What’s In A Name?, Pt 16: Sabaoth

1Samuel 17:45                       45David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Psalm 46:7                             7The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Romans 9:29                          29It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”

James 5:4                               4Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.

Sabaoth (pronounced Sah-bah-oath) means ‘hosts’ or ‘armies’ so YHWH Sabaoth means the Lord of Hosts or the Lord of Heaven’s armies.  However, modern translations routinely use ‘almighty’ as the translation.

In any case all these definitions have a military flair about them which in a way brings up a difficulty.  Except for those of us who have served in our national defense, none of us have seen war in a personal way so we may wonder why the Lord God needs an army.  YHWH Sabaoth, the Lord of Heaven’s armies, commands all the angels and all the warriors in His spiritual army and we can’t see them precisely because the war they are fighting is a spiritual war.  It is going on around us all the time.

8Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1Peter 5:8)

1Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…. (Romans 12:1-2b)

3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  (2Corinthians 10:4-5)

Satan’s whole modus operandi is to take down anything related to God.  That includes us.  In the end he hasn’t a chance of succeeding but in the meantime we have to deal with him.  This is nothing new; Paul had to deal with Satan back in the day and so wrote these verses and others to help us overcome the effects of Satan’s efforts.  The thing to remember is that things usually aren’t as they seem on the surface.  That difficult co-worker we have, or that intrusive stranger, or even that obviously evil enemy is just a person trying to succeed in life much as we are.  Most likely they have no idea they are a pawn in Satan’s schemes.  Even that person who loves us but who is passionate about something we would fight against at the top of our lungs is just another person.  This should be our attitude:

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  (Ephesians 6:10-13)

We really have only one job to do.  That is to show the world what Jesus is like and to live in such a way that reflects His glory.  But this is not an easy thing.  The cliché says, “We are in the world, but are not of the world.”  This means that while we are on the planet we live following different rules and standards than do our non-believing friends.  The result of that is that when times are tough we don’t respond the way those others do.  We hold to different values.  Honor, dignity, forgiveness, and repentance are examples.

If you continue to read in the Ephesians 6 verses you will see some tools God gives us to resist Satan (each of these points is worthy of a message in itself, so only summaries are provided):

·       Stand firm.  Just because we have Jesus in us through the Holy Spirit does not mean we have to wimp out in conflict.  It is even OK to be angry as long as that anger is directed against Satan and not the visible opponent in front of us.  Remember we are part of an army; if we weaken and run, we allow Satan a victory and others may be hurt also.

·       The belt of truth.  It is absolutely necessary that believers be well read, even saturated, with God’s Word.  The Bible teaches absolute truth; not relative truth.  God’s values are right in every single situation, at every single time.  Without awareness of God’s values, a person will be “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (Ephesians 4:14)

·       The breastplate of righteousness.  In our own strength there is “no one who is righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10-11), but we can seek the righteousness of Jesus.  Ask yourself, “Am I living the kind of life that enables me to resist Satan?”  The breastplate protects the mind and emotions from Satan.  These are his two principal targets:  He clouds our minds with false doctrine, false principles, and false information and confuses our emotions by perverting our morals, loyalties, and goals.  The way to withstand lies and perversions is to rest on God’s Word (truth).

·       Sandals of the gospel of peace.  In this spiritual battle we must stand our ground but this would be difficult if our footing were unstable.  Stable footing is provided by the security of the Gospel as it has been fully appropriated into the heart of the believer and actively shared with others.

·       The shield of faith.  The shield was used in addition to the other armor but had to be picked up and actively added.  A shield is useless laying on the ground.  Likewise we have to actively use our faith.  This means we have to be continuously prepared to resist Satan and patiently endure his attacks without succumbing.

·       The helmet of salvation.  The devil likes to put doubt in our minds, inject worldly ideas, and plague us about the efficacy of our salvation.  He wants us to focus on the minutia of the here and now rather than the grandness of eternity with Jesus.  The helmet of salvation protects against that because it reminds us where our true security is.

·       The sword of the Spirit.  Our greatest enemy is not so much Satan as it is our own human weaknesses.  Theses are things Satan uses against us.  The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God enlightened by the Holy Spirit as we read.  But it has to be kept sharp through use.  This is our only offensive weapon and we use it actively through daily reading of the Bible.

·       Prayer.  Praying reminds us of the battle, reminds us that God is the source of our strength and defense, and reminds God that we are fully committed to following Him as obedient and faithful soldiers.  Prayer and Bible study are the most powerful tools for combating Satan’s weapons.  Prayer is talking to God about our needs and our desires, it forms an intimacy with Him that strengthens every part of our lives.

The gist of all this is that we are not alone.  Even though it can be frightening to think of being in a battle it is comforting to know one thing.  God’s got our back.