The Preacher's Diary 
Imagine that you were Prophet Hosea, a young man in church, loving God with all your heart, hardworking, in the choir and prayer departments of the house of God, with lofty dreams of your wedding day and that pretty girl in the choir that you have been eyeing, whom you would soon marry after her graduation from the university next summer, and thereafter move to your new apartment in that quiet section of town. Then it happens.
And the city shall be cursed, even it, and all that therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house: because she hid the messengers that we sent.
Joshua 6:17.
Rahab was a harlot; even the Bible identified her by that appalling trade, but she was a good person at heart, and very hospitable too. She had probably been forced into the sex trade by the difficulties of life. She hid the men that came her way, and would not deliver them to harm. Every harlot is not a devil; some of them are great souls merely stained by the constraints of a hard life.
And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.
Genesis 34:2.
That is the story of Dinah, the only known daughter of Jacob (although Genesis 34:16 speaks of “daughters”). During the 600-mile journey from Mesopotamia (where Jacob had been on exile for about twenty years) back to Canaan (as instructed by the Lord), the family passed through Shechem, a city (or “country”) that bore the same name as its iconic prince.
There is one female gender name that has entered into history with all the connotations of disdain and shame; a pretty-sounding name that no decent mother would call her loving daughter. The name is Delilah, which, according to some Bible dictionaries, means “languishing,” and by others is translated as “delicate” – the delicate one. It is next of kin to another kindred female name, Jezebel. Delilah’s story is told in the Bible book of Judges, chapter 16, in the episode that saw the strong Samson ignobly put out of service by that woman’s soft touches.
And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death (Judges 16:16).
All terrorists do not carry bombs and swords; some merely carry words. All terrorists do not blow up public planes and strike off ‘heathen’ heads; some merely blow up intangible souls and decapitate dreaded dreams. One gang bleeds the body and publicly prides itself in the goriness that we cringe at in Christian civility; the other slashes the soul in dark romantic rooms with Judas kisses. Because our ears hardly hear the cry of dying souls, because the soul bleeds a blood that mortal juries do not always see, we are prone to pamper the bloodless dangerousness of swordless terrorists while we fry those that dare to publish their bloodlines in promise of a perverted paradise. It is blind and complicit partiality, but some call it justice for the ‘weak.’
And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.
Numbers 20:28.
Preface
I was preparing to speak at a prayer retreat of prison evangelists this evening when the words came to me during the worship: “Untitled Generals.” I instantly had a glimpse of what was meant, and quickly took down the first notes. I share here with you the rest of the message as it subsequently and more fully dawned on me.
When the time came for Jacob to leave Laban and move on to the covenant-location of Bethel, God allowed a crisis between ‘Executive Director’ and ‘Manager’; between father-in-law and son-in-law (Genesis 31:2-3). It took that ‘quarrel’ between both parties for Jacob to move on to where Covenant was waiting for him. Imagine some ‘concerned’ priest or anyone trying to settle that quarrel!
2. Manipulated Relationships
It seems clear from our primary text that emotions and relationships are manipulable by spirit forces, and they can be weaponized. So, sustaining smiles or avoiding wars may not altogether depend on the meticulous adherence to textbook rules on relationship and romance (Genesis 11:7-8). One can sow all the right relationship seeds and still reap enmity if there is a spirit-cause unknown or ignored.
1. The Paradoxical God of Peace
It is traditional to think of God as the “God of love,” the “God of peace.” That is correct, for, according to 1 John 4:16, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them” (NLT). In other words, according to that passage, love is God’s nature, and love is His ‘address.’ God is such a God of love and peace that He also urges His children to be like Him, to “Do all that you can to LIVE IN PEACE with everyone” (Romans 12:18, NLT).
