"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." Sun Tzu
A lot is made in Sunday Schools and evangelistic directives of the battle of Joshua and the falling walls of Jericho. Great has been the parallel drawn between Joshua's victory and the walls that either keep us in or out of our visions. Yet the New Testament writer pictures each believer as an epistle (a written narrative) written by and read by all men. So what is this that makes a man or women a great victor over adversity?
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles." This time old adage of the war chronicles becomes a goal of the believer. Knowing our enemy and ourselves becomes the quest rather than the skirmishes that are the result of enemy infiltration, attacks or personal frustrations. Seeking to know that which could threaten your overcoming walk whether it be an outside force or that which is concocted within becomes the focus.
Late one night I was called to the Houston Police Station and Harris County Courthouse. Wet and rainy, windy and without mercy was the summer night. Windshield wipers slashing quarter size raindrops as the eyes searched for a parking spot. There they were. Three parking spaces right in front of the building.
Wow! Providence! My spot! Easing into the space plenty of room was left on each side. Reaching back into the back seat a worn umbrella was found in the searching hand and I stepped out into the night. Feeling like Mary Poppins in the wind the door was rushed for and the nights task to be dealt with was ahead.
Task over the return to the car was easier. The summer rain had ceased. The wind was calm and June weather was at its best in the Gulf Coast. With umbrella down the stroll to the car was made with almost a chuckle that such a spot had been found. Then I saw it.
There was a reason those parking spots were empty. Those who worked at and frequented the Courthouse knew and avoided it. Those who came by were glad they had not parked there. Others remembered when they had parked there with a grimace. It still not the place to park and some poor, dumb cluck had parked in the war zone.
My eyes beheld white droppings completely covering the car. Yes, some blue was mixed in the white and it became abundantly clear why those parking spaces were avoided. Hundreds of birds were in the trees above and the ground below was filled with their refuse. So the umbrella went up again just so the car could be entered.
That which was learned that night was not lost in jokes and laughter. The story is told to anybody that I hear is traveling to the same parking lot that they might not suffer the same struggle. And that is the result of that battle.
When God told Joshua to march around the city in an exact manner it was obedience that brought the tactical victory. Told to a military man in a civilian and religious fashion the execution was the same as any other battle. Joshua knew himself, his sword, the sweat of the battle and this would see him through to the end. Marching into and exiting from battle had etched into his mind the fact that if he knew himself and knew his enemy he would not fear the outcome of even a hundred battles.
What he must have thought when the ground began to shake and the walls began to groan and the noises of stone falling upon stone thundered through the countryside! No battle had ever sounded like this before! No, clashing of steel, clanging of breast plates or Shields, no groaning of the dead or weeping of the injured, just an horrendous earthquake followed by fleeing enemy running for their lives! The outcome of the battle was the same! Victory was his!
For those who battle in the fields of life this day may it be said, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles."
