The victory that Jonathan experienced on that day began with God working through Jonathan and his sword. It is no small thing that one man with a sword can slay dozens of equally armed men. Then God sent an earthquake, and things got really interesting. I am convinced that God longs to put His fingerprint on our lives, to act on our behalf and to surprise us with His glory and magnificence. I am also equally convinced that most of the time we do not give God a context in which to do this. The realm of the mundane is not really the best context for a miracle. When we play it safe, we tend to squeeze God out of the formula. If we go only where we know and do only what we're certain will succeed, then we eliminate our need for God [don't we all prefer to "walk by sight?"]. Yet whenever we respond to God's invitation, our need for God becomes heightened. Whenever we take on a God-sized challenge, self-sufficiency is no longer an option.
While Scripture is full of first-dimension faith, it's the second dimension faith that stands out and becomes the "Bible stories" that we all remember. Daniel lived in the days when Babylon ruled over Israel. Darius was king, and with his rule he brought his gods. Daniel was one of the young Hebrew advisors selected to serve in the king's court. Daniel had achieved a place of great influence and respect until Darius was convinced by one of Daniel's rivals to make it a crime to pray to the God of Israel. Commanded to pray only to Darius, the king, Daniel refused to comply. Instead he continued to pray to the living God three times per day just as he had always done. Daniel's first-dimension faith was that he continued to pray [quasi-openly ... by his open window] as he had always done, though it was now against the law. He did what was right, regardless of the personal consequence. His second-dimension faith became operative when the king threw him into the hungry lion's den and God intervened to allow him to survive the night. There would have been no opportunity for second-dimension faith in Daniel's life if he had not been faithful in the first dimension.
Many times first-dimension faith creates the context for the second dimension. We must remember that if we're thrown into the lion's den and we get eaten, God is still faithful. This [uncertainty] is what makes second-dimension faith so exciting. You know that God will be honored because you have done what is right. We find a long list of such men and women in Hebrews 11, beginning in verse 35. After describing many whose faith journeys had brought victory in this life, the writer moves on to describe others whose very lives were the victory. Among those living by faith were those who "were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawn in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated -- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground." The author of Hebrews concluded, "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised" [vv. 35-39].
If you're thrown to the lions, of course, you hope that you'll be there in the morning to celebrate. But if not, you will be in the presence of God, and you will have provided a small kindness to a few hungry lions. Just remember that the first dimension is, again, the hard task of faithfulness. The second dimension seems to be where all the action is. It shouldn't surprise us, then, that while we too often search for ways to access the second dimension of faith without having to embrace the first dimension, we sadly discover that they are almost always inseparable.
... To be continued ...
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