Train to Live on Mission – Week 9
Battle Drill #9: Escape and Evade!
Proverbs 6:1-19 (NAS95)
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the ninth battle drill – Escape and Evade!
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 6:1-3:
My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given a pledge for a stranger, if you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor.
To importune means to beg or beseech, persistently for something or for someone to do something. It means to entreat or implore, to urge or solicit. The Hebrew word RHB, translated “importune” in today’s battle drill, carries an intensity to it that is almost military – to act stormily, boisterously, and angrily. Psalm 138:3 translates RHB, “On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul.” God emboldened him with strength in Psalm 138:3, just as God gives you the wisdom in Proverb 6 to know how to escape and evade whatever has ensnared you to your neighbor, whether a financial misstep or your words.
The purpose of the US military’s SERE training is to equip military personnel for the worst scenario – when a mission goes terribly wrong, then they must be able to survive, escape, resist, and escape (SERE) from enemy territory, or even enemy restraint, so that they can return home with honor. In fact, that is the motto of the school, “Return with Honor.”
To understand how I am applying this text to learning how to escape and evade as your battle drill for this week, you need to hear these verses in their context from the Field Manual in its entirety, Proverbs 6:1-19:
My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given a pledge for a stranger, if you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, o sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. How long will you lie down, o sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest” – your poverty will come in like a vagabond and your need like an armed man. A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers; who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, who spreads strife. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly; instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.
We know what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
The end of Proverb 6:3 gives us a threefold answer, “Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor.” The Hebrew word translated “go” is hālakh, which we learned all about in my sermon, “Battle Drill #4: Walk in the Way!” based on Proverbs 2:20: “So you will walk in the way of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.” That is our primary strategy, but what happens when you wander out of the way and need to escape and evade from enemy territory and/or enemy restraint, to get back on the paths of the righteous?
The Bible invites us to hālakh in the ancient paths of God (Jeremiah 6:16), in the way of good men (Proverbs 2:20), and in the light of the Lord (Isaiah 2:5). We are to walk in or take on the habitual lifestyle and the customs of God’s commands as our own way of life. As the Mandalorian says when he acts according to the customs of his own people, as peculiar as not taking off his helmet in front of other people and as honorable as putting himself in harm’s way because it’s the right thing to do: “This is the way!”
As one unit, the church of Jesus Christ, we, too, must learn to prioritize this battle drill so that we can escape and evade effectively. The time to walk in the way is this moment just as the day of salvation is today. Proverbs 6:4-19 lays out three key skills to successfully escape and evade:
1) To escape and evade you must act decisively, time is critical (4-5). You may not get another chance to act, so you must seize the moment and not squander the time entrusted to you. Make sure you act wisely and not hastily. Paul teaches us in Ephesians 5:15-21:
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Paul further teaches in Colossians 4:5-6: “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”
2) To escape and evade you must work hard work, effort is required (6-11). One of my favorite passages about this is found in Ephesians 4:28, “He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.” Paul says that you if you find yourself out of the way because you are stealing, then get back in the way by working hard, and not just to provide for your own needs, but to share with the one who has in need. It is not enough to simply get right with God, you are asked to labor for the sake of others and get right with those that you have stolen from.
3) To return with honor, convictions must be kept (12-19). There are personal convictions you must keep when you are escaping and evading; otherwise, it would be easy for the ends to justify the means. Paul explained this in Ephesians 4:29-32:
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
That is the first part, “Go,” of Proverb 6:3’s threefold answer, “Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor.”
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.
It wasn’t until after David returned to the way of God and humbled himself that he was in a place to teach transgressors God’s ways in hopes of seeing sinners converted to God. We cannot do for others what God has not first done for us. The same was true for Peter before he could become the rock of the church. Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:31-34:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”
Humility puts us in a place where God can use us to impact others because we will not approach our neighbor’s proudly, but humbly, ready to extend to them the same grace, mercy, and compassionate comfort God first gave to us (2 Corinthians 1:4).
And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Then, in John 13:34-35, at the time of Seder Meal, of which you will learn more about next week, Jesus’ gave a new commandment: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” While the command to love was not new, the quality of our love was made new by the sacrifice of the One who commanded us to love as He loved us. We are to love in like-kind with Jesus, not in like-kind with the person we are dealing with.
Love, ultimately, is how we will escape and evade! To treat others as we want to be treated ourselves (Luke 6:31). As Peter commends to us in 1 Peter 4:7-11:
The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Make this battle drill a reflexive, instinctive, and habitual part of your Christian life so that you can CM – Continue the Mission! Therefore, live on mission today and train the battle drill of the week for the glory of God. Let us pray.
You can listen to the message here: