| A SENSE OF GOD'S TIMING |
| Two leaders locked in a death struggle - with one refusing to fight. |
| "I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. May the Lord judge between you and me." 24:11-12 |
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| In the winter of 1777, America had two armies. One lived in comfortable homes in Philadelphia. The other camped in the snow in the hills to the northwest, at a place called Valley Forge. One showed impeccable discipline. The other tried desperately to keep its untrained recruits from deserting. One was supplied by ship with every luxury.The other fought frostbite because its soldiers had no boots. In sum, one army had everything it could want to weather a cold winter and a war, while the other hung by a thread. Who could have thought, seeing the two, that within three years the army with nothing would defeat the army with everything? The impoverished American army could never go head-on against the crack British forces. But it could always outwait them. George Washington's army had the support of the American people, while the British army, for all their strength, were far from home. The British had to win decisively, putting an end to the rebellion. The Americans merely had to survive and outlast them. Washington was a military genius not at battle tactics, but at a more fundamental necessity: encouraging his men to fight on. One quarter of them died of cold and disease that bitter winter at Valley Forge. Only his personal strength held the miserable army together. That was the key to victory. Two Kings in Israel David and his followers lived in a similar situation. Saul was the right and proper king, living in luxury. David had been secretly anointed as his replacement, but he lived in the |