The Spoils of War

 

The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. - Exodus 15:3

 

Several years ago, when we lived in the valley, my day had begun with checking my wife into an oncology clinic, and ended in picking blackberries from a vicious bramble.  Each visit to the oncology clinic reminded me of a field infirmary at the edge of a battle zone.  Like war-torn and battle-weary soldiers, they would march in and find a place for infusion.  Each week we’d see familiar faces.  Many had the same style of scarves to cover the evidences of their conflict.  Some came alone.  Others had friends or loved ones around them.  Their war was a fight for life.  In a strange twist and with each infusion just the right amount of poison is given; poison to kill a million little unseen invaders, but not too much to kill their host.  Most days in the oncology clinic a victory was won, but the war was hell. 

 

That afternoon I made my way over to the pasture in search of more blackberries.  The siren song of homemade blackberry pie was far too strong.  I knew there were more plentiful and larger berries to be found; I just had to find them.  It didn’t take long and I was in the thick of it; plentiful berries the size of a quarter, so ripe the fragrance was thick in the evening air.  But each berry came at a price.  The razored vines were like an alien force-field surrounding them.  For me to intrude into their world was to invite their shredding barbs into my hands and legs.  I left the brambles a victor, but not without bearing the scars and wounds.  That day in the blackberry bramble a victory was won, but the war was hell.

 

An interesting thing happened that morning at the oncology clinic…I received a note from a friend far away.  Recently suffering the effects of a stroke, he was confessing his discouragement at his lack of progress.  His mind was convinced he can do things his body wants no part of.  He is a soldier, but much of the warfare happens in the theater of his mind.  It took no time at all and when he found out where my wife and I had been he let us know of his prayers on her behalf.  Ever at the ready, his own challenges quickly gave way to enlisting help to assist someone else on another front.  That day in the solitude of a struggling friend another victory was won, but the war was hell.

 

Those evidences of clear and present danger, though ominous and dire at the time, had been put on notice.  We were reminded that the day will come when malignancy will bow to the benign, and death will be swallowed up.  The beautiful blackberry will willingly yield her delectable fruit and the body of my friend will perform lockstep obedience to each internal command.  It may be hard to see now, particularly in this bramble-filled life, but a new day has dawned.  

 

In the crimson-stained lumber of a Roman gibbet, and the screaming silence of an opened Easter sepulcher, the spoils of war have begun to be gathered. A man with a long-shriveled hand has been healed. A man devil-possessed now put in his right mind. A young girl, once dead, now runs and skips at play. A garden lost to the overgrowth of weeds and vines slowly becomes a verdant storehouse of sweetest fare. The final Word has spoken. The eschatological ingathering has begun. Today, and for now, war is hell, but both all at once and bit-by-bit the war has been and is being won. 

 

Our God is a warrior and the spoils of war are his. 

 

 

         

    

 

Dan and Judy Morse live near Prineville, Oregon. Over the years Dan has done bi-vocational work, church planting, and served as a senior pastor in several churches. He now serves as pastor at Madras Reformed Church, and also with InFaith as a Missionary Pastor in Central Oregon, assisting small and rural churches. He can be reached at danjmorse@icloud.com