A short lesson from nature:
We have an expression about "locking horns" with someone. It means that there is an argument going on between two people, with each individual doing his best to win the argument. The expression comes from an occurrence in nature involving two male animals with antlers or horns coming together to establish dominance for mating privileges.
I saw a nature show in which a farmer called the local game warden because he found two dead deer on his property. The farmer was concerned that hunters were trespassing on his land to shoot deer. The game warden arrived and the farmer took him to the location of the dead animals. The game warden saw the strange sight of two dead bucks lying side by side. When the warden examined the dead bucks, he found not a mark on them.
The puzzled farmer asked the warden, "What killed them? Why are they laying like that, side by side?"
The warden answered, "These two bucks had locked horns with each other fighting for dominance, but then they couldn't get their antlers apart. Deer are creatures that need frequent watering (see also Ps. 42:1), and these animals, locked together like this, were unable to get to their water source. They died of thirst, still locked together side by side."
Do you find yourself repeatedly locking horns with someone over the Gospel, over the Bible? Do you each struggle for dominance in the argument regarding belief, or unbelief?
Jesus called us to preach, teach, witness, and minister (Mt. 28:18-20, Mk. 16:15-18), but that doesn't require us to "lock horns" with anyone.
Scripture urges us not to engage in strife and debate, calling it unprofitable and useless:
"The beginning of strife is like releasing (slip away, remove oneself from, separate) of water; Therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts." Prov. 17:14
"It is honorable for a man to stop striving, since any fool can start a quarrel." Prov. 20:3
"...pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." 2 Tim. 2:22-26
"...those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless." Titus 3:8-9
This does not mean that we should cease to speak truth. These verses address the way not to go about it. There are those who seek to argue with us in order to justify themselves. We humbly offer the truth, and refuse the indulgence of argument and debate with them.
We who love the Lord and His Word long for all to know the wonders of salvation. However, we also understand that salvation, repentance, and belief are works of the Holy Spirit in a life, not the work of man, and certainly not a work of wrangling and domination. We are called to plant seed, but the battle for the soul belongs to the Lord.
Doctrinal disagreements between believers are also not usually successfully settled by argument, accusation, condemnation and debate. In fact, these very things often serve to harden the heart of the hearer, not to save, heal or deliver it. Those with whom we are arguing can become entrenched in their position, rather than willing to consider what we are saying. Paul said regarding the differences and strife over spiritual leadership that had developed between believers:"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." 1 Cor. 3:6-7
By "locking horns" repeatedly with loved ones, friends, neighbors, co-workers, we may not be easing them toward salvation and truth, but in many cases, we may be causing them to become hardened and resolute against the Gospel, and thereby setting them up for the judgment of God. Is this what we really wish to accomplish? We need wisdom, or we will do more harm than good. We may leave the person in a worse spiritual condition than when we found them.
Sometimes we strive and lock horns not only with others, but with God. We often strive against what we view as obstacles and hindrances, but God is greater than any obstacle or hindrance:
"Be still (also interpreted as "cease striving"), and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" Ps. 46:10
It is a constant challenge in our walk of faith to trust the Lord with our whole heart in all things, and not to depend and trust in our own understanding (Prov. 3:5).
In these times in which we live, we are often surrounded by debates and contentions over many issues, including issues of belief. We will need wisdom to know how to bring God's truth with a humility and honesty that softens hearts. The strongest argument that we can put forth are the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-26) that have been developed and are evidenced in our own lives.
We need to keep in mind the lesson of the locked horns.
Our Father has shown us the fruitlessness and destruction of locking horns.
Amazing things happen at wells in scripture. I think a great deal of that is because of the spiritual meaning of wells. In fact, when the enemy comes in, the first thing he might do is to violently take (consume, spoil, rob, tear away, plunder) or fill in the wells. Abraham confronted two strongmen after the well that he had dug was violently taken by their servants (subjects, worshippers). The strongmen were Abimelech, "My father is king/royal", and Philchol, "mouth of all ruling that shatters in pieces the whole". After he rebuked them, Abraham got the two strongmen to admit that the well had been dug by him. To settle the issue, and to end the contention over the well, a covenant was made with sheep, oxen, and seven additional ewe lambs. Abraham then called the place "the well of the seven-fold oath", or Beersheba. Yes, Abraham gave up animals to secure a well that already belonged to him! But covenant is created through sacrifice, and Abraham was establishing a covenant not just to benefit himself, but for future generations also (Gen. 21:23). Abraham then planted a grove, which is provision for the future, at this place, and called upon the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God, Jehovah El-Olam (Gen. 21:25-34). Abraham took back or restored through covenant what had been violently taken from him. He recognized it as an everlasting work.
After the death of Abraham, the Philistines (strangers, to roll in or wallow in ashes as an act of mourning) had stopped up (shut up, obstruct in order to keep hidden or secret) the wells that Abraham had dug. They filled the wells with earth (ashes, rubbish, dust, to be dust). Isaac ("he laughs", to make sport of, to make a toy of) dug (to dig, search for, search out, to delve) again (bring back, recover, restore, refresh) the wells that his father had established, and named them again by the names which Abraham had called (preach, proclaim, utter a loud sound, cry out) them. The son of laughter and joy had overcome the strangers of mourning. Like His prophetic type in Isaac, Jesus restored the spiritual wells that His Father had established for His people.
Not only did Isaac restore the wells of Abraham, but he also dug new wells (Gen. 26:15-22). Two of the new wells were also attacked. Because of that, Isaac named them Esek (contention, strife, quarrel, oppress, violate, defraud, do violence, get deceitfully) , and Sitnah (strife, accusation, enmity, root: satan-adversary, resist, oppose, lie in wait). Isaac removes himself from this place of contention. Finally, Isaac established a well that did not provoke quarrels. This well, he called (preach, proclaim, etc.) Rehoboth (wide place, to grow wide, to be enlarged). Isaac declared that he would be fruitful, or multiplied in this land, therefore giving the prophetic name to the well of "a wide place". The enemy uses contention, strife, and accusation to disrupt the wells, yet God causes another well to flourish, bringing multiplication and fruitfulness. It was all about those wells! All of these wells were dug in the territory claimed and inhabited by the Philistines. After these events, Isaac journeyed back to his father's covenant well, Beersheba. There, the LORD appeared to him, and gave Isaac the same covenant promises that He had given to Abraham.
Why are wells, natural and spiritual, such objects of contention? Wells are the provision that makes the difference between life and death, starving and abundance, and as the beginning of this entry states- amazing things happen at wells! Isaac's future bride, Rebecca (beauty that captures men), was revealed by God at a well (Gen. 24:16). Hagar, and her son, Ishmael ("God will hear"-to hear, listen to, obey, to hear with attention and interest), were saved from death when God opened her eyes, and an angel revealed a well to her (Gen. 21:17-20). Moses met his bride, and the family with whom he would find refuge from Pharaoh (great house), at a well in Midian (strife, contention, brawling, discord, that which is contended for) (Ex. 2:15-16). God set the well of provision and refuge for Moses, even in the face of Pharaoh, and in the midst of Midian. Jacob found his mother's family, who were his refuge from his brother's anger and threats, and his future bride, Rachel (ewe, female lamb) coming with her sheep, at a well in Haran (Gen. 29:1-6). Jesus sat Himself at the well of Jacob in Samaria (keep, guard, protect, treasure up, save life, keep Sabbath or covenant commands, watchman, shepherd) in order to reveal His identity, His truth, and His salvation to an unlikely woman (Jn. 4:6-7). We even call this special event "The Woman at the Well".
The meaning of the word, "well", also gives us important information. The Hebrew word means a pit, a well, a spring, but the root meaning is "to make plain, distinct, to make clear, to declare, letters on a tablet, to engrave (with letters on a stone)".
God's people carve, or engrave those spiritual wells into the earth, even in enemy territory, by their trust in, and obedience to God. Those wells not only provide for today, but they are eternal wells that provide for future generations. Sometimes there are battles involved in the establishing of these wells, because they are everlasting works. There is a place where God's people established a well by singing, "Spring up O well!" to it (Num. 21:16-18). As the people sang, princes and nobles, either in the natural meaning, or perhaps angelic, dug that well with their staves (support, maintenance, protection of sustenance, trust in God, rest upon, rely, lean upon). The well established that day was by the by direction of the "lawgiver" (decree, law, engrave, cut in, cut out, inscribe, printed, hack, strike with a sword, to stamp violently, encounter violently, carve out a sepulcher in a rock). Jesus is also a well that was dug with violence, and established by His reliance upon, trust in, and the rest found in His Father's will and plan.
We partake of the eternal wells already established and named after our Father, and we dig new ones in His name, as well. The wells that we establish in the earth are established because God has also dug a well of living water in us, which is His Son, Jesus. Where we are, there a well is established. Look, here come the little ewe lambs now. Here come the flocks of sheep, so many as far as the eye can see! Here comes the Bride to the wells.
The prophet Isaiah (12:2-3) declared, "Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He has also become my salvation." Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation..."
Our Father has called His people to engrave His spiritual wells into the earth.
"In The River"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvCQozJQZLc
