Where Are The 7,000

Yes, of course, I am aware it is not strictly appropriate in English prose to use a question as a title. The next post is also going to have a question as a title. Deal with it. We are looking for some people. It is starting to get interesting now. The Lord has given us a couple of His weapons to start the battle. You will notice within the next week or so these posts becoming more specific as to how we are going to fight this battle rather than containing so much general information and teaching. We are not saying there will not be some of that, but the emphasis will be more on how we engage the battle.

Jesus battled the devil throughout the approximately three and a half years of His ministry. At one point, He asked the disciples who they thought He was. Peter gave him the correct answer when he said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." (Matthew 16:16) Jesus commended him for that answer and told Peter, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) We are not going to do a teaching on that verse at this time. The reason for that quotation is to point out the gates guarding the entrance to Hades, the domain of the devil will not prove sufficient to keep The Church from breaking through them to, "... release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:15) Well shoot, I know some of you are missing the point because you have never had any real teaching on this verse either.

Now I am in a quandary. I cannot possibly teach those verses and keep this post from becoming unwieldy. I received a comment just last night at dinner about the individual posts being too long. I am already thinking on that. Now, I have not even gotten into what I want to say here and, oh well, what to do? Someone remind me that you do not understand exactly what these verses are saying and we will deal with them at another time. Maybe, going forward, we will devote one or two posts a week to just Bible teaching and the others to pursuing the battle.

What we are really trying to do with this post is to find the answer to the question, "Where are the 7,000 men who have never bowed their knees to Baal? We are not talking about literally 7,000 men--and we would be including women since we are living in a dispensation of common grace. The number is relatively unimportant. What is important is that we have the perfect number, as determined by God, to fight this battle. In the days of Elijah, in Israel, that number was 7,000. Today, in the battle for the Santa Maria, it may be 7,000, or 700, or only 7. We do not know. We are pretty sure there are already more than 7. There are almost that many reading the posts we print out at the mission. That reminds me, if anyone knows how to post this blog to a larger audience please explain it to me in English. That is yet another thing on the list. I know it can be done. I read the instructions, but it does not seem to be working.

As we recall the story from 1 Kings 19, Elijah had just embarrassed King Ahab with the whole fire from heaven episode. He then led the slaughter of all Ahab's false prophets. Then he ran for his life. He was hiding in a cave. God showed up and ruined the whole pity party. They had a heart to heart. Elijah was whining about being the only person in Israel who stood for God. If we are being honest, some of us have felt that way on our worst days. Okay, I will go first. I was there immediately before God called me to this battle. I sat in my pastor's office and cried because I was very disappointed and could not see what God was doing. I felt hopeless. God told Elijah, "Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." (1 Kings 19:18

Baal, in it's essence is the god of power. Keeping in mind our understanding of spirit, soul, and body, we understand Baal is no god at all, but rather a demonic spirit posing as a god. Although a spirit, he does his work in the souls of men, blinding them to the spiritual realm wherever possible. More on that in a future post.

Baal was already in the land of Canaan when Abraham led God's people there. Offerings, including children, were often sacrificed to Baal. He was revered as the god who controlled nature and therefore caused the rain to come and water the land. Without rain, there were no crops and famine ensued. Ahab's embarrassment by Elijah was multiplied because it came at the end of a years long drought. That drought ended when Elijah prayed and God sent a heavy rain. This was Elijah becoming more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37). First he called down fire from heaven to win the battle with the prophets then called down the rain to show God's power was greater than that of Baal.

God told Elijah there were yet 7,000 men in Israel who had not worshipped Baal. They were the people who had been faithful to God regardless of what had come against them. They were the ones who were qualified to fight God's battles. Their qualifications were not that they were necessarily the most competent or experienced in battle. They came because they knew who their leader was. In their case it was the God of Israel. Now, Jesus leads the battle. The sole qualification for fighting in this battle is to have one's sins washed away by the blood of the lamb.

As I said in the previous post, so far three men have said they are with me. They will follow me through the gates of hades. At least they say they will. I did not ask them. They volunteered. I am sure they will. I know there are others. In this case it does not really matter if we know now, or if we ever know who is fighting alongside us. What matters is that Jesus is leading the charge and in the end we will see the victory. We have been flailing at the darkness for over twenty years already. Finally a crack of light has shown us the real battle. Now we are out to pursue it until the light overcomes the darkness. God bless.