Salvation at Micmash
The accuracy and trustworthiness of the Bible is of vital importance to anyone that would call themselves a Christian. At City Awakening fully trust and follow the teaching of the Bible. We’ve taught on this topic on numerous occasions (see https://youtu.be/AkXBke8tGXY for one example). While examples of textual criticism and evidence of life change provide ample evidence for trust in the Bible, there are anecdotes from history that prove the point as well. There is an interesting story that comes out of WWI where this accuracy and trustworthiness took on literal life or death implications. Many people have trusted in the Bible for its moral and spiritual guidance, but it’s all the more comforting that even the ancient descriptions of history stand as fully true, a lesson that British Army Major Vivian Gilbert learned firsthand.
In 1918, Gilbert’s regiment was on campaign in the Middle East (near Jerusalem in Israel) fighting against the Ottoman Turks. The British found themselves in a difficult predicament. The Turks were well dug in and fortified in a town that occupied strategic high ground in a rock outcropping. Gilbert and his commanding officers faced the daunting proposition of attacking the position head on with the likely outcome that they would incur massive casualties. However, something about the name of the region and town, Michmash, rung a bell with Major Gilbert (kudos to him on his knowledge of semi-obscure Bible stories). In response to this prompting he began paging through his Army issued Bible the night before the planned attack seeking some help from the Lord. He found what he was looking for in 1 Samuel 13 and 14. Let’s see how words written about Michmash 3,000 years before Gilbert got there could possibly help him.
I Samuel 13-14 finds King Saul and the Israelite army in a similar predicament around Michmash as Gilbert and his men, this time against their longtime enemies, the Philistines. The Philistines encamped worked out of the well defended Michmash and caused immense problems for the Israelites and their King. The first was the sheer size of the force that the Philistines could muster. “The Philistines also gathered to fight against Israel: three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. (the Old Testament way of saying “we tried to count but there were way too many”)” 1 Samuel 13:5. This force struck so much fear in the armies of Saul that the Bible states that many of the men hid in caves or other natural hiding places that could be found and some even crossed the Jordan river to get away from the army. From Michmash, the Philistines were also able to exact economic and logistic pressure on the Israelites. They either killed or conscripted all of the blacksmiths in the region so that the people and armies of Israel would be unable to have swords and weapons made. Even the local farmers were forced to use Philistine blacksmiths at a premium price gouge for work on their farming tools.
All of these pressures centering around Michmash and a well-fortified enemy would prove to be Saul’s downfall as King of Israel. In his fear and impatience before going to battle against his enemy, he decided to offer sacrifices himself instead of waiting for Samuel the high priest to offer them. When Samuel arrived and learned of Saul taking that responsibility into his own hands, he declared that God’s punishment was that the King of Israel would no longer come from Saul’s line in favor of a man after God’s own heart (eventually David). So, how could Israel get out of the mess they were in at Michmash? The solution actually came from Saul’s son, Jonathan. Despite his hopes of eventually becoming King of Israel being ruined because of his father’s lack of faith, he decided to trust in the Lord for victory and fight on. Jonathan and his armor bearer (think right hand man or personal bodyguard) used a small pass that ran between two prominent rock outcroppings to outflank and surprise a small rearguard of Philistines leading to a rout that preserved Israel as a sovereign nation.
Cut back to Major Gilbert and his battered Bible in 1918. Gilbert and the other officers trusted the story of Jonathan and his secret path to defeat the Philistines and decided to go for the same strategy. They sent out scouts looking for the prominent rock formations that should lead to the path up into Michmash. Upon finding the pass just as Samuel described it, the British sent a company of men up it in the dead of night. At daybreak, the Turks awoke in a panic to see British troupes fighting inside their camp. The British captured Michmash that day and killed or captured every Turkish soldier that had been holding it with minimal casualties. All of this because a Major studied and trusted the Bible as God’s fully inspired and truthful Word. What difficulties and trials could you and I conquer if we only trusted what God says in His Word in the same way?
