ANZAC Day 2020 - Story: Our Way VS God's Way

When I first came to Australia, I worked at an Adventist school called Lilydale Adventist Academy, which is now called Edinburgh College. And the man who worked in the office next to me was a retired schoolteacher named Mr. Ferris, and he worked at that school— well, he really volunteered there just to listen to kids tell their stories and feel that they had someone that loved them. And he invited me to come into his office one day and he said, 'Have a seat. Would you like a Bicky? Would you like a Milo?' And I had a Bicky and Milo, and I chatted with Mr. Ferris. And as we sat down, he said, 'We Aussies like you Yanks.' Oh, you know what an Aussie is? It's an Australian. A Yank is an old word for Americans that army men used to call the Americans in the war. And I asked him why, and he said, 'Well, because of the Battle of Midway. And what happened at the Battle of Midway, he told me, was that the Americans came in and they stopped the Japanese from getting close enough to Australia to attack Australia in the future. And what actually happened is that the Americans were able to hear the Japanese on the radio and they figured out the codes that the Japanese were using. And so they were able to prepare. And when the Japanese thought that they were going to do a surprise attack, instead, the Americans were able to stop them and defeat them. But it wasn't that simple. What actually happened was first the Japanese came in and they bombed that island, Midway Island, and they destroyed most of the island except for the military installation. So the airplanes were still able to leave and the airplanes all went out and they started attacking the airplanes on the ships and the ships themselves of the Japanese. And they attacked and they attacked and they attacked, and the Americans lost many, many, many planes and men and even ships. And the Japanese lost many planes and men and ships. And finally, in the end, all that was left was the Americans. The Japanese 4 ships were all sunk. And so Mr. Ferris said to me, if it hadn't have been for the Americans stopping the Japanese, we would probably not be the way we are in Australia today. It would be a very different country. And in fact, the world could be very different because that was the turning point in World War II. But there's another way that things could have changed and it would have been very different. And it would have been in fact God's way. And there is a great story in the Old Testament about Elisha, where Elisha tells his servant, his servant Gehazi that they don't need to worry because Gehazi is so worried because he could see the armies that are surrounding this camp. And Elisha says, you know that I can hear because God's telling me, I can hear all the things that the enemies are saying. Just like the Americans could hear the Japanese army. Elisha was getting messages from God saying exactly what was gonna happen, what the enemy was gonna do, and he was able to warn the king's army. The king of Israel's army who lived in Samaria and say, move your troops so they don't attack. And so rather than there being battles, there was always empty fields whenever the enemy came. And so no one was dying, no one was being hurt, but the enemy, the king of Aram, he was so upset because what it was actually doing was it was meaning that everywhere he attacked, everywhere he sent his army, nothing happened. He wasn't able to conquer the enemy. And so finally the king of Aram said, how is this happening? How do they always get away just in time? And one of his soldiers said, "Well, King, it is this man Elisha. He's a prophet and he tells the king. He sends his messenger to tell the king exactly what's happening. And when he tells the king, the king tells the troops and the troops move." And the king of Aram had a brilliant idea. He said, "I want you to go and get that man." But he didn't want to kill Elisha. He said, "I want you to bring him back to me alive because he can clearly see what's happening when, where he isn't. And if his God can tell him things about our enemies, about us, maybe he can tell us things about our enemies. And so he wanted to get the prophet and use him for his own binoculars, his own secret viewfinder, so that he could understand the codes of the enemies that were being said and, and be able to see what the enemy was going to do. But instead, when they came to capture Elisha, because they said, we know where he is, he's hiding in the city of Dothan, And so they sent these armies, as the army surrounded the city, and Elisha's servant was so terrified because he thought, we're gonna die, there's no way to get out of this city, it's surrounded. But Elisha climbed up on the wall with Gehazi and he said, look, don't you see what I can see? And Gehazi couldn't see it. And then Elisha remembered that he could see things that other people couldn't because God had given him a prophet's eyes. And so he prayed for Gehazi and he said, dear Lord, please help my servant to be able to see what I can see. And they opened their eyes, and when they did, surrounding the armies of Aram was another army on the mountainsides, massive armies of angels and flaming chariots and horses and God's army, God's army was surrounding them, and you can imagine how excited Elisha's servant got because now he thinks, yes, God's going to destroy the enemy, and so he says, so when are they going to attack? And Elisha says, that's not God's way. He's not going to attack. Let's go down and meet the enemy. Meet the enemy? What are you talking about? But they do. They walk down, they open the gates of the city, and they walk out But before they walk out of the gate, Elisha says another prayer. He says, "Oh God, who can open my eyes to see what is coming and to see your armies and to see the enemy's movements, close the eyes of my enemies so they cannot see who I really am." And then he opens the gates and he walks out with his servant Gehazi, and they walk and they see the first soldier of the enemy, and they say, "Where is your commander?" And they say, "Ah, just in there, sir." And he walks a little further. "Excuse me, where is your commander?" "Just in there, sir." And he finally gets to the commander's tent and he says, "I'm here to ask you what you're doing. I've just been in the city there and what is it you need?" "Oh, we're here to take the man Elisha the prophet, to take him back to our king." And he said, "Oh, well, I'm sorry, Elisha is not in the city," which was true because now Elijah was outside the city. Talking to them, but they couldn't recognize him. And so they didn't know that it was Elisha. And he said, "I'm sorry, he's not in the city." And they said, "Well, we heard that he was." "Well, he was, but he just recently left the city." And they said, "Ah, do you know where he went?" "Absolutely, I know exactly where he's going." "You do?" "Yes." "Well then, you will take us to him." "Yes, I'm happy to do that. Come with me." And so Elisha starts walking and they armies of Aram follow him and they walk up those mountains and those flaming chariots are on those mountains, but rather than attack, God's army opens up and allows the armies of Aram to walk right through following Elisha. And Elisha walks down the other side of the mountain and down into Samaria, and as he gets to Samaria the city, the armies of Samaria can see— God's armies can see— these human armies can see the enemy Aram and they start preparing for war, and Elisha sends a message ahead to say, "No, don't attack, don't attack. God is doing a miracle here." And so when they get to the city, the king is like, "I can't believe this. The enemy just walked into our city. They don't— we've got them surrounded. They had men with bows and arrows on all the walls of the city." And the king said, "What's going on?" And he said, "They can't see who we are. They don't understand what's happening." God has blinded them to the reality around them. And the king got so excited, he said, "Can we kill them? Can we just kill them that easy?" And Elisha said, "No, they're your prisoners. We don't kill our prisoners." He said, "Well, what do you mean? What are we supposed to do with all these men?" "Oh, just feed them." "A what? Feed them? There's lots of them. How am I going to feed all of them?" "Oh, you feed your army. Just feed them one of the meals you would feed your army." and the king says, "But why?" "Because God wants you to feed your enemy." And so he does. He feeds a massive banquet to this army, and when the massive banquet's over, the king says to the prophet, "Can I kill them? Can I kill them?" And Elijah says, "No, you can't kill them. You just fed them, and when you feed someone, now they're your friends because you've had them at your table. So send them home." And the king says, "What? Send them home? If we send them home, they'll just attack again." And Elisha says, "No, they won't, because you've fed them and you've sent them home. The king of Aram will know that that was an act of peace, and he will never attack you again." And so the king took the word of the prophet. The men left, they went back to their king in Aram, told him the story, and he said, 'Okay, we can never attack them again because they treated us as friends.' Here's them having their feast. You know, years later Jesus came and he fed the poor, he fed everyone. He said, 'Feed your enemies.' And Paul said it this way, he said, 'But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.' And you know, if we deal with enemies like that, instead of attacking them, instead of trying to destroy them, if instead we destroy our enemies by making them our friends, we will not have this result, which is the result of the Battle of Midway. All of those, even though they are the winners, those— that's American flags on every single coffin, but the Americans lost hundreds and hundreds of men because they attacked the enemy. God's way is to forgive the enemy and to eat with them. Here's a picture of a Japanese soldier sitting amongst American US Army soldiers eating and smiling because even today sinful humans like us are able to forgive each other and to eat together. And when we eat together, we create a bond that reminds us of the feast that's coming in heaven when God will lay out a table for everyone. In Isaiah, he says it this way, the prophet says, Jerusalem, the Lord of heaven's armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat. There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will swallow up death forever. Do you want death to be gone forever? Then start now. Don't wait for Jesus to come back to start treating people kindly. Feed your enemies now. Forgive those who've hurt you. And watch God begin to change the world through our acts of kindness.