God’s Word for You

1 Chronicles 19:14-15 The devil has no grave

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, February 15, 2024

14 Then Joab and the troops who were with him advanced toward the Arameans for battle, and they fled before him. 15 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans fled, they also fled (even they!) before Abishai his brother, and entered the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

The Israelites were divided into two army groups. Abishai in command of the larger group was facing north toward the Ammonites near Rabbah. Joab with a smaller group of picked warriors was facing south toward the Aramean mercenaries. When Joab surprised them by attacking with his smaller force against the paid mercenaries, they fled for their lives. They had almost nowhere to go. To the north was Joab, and they were running away from him. To the west was the Dead Sea. To the south and east were waterless deserts. Did they enter the city of Medeba? If they did, were they occupying the city, since they were not Ammonites, but foreign soldiers? Or did they melt away into the Arabian desert? Our author does not say, and it might be that he is not really interested in that detail. They fled; that was enough.

When an army chases off an enemy, it is known as a rout, a “disorderly retreat of defeated troops.” When the Ammonites saw the rout of their mercenaries, they turned and fled back into their city. Perhaps Abishai and his men had begun their attack, or perhaps they had not even drawn their swords as yet, but the Ammonites fled. Many translations do not emphasize two words in the Hebrew text, but they are worth noticing: gam hem “Even they!” Even the proud Ammonites who had treated David’s royal officials so shamefully. Woe to you, you Ammonites, you hypocrites, you wicked spawn of Lot’s wicked daughter! You can shave the beards and tear the kilts of a couple of men who came to console your grieving king, but when an army of men draw their weapons, even when you have all the advantage, you scurry back to your mother’s apron and shut your eyes tight until she tells you it’s all over!

This action of the Ammonites relates to the words Joab spoke before the battle began: “May the LORD do what is good in his sight” (verse 13). Joab was following the command of Psalm 50:15, “Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” The Lord gives more than a command there, but a promise, and a prophecy about the result—all in one verse of a Psalm by David’s musician, Asaph, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When we keep God’s name on our lips, and pray to him, honor him, praise him, teach about him and preach his word, and come to him with sincere requests, we use his name correctly. This right use of the Lord’s name is weighed on a balance with all of the profanity and filthy language in our cities and towns, not to mention in the halls and offices of our Congress and Senate.

But when we teach our children to respect God with our actions as well as with our words, our Confession says: “This is a blessed and useful habit, and very effective against the devil, who is always around us, lying in wait to lure us into sin and shame, calamity and trouble. He hates to hear God’s name and cannot long remain when it is uttered and invoked from the heart. Many a terrible and shocking calamity would befall us if God did not preserve us through our calling upon his name. I have tried it myself (writes Luther) and learned by experience that often sudden, great calamity was averted and vanished in the very moment I called upon God. To defy the devil, I say, we should always keep the holy name on our lips so that he may not be able to injure us as he is eager to do.” (Large Catechism, II:71-72, on the Second Commandment).

And the Lord’s brother James writes: “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). But as we will see in the physical war of Joab with the Ammonites, it is not enough to win a skirmish; the battle must be carried through so that victory can be proclaimed. A war is not won with a bloody nose. And so it is with the devil. When we remember our Lord Jesus and are delivered from a tight spot, we must not fall into the temptation (like a trap left behind by the devil for anyone who tries to ransack his camp) of congratulating ourselves for remembering to keep one single Commandment. Even Judas the Traitor could say he kept one of the Ten when he kissed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (since along with his idolatry, rebellion, murder, greed, covetousness, and false witness, he did not have an opportunity to commit adultery). But rather we must pray that God will continue to guard us and keep us, and we should throw ourselves back into the word of God to learn more of his will and his way. Or else we will learn first hand what Jesus says:

“When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it passes through dry places looking for a place to rest, but it does not find one. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I came from.’ And when it returns, it finds the place empty, swept clean, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first. So it will be for this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:43-45). The devil has a prison, but he has no grave. He is defeated, but he does not die, and so we must always beware. The devil leaves traps and pits for us to fall into even when he is nowhere to be seen. He lurks in the kitchen, under the cradle, out in the garage, and in the sleeve of your favorite sweater. The devil knows that you have good defenses in some places, but that you are vulnerable in others. And he will attack you wherever he is able.

So while Joab returned to Jerusalem and the Ammonites returned to their city of Rabbah, it was not the time for a celebration. The prowling enemy of Ammon had gone behind their stone walls, but pretty soon they would discover their courage or else they would be led out again by arrogance and folly. Either way, they were a danger. And so we can see the way the devil is a danger by noticing Joab’s godly confession at the beginning of the battle. Here is an example for our faith: The roaring lion, the devil, prowls around looking for someone to devour. Do not crow too much when you seem to win a victory. Give thanks to God, and right away return to the City of God, the Holy Christian Church, to gather with the faithful around the word and sacrament. There in the forgiveness of sins is our true defense, the blood of Jesus, shed for us on the cross. His victory is the only victory we ever need to brag about.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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