(1 Chronicle 19)
If the Arameans were too strong for Joab, his brother, Abishai was supposed to help him out. If the Ammonites were too strong for Abishai, Joab had to come to his rescue. When both of them were helpless against a fresh reinforcement of the enemy coming against them, King David himself would come in his magnificent might.
Such a beautiful arrangement!
Christian warfare is supposed to be carried out along similar lines. We are warring against “principalities and powers of darkness, not against flesh and blood”. that’s what the scripture says.

When one brother finds the battle difficult, he should cry out to his believing brother for help. And vice versa. If both of them find things going out of control, and they cry out to God, God Himself would step down to fight for them.

Remember, this war was unprovoked. The Ammonites came against them for no reason at all. David sought to maintain peaceful, cordial relations with them, but they humiliated his envoys terribly.

People around get threatened by us without cause, even when we strive to maintain peace with them. So much like what the Psalmist says, ‘I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.”

But if brothers in Christ do not help each other out on the day of trouble, the intensity of warfare is doubled, quite unnecessarily. We see able Joabs of our day unable and unwilling to ask brother Abishais for help. Asking for help would undermine their own ability to face their own battles.
So they try to face the fierce enemy in their own might leading to unnecessary casualties.

The arrangement in 1 Chronicle 19 helped, because both brothers knew they could count on each other and with God just a shout away, they were in fact invincible!

How many battles we lost, because we were too proud to ask for help!
It is easier for us to ask God for help, and not our brother. Because of our big, fat egos.

Sometimes God may not even answer our prayers, till we learn to depend on each other. Our vertical relationship is good. But He wants our horizontal ones to be good too. The cross of Christ is so representative of this very fact. He died to make our relationship with God and with man perfect.
I think the arrangement Joab made with Abishai, his brother, is an excellent example for us to follow.

For we are always in a spiritual battle. And we need people to help with prayers, intercession, good counsel, reprimand etc.
All we need is the humility to simply ASK for help.
And I simply loved this last line of the chapter…
“So the Arameans were not willing to help the Ammonites anymore.”

Suja Jacob
Mumbai