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The Call to Resist
The call to resist is being distributed.
On December 15, 1940, intellectual provocateurs spread out throughout Nazi-occupied Paris dropping illegal documents near public kiosks. Brutal cold chaps their faces and takes away their breath. The newspapers in their hands could get them arrested. They are scared but fearless.
Their occupations are unusual for urban guerrillas: ethnologist, anthropologist, librarian, art historian and so on. And still they press on.
This is what it feels to start a revolution.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4.7b
The call to resist has been distributed.
It started in a small insignificant village near the most southernly points of the Lebanese mountain range, a little over 15 miles west of the Sea of Galilee. In three years, the carpenter’s son would traverse the region of Palestine numerous times. Those in stark opposition to Him recognized His influence.
"You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him."
John 12.19b
Many heard His call and left all to follow Him. Their occupations are unusual for those engaged in warfare. Fishermen. Tent makers. Tax collectors. And so on.
They, like Him, will be mocked, ridiculed, and threatened with their very lives for the message they bring. And still they press on. They will be known over time as those that turned the world upside down.
Theirs is a spiritual warfare.
Not a call to bear arms. Not in the traditional sense. Nor in the way many believed it should occur. It was never intended to overthrow the yoke of Roman bondage. But one where all who heeded the call could take their stand against the schemes of the devil.
Even His death at the hands of His tormentors could not stop the movement. How could it? Death was swallowed up in victory. For it was told from the beginning that He would deliver the decisive stroke. A death blow to the serpent’s head (Genesis 3.15b).
This is what it feels to start a revolution. One that would free all from bondage and bring forth life eternal.
Inspired into action by the broadcast words of Charles de Gaulle, Agnes Humbert will write in her journal:
“Here we are, most of us on the wrong side of forty, careering along like students all fired up with passion and fervour, in the wake of a leader of whom we know absolutely nothing, of whom none of us had seen a photograph. In the whole course of human history, has there ever been anything quite like it?”
Has there been anything quite like this?
Most certainly yes. And with far more important and eternal implications. Saints past, present and future heed the call. The gospel call. Armed with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6.13-17), they extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.
The call to resist has been distributed.
This is what it feels like to start a revolution.
In the Lord’s army.
