Only the King Had a Sword

1 Samuel 13. Israel is standing at the edge of war with the Philistines, and the text drops this line almost in passing, like it's just a detail, like it's not supposed to wreck you: "there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel... but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock." And then verse 22; the verse that stopped me cold, "there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found."

Read that again. An entire nation. Marching toward battle. And only two men in the whole army were actually armed.

Everybody else showed up with farm tools. Sickles. Ox goads. Whatever they had lying around the house, because somewhere along the way, someone had decided it was safer, easier, more controllable, for only the king's house to hold a weapon.

And I have to ask, because I can't not but ask it, is this us?

Because I look at the modern church, and I see congregations of people who can quote every sermon their pastor has ever preached, who can tell you the exact inflection in his voice when he prayed for them that one Sunday, who never miss a service, but who could not, if you sat them down right now, fight off a single lie of the enemy with their own hand. They have no sword. They were never given one. Somewhere along the way we decided it was easier to keep the weapons in the king's house.

And it's not because the sheep don't want to fight. It's because we the ones with microphones, the ones on platforms, the ones with the anointing everybody can see, we have quietly, maybe even unintentionally, made ourselves the armory instead of the armorer. We have people who cannot pray unless we pray first. Cannot hear God unless we hear for them. Cannot war in intercession, cannot open the Word and find their own bread, cannot walk into their office or their marriage or their grief without calling us first, because nobody ever sharpened their sword. Nobody ever handed them one and said, "this is yours now, go fight."

That should terrify us. Not because people need us, there's nothing wrong with being needed. But because there is a world of difference between a people who love their shepherd and a people who cannot survive without him. Jesus didn't build His church to raise dependents. He said the works that I do shall he do also, He was handing out swords, not collecting them.

Heartchecker, and I am asking myself first: am I building an army, or am I building an audience? Am I equipping saints for the work of the ministry, or am I quietly, comfortably, keeping all the weapons in my own house because it feels safer that way, safer for me, and easier for them?

Because one day the battle is going to come to their door when I am not there to fight it for them. And on that day, I don't want to find out I raised a congregation of farmers holding sickles, when I could have raised an army holding swords.