The Feint Retreat – Luke 14:31-32
October 28th, 2005According to St. Luke’s gospel, the 14th chapter, we read that Jesus turned to the crowds following Him and said, “Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with 10,000 men to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is a still along way off and will ask for terms of peace.” (Luke 14:31-32).
We may not expect to hear advice on military strategy from the lips of Jesus. This is the sort of instruction you go to West Point for – not the scriptures. Yet, here it is. Jesus, sounding more like commander-in-chief than good shepherd.
Which of us who has read the bible – especially the Old Testament – have not been at least shocked if not a bit turned off by the amount of warfare that is recorded there? And even more shocked to find that it is God Himself who is leading the charge for His people?
You may be a bit shocked, but I hope not too turned off, to learn that every Sunday in the liturgy we sing with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, lauding and magnifying the “Lord God of power and might.” In the older liturgy as we used it during the season of Lent, we sung to the “Lord God of Sabaoth.” “Sabaoth” literally means “warfare.” We sing to the ‘war Lord.’
It should not surprise us then to hear that Jesus talks to us in terms of military strategy. Only a fool goes against an enemy without a plan. And Jesus is no fool.
There are many different military strategies that may be used in battle. There is the frontal attack, the surprise attack, the barricade strategy and the divide and conquer strategy. And you can find all of these being used in the Scriptures by God – either for His people – or – at times even against His own people. But there is one military strategy that God uses against the enemy of His people that is the most spectacular and memorable of all of them. And it is the strategy of the ‘feint retreat.’
A ‘feint retreat’ is when you retreat from the battle and give your enemy the appearance of being trapped or wounded – only to lure him into pursuing you into an ambush.
The most spectacular and memorable military battle in the whole Old Testament is the one between Israel and Pharaoh’s Egyptian army. It is the battle that Israel remembers the best and celebrates every year throughout it’s Old Testament history. From a military strategy point view – it was the classic ‘feint retreat.’ Recall the course of events.
Pharaoh had the people of God in captivity. He had made their life hard by his forced labor and demanded impossible quotas for the production of bricks while withholding the necessary resources for the work. And then he punished them for falling short.
God sent a general named Moses to ‘deliver my people from the hand of Pharaoh.’ Moses is one of God’s people yet He comes from a great distance away. He’s a humble fellow. A shepherd by training, not an officer. And so when this lowly servant of the Lord speaks to the powerful potentate of Egypt saying, “Let my people go,” Pharaoh just laughs and makes life even harder. “No more straw and double quota of bricks.”
A series a plagues, which Pharaoh chalks up to natural coincidence and Israel is asked to leave Egypt. In their Exodus, they head for the open country. But interestingly, God turns them back and leads them another way. He leads His people to a place where they will be hemmed in. Hemmed in by the desert on one side and the sea on the other. Its not good military strategy to let yourself get hemmed in – unless – you’re conducting a ‘feint retreat.’
You know how the action goes from here. Pharaoh sees Israel hemmed in and pursues them with all of His chariots and horsemen. Israel is filled with fear and their general Moses issues the strange and unnatural command – “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.” (Ex.14:13-14).
A successful feint retreat depends on knowing a way out that your enemy doesn’t know and then trapping him when he pursues you into that way out. Like it was a secret passage way that He had seen all along God separates the Sea. Opens it up. And Israel walked through the Sea on dry ground – with a wall of water on their right and a wall of water on their left.
And Pharaoh, seeing his prey slip away gives the command – “Charge!” And into the Sea after God’s people they race – right into the ambush – with a wall of water on their right and a wall of water on their left. And just when they get about half way across the sea, suddenly the wind stops blowing. And the walls come crashing down and the enemy is drowned – not one survived.
And Israel rejoiced. They celebrated the victory. They had been filled with doubt and fear and despair. But now they saw the plan and the strategy at work and they praised God with a great song. “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and it’s rider he has hurled not the sea.” (Exodus 15:1).
Never has there been a ‘feint retreat’ conducted so effectively as this. Never, that is, until the one that we celebrate today. The victory over Pharaoh was just a preview of coming attractions. This was just a battle won – the war would go on.
And God’s people would continue to be oppressed and held captive to the demands of the law which we cannot keep ever since we were deceived and ate that forbidden fruit in the garden. The Devil has take us captive and made our lives miserable with guilt because we always fall short of what the law demands. No matter how hard we try to meet the demands of the law, the Devil accuses us and our consciences are reminded that we could have done better, we should have given more. We may not have broken any of the commandments but we haven’t kept them either. The harder we try the higher the bar is raised and we are never able to do enough to please God.
And then when the time fully came, there appeared One just like us, from among us and yet from far, far away. A man like any other man. Nothing in His appearance to attract us. No army, no weapons. Not even a place to lay his head.
Yet, the Devil knew that He had come into this world, onto this battle field to set His people free. The Devil knew that this lowly servant was the Son of God disguised in human flesh. And still smarting from the defeat at the Red Sea, he remembers that this One had promised long ago to ‘finish’ the war that had commenced in the garden by crushing his head.
How easily Jesus could have called down a legion of angels from heaven to fight for Him. He who commands the demons to flee and they run into pigs and drown themselves in the sea – could surely break the Devil’s neck with His baby finger right here.
But no. “He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man He humbled himself…” (Phil.2:8). Now just watch now how He executes the ‘feint retreat’ once again and lures his enemy into the ambush.
Knowing all that was to take place, He allowed Himself to be betrayed by one of His own. Arrested and bound with ropes, He allows himself to be taken captive. Severely beaten, unmercifully flogged. Behold this weak and wounded Israel. See how lost He is. He allows Himself to be hemmed in. Hemmed in by the rough wood of the cross on one side and the nails pinning Him there on the other.
And the disciples of Jesus are terrified. They are sure they have been caught in a trap with no way out and surely they will all perish. Why had they ever followed this Jesus? Why did they ever put their trust in Him and follow Him. Surely it would have been better had they remained under the law – at least there they had cable TV.
“Aha!” cries the devil with delight. “Now I’ve got you where I want you. Now I will finish you once and for all and your people will be mine forever and ever.” Yet Satan is nervous because just when he feels so confident that he has won the war, Jesus sighs a loud sigh of relief and Satan hears Jesus say, “It is finished.”
And suddenly the Devil feels a splitting headache coming on. He gives the command. “Hem Him in. Don’t let Him escape. Seal that stone over the entrance of the tomb!”
Ambushed! Jesus lured the Devil into death by entering into death Himself. It was a perfectly executed ‘feint retreat.’ A prepared ambush. Prepared before the creation of the world. God had known this way of escape all along.
Don’t ever fall for the foolish idea that God and Satan are equally opposing forces going at each other like a ying and yang that is never settled. God is in control at all times and He leads the foolish Devil into the trap by design using Himself as the bait knowing that the Devil cannot resist.
After three days, it is Jesus parading in victory through Hell where the Devil is in captivity. The stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty and all God’s people are free. Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!)
Just as Pharaoh’s army was swallowed up in the Sea, so now death has been swallowed up in victory. The chains of the law that bound us to an impossible quota of righteousness have been burst – and now we live by grace alone through faith alone. “For if the Son sets you free you shall be free indeed.”
The disciples of Jesus including the women were frightened. They were filled with doubt and fear and despair. But when they saw the plan and the strategy behind it all they praised God with a great song. “This is the feast of victory for our God – Alleluia!” “Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom.15:57).
Yes, the victory is ours. Yes, we did nothing. Yes, we just “stood still,” or worse, ran away, while the Lord fought for us. Yet we rejoice and celebrate. For through Holy Baptism, He has united us to His death and to His resurrection from the death. By His death He has won the victory over our death. And by His resurrection, He has delivered us from the slavery and bondage under sin and the law to the glorious liberty of children of God.
Do not be afraid, you followers of Jesus. It is the “Lord God of Sabaoth” who has the 20,000 on His side. He is the stronger One. No matter how hemmed you may feel you are, there is a way out that He has opened for you and that you may now travel. You too will one day stand on the other side of the sea and see the whole plan clearly and sing the victory song.
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