fight before the fight is finished is to allow darkness and cowardice to dominate. The more the light increases, the greater the circumference of the darkness and more soldiers are required to hold the ever increasing line, but by the grace of God in faith and faithfulness we will see the darkness pushed back and damage done to its cause daily as we devote ourselves to Christ alone.

Leviticus 26:7-9
You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.

Jeremiah 48:10
Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD with slackness, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed.