But, “This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” – II Chronicles 20:15b
On our way to school this morning, the boys and I were listening to today’s daily Bible reading on the PRAY.com app.
The story was taken from the first book of Samuel, chapter 13 — where Saul and the Israelites worshipped God right before entering into battle…only with arrogance and impatience, instead of in spirit and in truth.
As usual, both boys were still half asleep in the backseat as I pulled out of our driveway and the story began.
The first ten minutes were a pretty quiet ride…I didn’t look back to check, but I knew there were either one of two scenarios going on…the boys were either so entranced by the story that they didn’t want to say a word…or they were asleep. 😂
I was leaning toward the latter, when all of the sudden my twelve-year-old son busted out laughing.
Considering the fact that most of First Samuel plays out as a drama — not a comedy, I thought it was rather strange.
“What’s so funny??” I asked.
Turns out, something the storyteller said caught my oldest son’s attention.
“Mom, he keeps saying ‘warship!’” He replied, in between giggles. 🤭
“What???? What’s so funny about worship?” I asked, genuinely perplexed at this point.
“No, Mom! Warship!!!! He keeps pronouncing it wrong…and it sounds like he’s saying war-ship!”
I hadn’t even noticed.
“Let me rewind this…” I said, needing to confirm this absurd allegation for myself.
Narrator: “…now Samuel led the soldiers of Israel in warship before the battle…”
🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Sure enough, clear as day…he was right…the narrator (in a clearly contrived 17th century colonial accent) was indeed pronouncing the word “worship” the same way my 8th grade math teacher pronounced words like Warsh-rag and Warshington, D.C.
I hadn’t even noticed until my son pointed it out, but it’s one of those things that once you hear, you can’t UN-HEAR it. 😂😂😂🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Oh, well…you say tomato, I say to-mah-toe…you say worship, I say warship…it’s really neither here nor there.
But then it dawned on me…there’s more at play here than just a peculiar pronunciation.
My mind immediately connected the dots between what the story was teaching and the way the narrator kept saying this word.
The people of Israel were worshipping before war…war-ship. They literally were warshipping!!!
I’m sure the narrator had no intention of leading us to that conclusion, but I believe the divine Author did. It was the perfect punchline to an otherwise very dramatic story.
And it’s a lesson we need to take heed from even today. Because, we’re in a battle too. Not a physical one, but a spiritual one (Ephesians 6:12).
And the caliber of our worship has a direct relation to the outcome of our battle!
Our modern lives may be far removed from Old Testament culture, but these patterns and examples are given for our learning (Romans 15:4).
When it boils down to it, worship is still both our strongest weapon and our most powerful war cry — and take it from Saul, warming the pew doesn’t count — God wants our pre-battle worship to be in spirit and in truth!
And if you’re a soldier who’s not even there? Well, they have a word for that in the army…A.W.O.L. (Or Absent Without Leave).
Go AWOL for more than a month and you’re considered a “deserter” — I think you can guess what that means, and it’s not referring to someone with a sweet tooth.
Some people think, why all the hoopla about coming to worship when I can adjust my armor and sharpen my sword just as well on my own?
Organized worship on the first day of the week is about more than just adjusting our armor and sharpening our swords — it’s entreating the very Lord of Hosts himself to fight for us (Exodus 14:14) as only He can.
If we don’t worship God on Sunday, how can we possibly be prepared to face the battle on Monday?
Until next time,
Pilgrim with a Pen
P.S. Click the link below to listen to the same story we heard today!
https://www.pray.com/series/bible-in-a-year-with-jack-graham/731fe7cd-0b49-4f83-a1c5-4aee1b02ceb4
