Taking It By Force

Matthew 11:12

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

The kingdom of God has marched forward in a world that is and will be opposed to all that God is doing, all that God has planned and all that God has loved. This is nothing new to or unique to our own era. This verse refers specifically to the time period when John the Baptist was announcing that the Messiah was coming and when Jesus was actually upon this earth. We know that there was at that time organized resistance to the teaching and preaching of Jesus as the Messiah. This was initiated and carried out by the Scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of that day.

They were violently opposed to this new teaching, this blasphemy as they referred to it. So opposed were they, that they had the followers and teachers of this movement imprisoned and even executed. So, you see, this was truly a violent opposition. Now for the truth behind the truth. We know that the Bible teaches us that we are in a war, but not in a war with flesh and blood. There was something going on behind the scenes here. The religious leaders were only following the leadership of the one who is opposed to God and who has been since his rebellion in heaven was spoiled and he was exiled to the earth.

You know who this is, it it none other than the devil himself. Our war is with him and his principalities and powers. (See Ephesians 6) Surely we are not so naïve as to think that now he has stopped his campaign against God are we? We know that he continues just as relentlessly against God and God’s people today as he did when this scripture was written. Therefore, we should heed the warning and realize that we must fight violence with violence, not physical but spiritual violence. We must engage the enemy in violent spiritual warfare. We must take the things that are ours in the kingdom of God by force, the violent take it by force. Get what is yours today.