OPERATION RUN HIDE FIGHT
Introduction - Why I Call It an Operation
In our generation, the security agencies of the nations teach ordinary citizens three words for the day of sudden danger: run, hide, fight. When trouble breaks out, they say, first run if you can, hide if you cannot run, and fight if you cannot hide. I heard those three words as a watchman hears a trumpet, and my spirit leaped, because I recognized them. They did not begin in any government office. They began in the Bible.
God commanded Joseph to run from Potiphar's wife. God commanded Elijah to hide by the brook Cherith. God commanded David to fight Goliath. The same God gave all three commands, to three different men, in three different hours. So the question of the believer's life is never simply "should I be brave?" The question is: what is the command for THIS hour? Courage in the wrong operation is casualty. Obedience in the right operation is victory.
I am writing this book as a watchman. A watchman in Scripture is the man posted on the city wall through the night, whose whole duty is to see the danger coming and blow the trumpet in time (Ezekiel 33). I am not writing to entertain you. I am writing so that when your hour comes - and it will come, because the Lord Jesus said "In the world ye shall have tribulation" (John 16:33) - you will know which of the three commands is in force, and you will move without confusion.
PSALM 144:1 (KJV)
Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.
Hebrew: בָּרוּךְ יְהוָה צוּרִי הַמְלַמֵּד יָדַי לַקְרָב אֶצְבְּעוֹתַי לַמִּלְחָמָה - Barukh Adonai tzuri, ha-melammed yadai la-qrav, etzbe'otai la-milchamah - "Blessed be the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war."
Greek: The Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint, the translation the apostles often quoted) says God is ho didaskōn - "the One who keeps on teaching" - my hands for war. Not a single lesson, but a lifelong training.
Aramaic: The Hebrew word for battle here, qrav, passed straight into Aramaic as qrava - the everyday word for combat. When the ancient reader heard this verse, he heard a real word from real warfare, not a religious ornament.
The Watchman's Note: David does not say "Blessed be the LORD who fights so I never have to." He says God TEACHES his hands. That means there is a curriculum. Run is a lesson. Hide is a lesson. Fight is a lesson. This book walks you through all three classrooms.
A word on how this book is built. Throughout these pages I will show you the Scriptures in the three great languages of the Bible world - Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament; Greek, the language of the New Testament; and Aramaic, the everyday street language the Lord Jesus Himself spoke at home and in the market. I will always explain them in plain English. You do not need any degree to read this book. When I write "Selah," an old Hebrew word from the Psalms, I simply mean: pause here, and weigh what you just read. When I say "Peshitta," I mean the ancient Aramaic Bible of the eastern churches. Nothing in this book is locked away from the ordinary reader - the whole point of an operation manual is that a soldier can use it in the field.
And a word on the prayers. Every chapter ends with prayer, because information without supplication is decoration. Each prayer begins the way I have prayed for years: "My Father My Father, as I begin to pray in the Mighty Name of Jesus Christ." Pray them out loud. Heaven is not eavesdropping on your thoughts reluctantly - your Father is listening for your voice.
Now, soldier - to your feet. The trumpet is blowing. Operation Run Hide Fight begins.
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