Original Entry: November 21, 2007
McMinnville, OR
27 "I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. Exodus 23:37
36 " `As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them. Leviticus 26:36
12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. Joshua 7:12
Today we begin a new word study on the word “run”. I pulled up every time any derivative of this word occurs in the Bible, and found 69 occurrences in the New International Version of the Bible. From the exhaustive list I crossed out verses that spoke about literal running or any other time I felt the verse would not help us in The Great Hunt for God. As I ran down my list of 69 verses I noticed something interesting that I would like to share.
Several of the first passages listed in Scripture such as the ones above dealt with the word “run” describing retreat or a running away from someone or something. As we looked at today’s verses, two of the three passages talk about people that “turn their backs and run” (Exodus 23:37).
This reminded me of my “first buck” disaster that happened a lifetime ago. I was only eleven years old when we were members of the American Sportsman Club. At the time dad was dead set on me killing my first buck. We had spotted a nice “forky” the day before the forked-horn-or-better season and decided to return the following morning to take him. At the time the club had a nine day 3-point or better season and since we arrived on day eight we were confident we would find the buck on the following morning.
We did everything just as planned, spotted the buck within 100 yards of the night before. As directed, I snuck up to a man-sized boulder and rested my 250/3000 Savage, I looked at the buck in the scope all I saw were spikes. I told my dad that I did not think this was “the buck” and was actually a spike, but in his usual buck fever state of mind he demanded that I, “Shoot!”
So I shot.
The bullet passed through the length of his body knocking him down for good. What should have been a moment of great celebration and excitement, however, turned to fear and trepidation as we approached the buck.
It was a spike! Illegal to kill in California’s A-zone.
Panicked, my dad simply yelled, “Run!”
Run we did. We never finished the buck off, never looked behind us, and have never been back. When I think of turning my back and running from something this traumatic experience from my youth is still raw in my mind.
As we begin our study on this word let me note two things. In Scripture we will read and learn about either running away from someone or thing, or running to it. In other words, when we run away from one thing we subsequently run to another.
A man cannot turn your back to one thing without turning your face to another. If he runs to pornography he runs from his wife. If he runs to watches football on a Sunday morning he is running for worshipping God that day.
Get it?
The question we must answer is, “What am I running to and what is it that I have run way from in order to get there?”
