The Damocles Sword: What Dangers Do You Live Under? By Kelly Durant
6-9-13 Re 3-2-25 2 Corinthians 11:24-26), 2 Corinthians 1:3-11
2.The Sword of Damocles is an anecdote (but probably a real story) of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a 4th century BC tyrant of Syracuse, Sicily. Damocles exclaimed to his king, Dionysius, that, as a great man of power and authority surrounded by magnificence, how blessed and fortunate he truly was. Dionysius offered to switch places with Damocles, so that Damocles could taste that position with privilege firsthand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Damocles sat down in the king's throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, held at the handle only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Damocles finally begged the tyrant Dionysius to let him get up from the throne, because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate!
Dionysius had successfully illustrated the sense of the constant fear in which the great ruler lived, as he was always in danger of death by treason. Dionysius made it clear that there can be nothing pleasant for the person over whom some fear always looms! Over each one of us is a danger that could harm or kill at any moment!
3. In life, most every one of us while on the earth is threatened by a continuous danger. These dangers could be present as a medical problem, risks involved in work, even in the traffic! Some of these dangers could be from violent family members or by thugs in the neighborhood. Some dangers come from geographical phenomena like tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes, and yet other dangers are from spiritual attacks playing on our fears; voices from our spiritual warfare of good vs. evil, of the devil and his demons attacking you & I who have a Christ-like mind.
I was there for hurricane Andrew in 1992! That upset our lives for almost a year! Some people, as seen in the Bible, believe destructions are permitted by God to purge people from their sins, so in their weakness they repent and look to God. God may reveal to you or may not reveal to you His purpose in these trials. But, either way, our mission is to serve suffering humanity!
I was thinking about my past, places where I have lived and the different dangers that I faced and the ones each of us face from day to day. I grew up in Oklahoma with tornadoes and the danger of losing everything, even my life; it was a real danger during certain times of the year.
Some people crack easily under pressure (usually the faithless) while others just keep on going. How strong are you? Want to be stronger in the face of danger? Just be right with God, you could be called at any time! I thought I was going home when a second tornado hit near our hotel in OKC when I was on disaster service back in 2013! Several times I have been near death!
4. People respond to life threatening dangers in different ways: One by irrational actions due to their fear, or by living in denial that the threats are real. Another way is by becoming obsessed by their fears and to their own harm inappropriately get sick and worried. But then there is God’s way of conquering danger and fear: by having faith and trust in Him!
We all have seen some people have a faith crisis over intimidating outside forces not in their control. Some people not knowledgeable of God’s Word might conclude that God must be cruel to allow suffering. They get angry. (This is Satan’s means of getting people to misjudge and blame God, (so they do not worship and honor Him), But if any one of us does not honor God as the Creator, we are by default honoring ourselves as God and we are not gods, and the obvious is we control almost nothing! Our adversary Satan, steals worship by this influence.
Others might deduct that God must not be there to stop nature’s fury, or man’s wars, or resolve their personal problems, since He must have made the universe like a wind-up toy and abandoned it (The Deist view). And there are others that conclude God is not in total control and therefore He is imperfect. He is a lesser God from a higher God. (The Gnostic views)
5. It is true, God does allow suffering and death at times but there is a greater purpose for it beyond our understanding! One day in heaven God will reveal to us all things and we will know and understand why, but for the moment, too many factors are present that we are unaware of to understand His final purpose. It is like trying to solve a complicated math problem when you only know values for X,Y, & Z, but no values are known for A,B, & C.
I’ve met many people after having lost all still had their faith. Would you keep it if you lost all? Let’s look at a man that went through a lot and did not let his faith be shaken, the apostle Paul.
2 Corinthians 11:24-26 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
Paul had experienced it all and he lived through all the pain caused by evil men and by nature.
I can’t even imagine the horrendous pain of a lashing! Or of floating in cold dark waters shipwrecked! Possibly many of you have lived through dangers. You might even still live in fear of the next danger that might assault you. In Miami people have the Damocles sword over their heads from the threat of massive hurricanes. Each place proposes a distinct threat, each life of ours involves us facing different dangers.
6. The question today is: What fears do you have? What threats do you have over your head?
I contemplated sharing some of the dangers I have been in and how I have had to grow my faith in God consoling myself even speaking out-loud to myself the comforting Scriptures of the Bible while walking down the street! Most of you like myself have lived with the dangers I will discuss here, and again I ask you, how are you dealing with your fears and trials right now?
In Brazil I was always worried about getting attacked by thieves in the street and 3 times I was chased and forced to be running away fast and hard from thugs escaping by catching a moving bus. I was also fearful of being deported, and when our resident visas were denied, we had 8 days to leave. It is hard but we must accept God’s will over our will for our desires. He controls all. Sometimes the thing we do not want the most is what He allows for a good we do not see.
In Bolivia I arrived in 1977 right after a Military Coups and some snipers had shot about 200 people from the tops of the downtown buildings. During my time there I often lived under Marshall Law and saw democracies and dictatorships come and go by the half dozen. I often breathed tear gas as protesters were dispersed. The threat of imprisonment was always present. What I loved though was I could preach the gospel with freedom almost anywhere!
In Chile, in 1981, jail time and disappearances were common under Pinochet’s dictatorship. I made the mistake of having home Bible studies, which was a gathering of people in your home prohibited by law, and some of the youth from the universities I had over I later discovered were Communist sympathizers. At 5:00 am one morning 6 police with machine guns raided our home only to discover that we only had Bibles as our propaganda! Our phone from then on was tapped and we were watched, so feeling too uncomfortable with that we decided to return to Bolivia. The fact that I had nightmares of being hung by barbed wire by the police did not help either!
In Colombia the Guerrillas were not too far away from where we lived just outside of Bogota in Subachoque. The people in the local markets would tell us all about it. As you know the FARC or others would always kill a few innocent farmers in order to scare people to be able to take over an area. Kidnapping was common as well and I heard a few dozen stories of this happening amongst my friends and students. A gringo was always a target and several times for no reason Soldiers showed up to our doors just to see what we had in our house. I always was friendly and open. I was informed later they were not soldiers, but guerrillas disguised as soldiers. Thank God we were just poor missionaries with kids and we were not worth kidnapping for a ransom! One neighbor beside us did get robbed though of $10,000 dollars! I did not ask that couple how they acquired that much money because too many questions can get you killed.
In Venezuela I had friends that told me stories of their experiences of gangs of thieves showing up at their homes to rob and rape their wives! God stopped us from getting residence there as well as the visas were approved and sent to Bogota, but the Consulate wanted money under the table we did not have, so we ended up getting resident visas in Colombia instead!
7. When you think about it…dangers are always present, and we could become a victim of anything at any time! But God’s protection is ever present as well, so we have peace in the midst of the storm!
Here in the U.S. many dangers prevail but the risk depends on the area you live in. In the Metro cities, theft and crime is a way of life: in Chicago dozens get shot weekly. Forest fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods are just a few of the threats we all live with in this nation, not to mention extortionists, mafia, the sex trade, drugs, and even the abusers in our families cause great harm. It is a miracle that day to day we are so well protected!
So what can stop our worries and calm our fears? Only the Word of God! I use to repeat several verses to myself to overcome these fears and take note of them so you too can to gain strength when you need it!
Philippians 4:6, 7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Isaiah 26:3 Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.
Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. (made me alive)
Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
8. And when we see others suffering as you and I have seen in our past, here is a verse that come to mind of what our mission is:
2 Corinthians 1:4 Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Our task as a true Holy Ghost filled Christians is to console our own spirits from the worries, threats, and fears we face daily! And after that, you are to console others who are going through trials that have left them disoriented and weak.
I don’t think God is unfair to allow us to live in a fallen, imperfect world where nature or people can ruin us in an instant. We are in a school to prepare us for eternity where everything will be perfect. Maybe one lesson is you need to be ready to trust God and also be ready to leave it all behind (even your life) at any time!
I think God knows that without dangers all of humanity would forget Him and go the way of the Satanic self-centered, prideful, perverted, and narcissistic wealthy people who think they are gods. The reminder of dangers remains for us all: you and I have a sword over our head!
What is the sword over your head? What do you most fear? Bad health? A tornado? A violent relative? An armed thief? Poison in our food, air & medicines? An economic implosion, depression, and collapse of the system? Have you learned to live with it by placing it in God’s hands? Let’s pray for peace of mind! Let’s pray that we learn to trust God no matter what happens!
