Our Great Commander
August 14th Devotional
2nd Timothy 2:1-4
On this day Dwight Eisenhower was named the commander of the invasion of North Africa during World War II. Eisenhower was no stranger to military service, though it might surprise many of us to find out that he never saw active combat during his 35 years of active service. Eisenhower graduated from West Point in 1915. Eisenhower desperately wanted to serve his country on the foreign field during WW I but was denied multiple times. He remained at home training new tank corps. Despite not serving an active role in combat his superiors noted how organized and intelligent he was. After the war, Eisenhower continued to pursue his military education by focusing on the role of tank warfare. Eisenhower spent most of the 1920’s preparing for the ‘next war’ which would revolve around the role that tanks would play. The strategy of American tank warfare was basically invented by Eisenhower. Eisenhower then served as the chief military aid to General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines. Finally in July 1942 he was named Lieutenant General and placed as the Supreme Commander of the North African invasion (a role that became official in November). The campaign was called Operation Torch. He, along with other commanders planned the attacks in an underground bunker near Gibraltar. His efforts were extremely successful. The allies were able to remove the Axis powers from the area and were also able to complete Operation Avalanche, which was a sea landing attack to remove Italian Dictator Mussolini from office. Shortly thereafter Eisenhower was named at the first Supreme Allied Commander which meant that he oversaw all activity in the Western War Theater. By his incredible tact and intelligence the Allies were able to retake large portions of Europe from the Nazi’s. He was one of the primary leaders for D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, and others. The dark curtain of Nazism failed partially because of Eisenhower’s leadership and determination. Eisenhower would go on to become a five star general (there have only been five in American history) and served as the 34th president from 1953-1961.
Eisenhower is
considered one of the most famous generals in American history. Men enjoyed serving under him. A commander leads. As a believer we have a commander too. Paul in 2nd Timothy chapter two
encourages his young apprentice in the faith to be entrusting the work of the
Gospel ministry to other faithful men (v. 2).
Paul then focuses on a comparison of a believer to a solider, but not
just any soldier. In 2nd Timothy
2:4 Paul writes “No solider in ACTIVE service entangles himself in the affairs
to everyday life, so that he many please the one who enlisted him as a solider.” Look at the end of the verse. We are soldiers because someone has enlisted
us, a commander has asked us to join the battle fray. Who is the commander who enlists us? None other than Jesus Christ. He has called us to service. Paul stresses that our service to the Lord is
active. The Greek text uses the verb in the
present tense, which means there should never be a time when we are inactive
for Jesus. There is no furlough or
break. We should always, unendingly be
actively serving the Lord. If we are
enlisted by a great commander who loves us and is always seeking out for our
best then we need to make sure we are not entangling ourselves into things that
would distract us. The word entangled gives
the image of two different threads being interwoven. We cannot allow the thread of this world, the
thread of our corrupt nature, or the thread of distraction to take our eyes off
of Jesus. Peter spoke of this in 2nd
Peter 2:20 and his conclusion is that if we try to interweave the pollutions of
the world with the purity of serving Jesus we will end up worse than when we
started. How is your service to Jesus Christ? Are we actively serving or have we become
lazy? Are we distracted or committed?
Thank you, Bro. Matt.
ReplyDelete