We have a picture hanging on the wall in our living room. It is a painting of a father kneeling in prayer at the side of his young child’s bed. There is a window above the bed with the curtains gently blowing in the breeze.
What has struck my interest is if you look through the window you will see and angel standing guard with his sword drawn ready for battle. Revelation 12 speaks of a battle in Heaven between the Archangel Michael and Satan.
12:7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. NIV
I have a very good trustworthy friend who traveled with me to Africa some years back. When it was time for us to go home Gary felt that God was directing him to travel from Kenya into the Sudan. His adventure is truly a remarkable story. Gary knew in his heart that God wanted him to go see a specific missionary in the heart of the Sudan. He agonized over having to go knowing that his life would be in absolute danger if he were found out by the authorities. He chose to go.
Traveling across the landscape, no roads lead to where he was going, and all he had was a direction from God on where he was to go and when to turn, he found himself in the middle of Sudan on a dark, moonless night with no light to be seen except for the headlamps of his jeep. Search as he might he could not find his way. Finally he heard an audible voice say to go in a specific direction. He looked around but already knew there was no one there except for the driver. They followed as the voice had instructed.
After over 30 miles he saw a single faint light off in the distance. Could that be where he was to go? He made his way to the light – a 40 watt lamp run by a generator in the middle of the Sudan.
The missionary Gary felt led to go see had turned it on in the middle of the night. He and his family had been huddled in fear for their lives waiting for an attack that they knew was coming from the village medicine man and his followers. He thought that the light might scare them off or postpone the inevitable attack for a little bit of time.
When Gary drove up the missionary and family were visibly in distress. Gary bent down and they prayed immediately for safety and peace.
The next day Gary convinced the missionary to take him to the village...no easy task considering the hostility that existed with the medicine man. In the village they were escorted to the medicine man because he wanted to talk to the missionary. Gary asked why they did not attack last night and the medicine man was incredulous that they would ask such a thing. “We came to attack but we were greatly outnumbered by your army of soldiers dressed in white with flashing swords.” Gary and the missionary were stunned.
There is much more to this story but suffice it to say that I was thinking of this story and looked up to see the picture in my living room – both included angels with swords drawn – and I began to wonder – is there really a war that was waged, is being waged, will be waged, between good and evil? Are there casualties? Can angles die? Revelation 12 seems to indicate that all this is true.
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