2 Samuel 23:11 – And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentiles: and the people fled from the Philistines.

2 Samuel 23:12 – But he stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines: and the Lord wrought a great victory.

Hello readers, mid week blog today. I am on holidays from work at the moment, so have had more of a chance to get some thoughts down. But let’s notice this guy from the Bible who you may have never noticed before, a man called Shammah, who was one of David’s mighty men.

We are in a generation that lost their “might”. And we’ve lost our “men” also. And so many professing Christians are powerless and weak and won’t defend anything anymore. They sure won’t stand by anything or for anything, particularly if there is any risk to self.

But guess what Shammah is remembered for? Standing. Defending. If you’re saved, you need to stand and defend. There is ground that is worth the sacrifice of your life.

There’s ground in this life which is good ground, fruitful ground, valuable ground… ground given to us that is not for the enemy to ever have, ground which we have to stand on at all costs. Shammah found some ground that was worth defending. No retreat, even if everyone else had.

Christians have been in retreat as long as I can remember. It seems there is nothing they won’t retreat from. They retreated from Genesis. They retreated from righteousness. They retreated from repentance. They retreated from truth. They retreated from holiness. They retreated from the Bible.

All of that and much more is good ground, ground that needs to be stood on and contended for. Paul said that he was “set for the defence of the gospel”. The Philistines are still coming for more ground, and they’ll keep coming until the Lord returns. So we have to keep standing and defending.

It’s good for us to think about the ground that we should be defending in our lives and our time. Think about your lentil patch, your little field God has given you. We all have a field that God has given us to plow and cultivate and grow.

In this story, the ground was FULL of lentiles. Lentils are a valuable plant, primarily cultivated for their edible seeds, which are very good for you. We have a ground full of lentils called our Bible. It is full of nourishing seed for the believer. But professing Christians retreated away from the King James Bible. The Philistines came for that ground, and few have been left standing on it. This Bible is FULL, and you will never want with it, it will keep you well fed and well nourished. Which is what the Philistines need to have if they are to control and dominate you.

Think about that ground though, and the ground that God’s given you that you should be standing on. Whatever good piece God has given you in life, it’s worth the battle. It’s worth it to fight for the truth of God’s word. It is worth it to contend for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Stop apologizing for him and conceding him to win favour with this world and start fighting for him. A faith that doesn’t cost you is a faith that has no value.

But noone wants a fight anymore, although the Bible says the Lord is a “man of war”. And he hasn’t changed has he? We made Christianity about this being nice, don’t offend anyone, give ground constantly religious deal. Why are we always giving up the ground? Why are we always losing the ground? Christians have given up all their ground, so now they have nothing to offer others. If you gave up your lentils, you can’t offer lentils to anybody to eat can you? Christians gave up all their ground and now they have nothing to offer saved or unsaved alike.

Shammah is telling us today to “hold the line”. When so many have broken rank and fled… who is left standing on good and godly ground in the face of the enemy? Not many. The abandonment of believers is palpable. When we should be standing shoulder to shoulder, we’re instead leaving the fight to someone else. Someone else save that ground, I’m not going to risk my skin.

By the way, the ground worth defending isn’t a life of sin, disobedience and rebellion to God. That’s worthless ground. I’m talking about good ground. Like in our society, good ground of marriage and family and education and truth and righteousness.

The Philistines will never have enough ground. They were a relentless enemy of Israel. They kept coming. You’ll never give enough ground to your flesh, this world and Satan for them to be satisfied. By the way, retreating from a battle worth fighting, that isn’t “Christian” and noble of you. We’ve made cowards the heroes while demonizing the heroes who show up our cowardice.

Shammah is a man to look up to, because what separated him from all the rest was the fact he saw the value of that ground, he saw the fight worth getting in. Whatever others thought about that ground, Shammah saw non negotiable ground. He saw it no surrender ground. He saw fighting ground. He saw no compromise ground. He saw fruitful ground. So stand and defend the ground!

Was it insignificant ground? Maybe they would’ve said to him… oh it’s just lentils, we can live without that. That’s not a battle worth fighting. We can deal with those losses. How many losses do are you willing to take? Why is Christianity all about losing every day?

Shammah knew that if he gave up that ground, then they’d want the next piece of ground too after that. And that’s what we see even in our society and our own lives. Satan didn’t conquer your life and fake Christendom all at once, he took it piece by piece. That little battle you ran away from, that will lead to even bigger losses… just wait and see.

I really thought about why that ground was so valuable though. Because it grew food for people. A lot of lentils means a lot of food for a lot of people. Abandoning that ground would impact a lot of people. And you see surrendered ground by past generations has affected the next generations. That ground is still lost. I thought about evolution now taught exclusively in schools as fact… and the ground that was ceded by past Christians… it’s still gone. Jesus Christ in schools should have been non negotiable ground… but the troops of atheists and agnostics assembled, and they fled in fear, surrendering science to the domain of these idiots.

But in this, I really kept coming back to the King James Bible. Because there is nothing more attacked than the tried and tested word of God, which is the ground we graze our food from. If Satan gets to your food source, you will get weak and faint and starve to death. That’s why this lentil crop was so critical… without food, why run away, what you going to eat? And you might find something else to eat, but the nutritional value be far inferior. Maybe you got yourself a different diet, but it’s not God’s inerrant, infallible, incorruptible word… and you’re so much poorer for it. Prosperity was in the crops, farm land and means of producing for themselves was vital… what did the Philistines want? To control the food source. Exactly as ungodly governments do and exactly what Satan wants to do with the imitation Bible you read now.

The word of God is what births us and grows us. We need it to grow as believers. I’ve got to say, the primary thing I’ve noticed in my life in Christianity is how Satan has divorced Christians from the Bible. He cut them off from the lentil patch. He took that ground… and Christians came under his dominion. Just as the Philistines did. Professing Christians anyway, because many of them show no signs of salvation. True Christians are like Shammah, they know what’s valuable and worth standing on.

But really, it would behoove all of us to think about how this relates to you. What ground has God given you and blessed and been fruitful that you need to stand and defend at all costs? Because this is for you and for me. It’s not just written to sound good. Shammah can be you or me. Even if others have run, we can stand in the midst of that ground and defend it with our lives. And we can see a great victory. Those victories aren’t just nice history, they are for today.

The Bible says in Ephesians 6:13 “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” This was an evil day in Israel. The Philistines had the numbers. Shammah was abandoned. But he stood. If nothing else, just stand. You don’t know what God can do with you just standing and defending good ground he has blessed you with. There is a lot of non negotiable ground that we should never run away from. The defence is worth it.

And by the way, it is not optional, it is a command. It is our privilege and responsibility to keep that ground for the next generation. If you have been passed the torch… carry it to the next runner. This isn’t just feel good stuff… this is urgent. Shammah had no guarantees of living, he was willing to die on that ground. Over my dead body. People are counting on you manning up for truth and what is right before God, so do it and stand. Shammah was an “I” that day, how about we make it a “we?”. God has given us ground that we, by his grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit, STAND and DEFEND.

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