For a Reason, For a Season

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All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. — II Timothy 3:16,17

The answer from the young military members coming to our church was, “We don’t know the Old Testament.”  What was the question? The question we asked was, “What can we do during the time you’re stationed here to get you to the next level of spiritual maturity?”

So we took a year to teach the Old Testament to these young people from the local bases. Dinner, then Bible study, every Saturday night. When they left—to Alaska, Korea, Iraq, in a submarine somewhere, and another leaving active duty to attend seminary—they had reached a new level of knowledge and understanding of God, as found in the Old Testament.

When a military service member, single or married, arrives at your church, you must know that they are there for a reason. . . . .and they are there for a season. God sent them to you for His purpose—to love them and build into them a greater love for God as revealed in His holy word. But they are only there for a period of time—and sometimes they will go directly from your fellowship to a combat tour overseas. What a great opportunity to teach, mentor, prepare, train, and encourage! If we, as an individual or a church (or chapel) don’t see that, we need to look more closely.

For all the wonderful things that we can do for and with military members today (there are many wonderful things which help ease burdens and express appreciation), the best we can offer is solid scriptural preaching and teaching—“especially regarding the sovereignty of God” (Captain Dale Parker, Regional Chaplain, U.S. Navy).

If you have seen the movie, “Black Hawk Down,” or have studied that battle in Mogadishu, you may have heard of Sgt. Jeff Struecker. Now an Army chaplain (recently retired), Struecker’s story is included in a magazine published by Officers’ Christian Fellowship: “As part of an Army Ranger unit intent on saving fellow soldiers in the Black Hawk Down conflict, he called on past Bible studies to find peace. ‘Frankly, it was what got me back and forth through the city streets of Somalia,’ Struecker says about the Scriptures . . . . Struecker recounted Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Paul’s thoughts about being apart from the body and present with the Lord, and a litany of Psalms while walking—and hiding—in the war-torn streets as gunfire and tragedy enveloped him around two downed Black Hawk helicopters.” The Bible study and Scripture memory disciplines he learned early in his Army career served him well, and now he equips others to do the same. He advises, “I encourage my guys to write verses of Scripture on the walls and the little wooden poles in their tents. I tell them, ‘Put a passage of Scripture up so that every time you come in here and see the graffiti you force yourself to memorize that verse.’” Struecker now regards this a primary mission . . . to impress on others the importance of the life-changing and peace-giving words in the Bible. (“Drawing on Scripture under Gunfire,” Command magazine of OCF, February 2010)

That was our same mission with our Saturday night students.  It was particularly exciting to point out to our group that Jesus is found throughout the Old Testament and not just in the New Testament.  Beyond the prophecies and theophanies, we see Jesus Christ as “the scarlet thread” throughout the Bible—a picture of His blood shed on the cross for the redemption of our sin. The best book-by-book description of Jesus in the Old Testament we have ever heard is by Dr. Stephen Davey of Colonial Baptist Church in Cary, North Carolina. His radio/teaching ministry is called “Wisdom for the Heart”. . .  and this transcript is from his Easter sermon (4/18/04) on Luke 24:13-35 entitled “The Road Back to Hope”:

“I imagined what I would have heard, had I been walking along from Jerusalem to Emmaus (with Jesus). I simply wrote down point after point as I traveled rapidly through the Old Testament scriptures, of the ways Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was truly pictured and prophesied in each book. Let me give them to you. In:

Genesis—He is the prophesied seed who will crush the serpent’s head; He is the brother betrayed by His kinsmen, whose betrayal will lead to their deliverance;

Exodus—He is the great “I AM”;He is the Passover Lamb whose blood protects His people from the angel of death and the wrath of God; He is manna from heaven and water from the rock;

Leviticus—He is the tabernacle of God among men;

Numbers—He is the great hope in whom all can safely put their trust; He is the great High Priest who will never fail;

Deuteronomy—He is the Lord our God; He is the city of refuge where criminals may run for protection;

Joshua—He is the champion over every enemy that stands in the way of God’s people;

Judges—He is the angel of God, empowering the weak and pursuing the wandering; He is the perfection of grace and patience toward His wandering people;

Ruth—He is the wealthy landowner who redeems His gentile bride from hopeless poverty; placing her in the family line of royalty; giving her the right to everything of His vast estate;

I and II Samuel—He is the name of the Lord, in whose strength young men of faith conquer enemies and slay giants;

Kings and Chronicles—He is the sovereign King behind and above all kingdoms, both pagan and God-fearing;

Ezra—He is the keeper of divine promise to Israel and the hand that liberates His people from bondage;

Nehemiah—He is the re-builder of broken lives and the restorer of broken fellowship;

Esther—He is behind the scenes, outsmarting the evil one and seeing that His remnant remain, whispering into the ear of a young queen that for such a time as this, she has been crowned.

Job—He is the majestic One who rides upon the wind and commands the lightning; He is the Lord of mystery who does not explain life, but reveals He is sovereign over all of life;

Psalms—He is the rock of refuge, the Shepherd of the sheep, the tower of shelter, the sweet honey of revelation, thirst-quenching water, a crucified Savior, and a sin forgiving Redeemer;

Proverbs—He is everlasting wisdom; divine counsel for those who accept His invitation to turn aside and listen;

Ecclesiastes—He is eternal satisfaction over every earthly desire; He is the One to be remembered in the days of our youth;

Song of Solomon—He is the Bridegroom who pursues His bride, stopping at nothing until she is safely in His arms;

Isaiah—He is Emmanuel, the suffering Savior, the One crushed for our iniquities and the coming Prince of Peace whose strong shoulder will one day bear the governments of the world;

Jeremiah—He is the branch of righteousness who brings justice and equity; He is the promised One who will write a new covenant on the hearts of His people;

Lamentations—He is the father who disciplines the sons He loves;

Ezekiel—He is resurrection power, breathing life into dry bones and bringing life from death; He is the faithful leader re-gathering His wandering flock;

Daniel—He is the stone, cut without hands, rejected by kingdoms, yet smiting the false image and filling the earth with His glory; He is the one whose Kingdom will not end;

Hosea—He is the faithful husband of the faithless wife;

Joel—He is the hope of His people, the strength of the children of Israel;

Amos—He is the wrath of God against oppressors; He is the promise of vineyards and gardens where His children will one day rest;

Obadiah—He ascends Mount Zion as the deliverer who judges the kingdoms of this world and inaugurates His own everlasting reign;

Jonah—He is the fulfillment of the sign that after three days and three nights, the Son of Man will come forth vindicating the righteousness of God and resurrection power;

Micah—He is the One who pardons our iniquities; who does not retain His anger forever; who delights in unchanging love; He is the one who treads our iniquities under His feet; who casts all our sins into the depths of the sea;

Nahum—He is slow to anger and great in power; of Him the mountains quake and the hills dissolve, yet He is a safe haven for all who hide in Him;

Habakkuk—He is radiant like sunlight; whose strength makes our feet like the hinds feet, and makes us walk on high places;

Zephaniah—He is the One who will gather those who grieve and those who are lame and those who are outcast; He is the One who will turn their shame and despair into everlasting praise;

Haggai—He is the victorious Lord of hosts who will shake the heavens and the earth as He overthrows the nations of this world; He is the One who will wear His chosen people as jewels around His omnipotent fingers;

Zechariah—He stands with His redeemed on the Mount of Olives; His holiness will be praised, even by the inscriptions on the bells of horses’ bridles as they gallop through the city of His glory—“Holy to the Lord” will be their praise for the Messiah;

Malachi—He is the divine Refiner, sitting over the smelting pot of His universe, purifying His chosen people as silver and gold; He is the great King, who does not change; and for all those who believe in Him, He will one day rise with healing in His wings!

Our students left our Saturday night study with a new-found knowledge of Scripture. And with that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, came a new-found basis for hope. That hope saw Jeff Struecker through combat in Somalia, and multiple deployments since, and is the same hope which will see you through anything you are facing today.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. — Romans 15:4

Work cited:

Davey, Dr. Stephen, “The Road Back to Hope: The Men Who Missed Easter,” Wisdom for the Heart, wisdomonline.org, sermon preached on 4/18/2004.

Newcomb, Tim, “Drawing On Scripture under Gunfire,” Command: Christian Perspectives on Life in the Military (Englewood, Colorado, Officer’s Christian Fellowship, Vol. 59, No. 1, pgs. 4 & 5).

Questions to Share:

1. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and speaks of the author’s love for God’s word. “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in Your word.” (Psalm 119:114) In what ways have you relied on Scripture to give you hope?

2. Pray for God to increase your love for Him by increasing your desire to read and understand the Bible.