The "anti" RED DAWN instruction

"And to this people you shall say: Thus says the LORD: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Those who stay in the city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but those who go out and surrender to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have their lives as a prize of war."

(Jeremiah 21:6-9)

I still remember seeing RED DAWN... the original 1984 version with Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Gray, and Lea Thompson. It was during the height of the Cold War - and our almost paranoid concern about the Soviet Union (USSR) and the arms race. As a high school student trying to find my identity, I wondered if I'd have the courage to flee to the hills, like the teens in Red Dawn did, and take up guerrilla warfare if the United States was ever invaded by a foreign army?

We Americans take pride in defending our country... in standing up to aggression... in fighting for what we believe in. It's one of the pillars on which this nation was built.

So it's incredibly jarring to read Jeremiah 21. The people of Israel were facing a foreign invasion. The Chaldeans, the super-power of the region at that time, had set their sights on Jerusalem (and the entire nation of Judah). Or course, the initial response was to stand up and fight - even though the Hebrew people were HUGE underdogs! Even some of the so-called "prophets of God" urged the people to resist, citing that God would indeed save them! And then God gave Jeremiah a word for the people: DON'T FIGHT. Fight and you will die... OR you can surrender and live.

(By the way... Those who surrendered were taken into captivity for 70 years. Then returned to Jerusalem (with the next generation) with a newfound sense of passion & commitment to the ways of God.)

What a hard word to hear. It goes against our pride as humans. We want to fight. To stay. To never give up or never give in. And yet, here God was using "the enemy" to help bring the people of Israel back to him. It's almost unfathomable to think that God might use our enemies as part of our growth and learning. And yet, could it be that the very thing we've been afraid of and fighting tooth and nail... it might just be something that God will use for our good? (I know! It's almost inconceivable, isn't it?)

Open my heart to hear when you're asking me to surrender, Lord. I don't want to fight if it's going against your will.