Strongholds Ongoing

[HKHaugan]

Strongholds Ongoing

The visual pictures of strongholds can be found over and over again in the Old Testament. The villages, towns, cities, fortresses, empires and kingdoms of men are all external attempts to give the promise and appearance of inner security. These days that is expressed when we say ‘we’ve got our act together.’ While Genesis records their beginning they appear throughout the history of Israel and God sends prophets to identify them so that the people of Israel will repent and return to Him. What the Lord God wants His people to realize is that there is only one stronghold they are to embrace and that is Him alone. There is no internal security through external structures nor is their inner peace through personally built strongholds. He alone is the stronghold enabling us to recognize ourselves as His images, therefore reflections of Him. He isn’t a stronghold of our making but we become strong when we are held by Him, the One God who is the ultimate spiritual and personal reality. Being an image of God means were made by Him to be like Him in our mind, heart and spirit.

Since man is imperfect, flawed in perception and reaction, prone to err, no matter what the idea he conceives, it will never capture the brilliance of mind, purity of heart or power of the Spirit that is God. Logically there is only one way we can connect with Him and that is by His willingness to reveal Himself as He has done in Jesus, in His Word and by a relationship with Him through faith. No matter what we do, think, say or act out, nothing but a faith relationship can close the gap sin spread between man and God. It is by faith that He reveals Himself. He is the one and only stronghold to secure us in the human experience.
To do an entire survey of the stronghold concepts of man in the Bible would take far more pages than any reader would want to tackle. But, we can look at some major ones. Suffice it to say Noah came out of a culture so ridden with them that God caused a flood to save the one righteous man and his family that stood out in his time.
The really big event is God’s call to Abraham in Gen.12:1-3. The opening verse has to do with how people basically identify themselves outside of God when He directs Abram (not yet Abraham) to leave three core groups people created to establish their identity, country, people and a father’s household.
The first, country, is a human attempt to have and pass on a national communal identity with principles of citizenship, laws, behavior and protection.
The second is a local people among whom they find ongoing relational identity.
The third is blood family. Blood family gives one a sense of physical identity through ancestry.

All three are seeded from God but man’s sin separated those ideas from Him and instead of being unifying they became divisive, competitive and hostile seeking power over one another. This is sin’s goal because it is the devil’s goal, sin being his spirit.

The Lord God wants them to leave these three corrupted situations in order to go to a land He has in mind for him and his family. He is going to give them a new identity, a spiritual identity, an eternal identity. With the command to leave is a built-in set of promises in vs.2-3: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Note closely the emphasis God places on Himself by the use of the first person “I”. God is making sure Abram knows that it is He who personally will make Abram a great nation, a great name, a great witness and a great blessing. “I will make…” “I will bless…” “I will curse…” The “I will” statement further guarantees Abram’s future---that the Lord God will always be with him. God’s ‘will’ is a guarantee of His will. Though the word ‘stronghold’ is not used it is quite apparent that God is to be Abram’s stronghold. He is the living idea, the living concept, the living truth and the living conclusion for the beginning and end of all human understanding and knowledge. Man can only find his ultimate purpose and meaning in a spiritual relationship with God and one another. God has a transcending spiritual purpose, a purpose that lifts man above the world and into His Kingdom. Yet His intention is to first establish that kingdom on this earth to bring the world back to its created purpose, to reflect His glory part of which is the spiritual restoration of mankind.

The promise of God is the beginning of a new country, a new people and a new household, that will bless each inhabitant, make them great and be a blessing to the whole world. So instead of man’s self-exaltation to replace God seen in the construction of the presumptuous Tower of Babel, God brings His Kingdom down to earth that He may be each man and woman’s personal stronghold. Abram (whose name means exalted father) becomes Abraham (meaning father of many) and thus begins the preparation for the coming of Messiah Jesus. More on this next.