Inspiring Lessons From the Battle of Britain
In the summer of 1940, the survival of Western civilization was under threat. The fate of Britain, and in some ways the fate of the world, depended on the courage, sacrifice and success of about a thousand men—whose average age was just 20 years old.
These men are known as “The Few.” The life-threatening adversity they faced in the air over Britain brought out their very best.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill put it this way on June 18, 1940, before Parliament: “The Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire.”
This was the only battle during World War ii fought entirely in the air. It is a dramatic, inspiring chapter in Britain’s history. And it teaches some important lessons for us today.
We live in historic times. Much is at stake. Whether or not people realize it, Bible prophecy shows that this world is on the brink of World War iii. It will be worse than any war in history. God has given His people the job of warning the world and trying to awaken people to the threat.
This is nothing less than a spiritual war. To win it, we must think and act like fighters. We must fight against Satan, against an evil society, and against the evil human nature within ourselves. “We must fight,” Gerald Flurry writes in TheFormer Prophets: How to Be a King. “We must fight to do spiritual battle every day. We have to fight to remain faithful to the great God. We have to fight to get our prayer in. … As Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:12, ‘Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.’”
In many ways, the fate of the world depends on just a few thousand, many of whom are very young and carry great responsibility. Today, God’s people are “The Few,” a small group of spiritual fighters.
Yet we live in a soft age—a lukewarm age. Our militaries are disarming; our nations are cozying up to dictators and pretending like terrorist groups and nations can be bargained with. This is the spirit of the age, and we are all in danger of absorbing it.
A Nation Without a Cause
Leading up to World War ii, this same soft spirit infected Britain. World War i had been incredibly devastating. Many called it “the war to end all wars” because of the unprecedented carnage. People hoped the destructiveness of modern warfare would convince leaders that war was no longer an option.
After initiating World War i and then being defeated, the Germans were forbidden to have an air force. People assumed the threat was over. But behind the scenes, Germany was active. The nation was training military pilots in civil aviation schools and at a secret school in Russia. They built up the commercial airline Lufthansa to use its schools for military training and it pilots and airfields for military operations. German aircraft manufacturers designed commercial models that could be easily converted into bombers. By the time Adolf Hitler took power in January 1933, he had an air force of 20,000 men. He immediately broke the Versailles Treaty and ordered Germany’s aircraft industry to start producing military planes. Within a year, they were producing 160 military planes every month.
Meanwhile, Britain was focusing on disarmament. Their air force fielded fewer than 500 planes, and most of these were obsolete, outdated planes made of wood and canvas. The British didn’t realize how serious the danger rising in Germany was.
It seems that Britain and America and their ancestors, the Israelites, have always been susceptible to this weakness. During King David’s lifetime, a mighty Philistine warrior challenged the Israelites. “And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid” (1 Samuel 17:24). Led by a weak king who lacked faith, the soldiers followed that poor example.
Today, God has broken the pride of modern-day Israel’s power (Leviticus 26:19). “We see horrifying tragedies today in America and Britain. Shouldn’t these tragedies cause strong men to rise up in wrath and strength?” Gerald Flurry writes. “But there is usually silence. The question is why?” (The Former Prophets: How to Become a King). The prophecy in Leviticus answers that question.
But those who do God’s work today must fight like spiritual warriors to win their own spiritual battles and to complete the mission God gives them. We need to be like young David, who saw the fearful soldiers around him and said, “What shall be done to the man that kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26). God was very real and alive to David, who saw Israel’s armies as God’s armies. He was eager to fight Goliath. He wanted to show the world just how powerful the great God really is.
He asked the profound question, “Is there not a cause?” In the modern nations of Israel, people don’t recognize a cause worth fighting for. But we can never win a war we don’t believe in. We can never do the work of God without having David’s attitude and seeing the monumental cause we stand for.
Outnumbered
Winston Churchill had to fight simply to convince the nation to brace for war. He was finally able to persuade Britain’s leaders that Germany was indeed a genuine threat. In July 1934, Parliament voted to expand the Royal Air Force. From that point until the war started on Sept. 1, 1939, it was a manufacturing race between Britain and Germany for air supremacy.
The Germans had a tremendous advantage. Not only did they have a significant head start in building their air force, but that nation was a dictatorship. It was led by a tyrant with a single-minded focus on pouring tremendous resources into building the military. Britain was far more democratic and had to contend with many people who opposed the arms buildup.
By the start of the war, Britain had about 660 fighter planes and few bombers. The German Air Force had more than 3,600 bombers and fighters, severely outnumbering the British.
On top of that, air warfare made Britain a sitting duck. Churchill called London “the greatest target in the world, a kind of tremendous fat cow tied up to attract the beasts of prey.” Large parts of England could be reached within 20 minutes by bombers that took off from mainland Europe. And it took the Brits 10 minutes or more to get a plane off the ground to operational altitude to be able to intercept the enemy planes.
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany. But still, many Brits were apathetic. The next spring, Neville Chamberlain resigned as prime minister, and Churchill took over.
That same day, Germany attacked the Netherlands, Belgium and France in a fierce “blitzkrieg.” The Netherlands was overwhelmed in just five days. Belgium succumbed after 17 days. Barely a month later, German forces entered Paris, and France surrendered within a week.
At that point, Britain was basically alone. Suddenly, the Brits began to understand just how grave the threat was. They were obviously Hitler’s next target. Churchill’s words took on new meaning for them.
That is when Churchill gave his June 18 speech before Parliament in 1940: “The Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. … The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned against us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister … by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”
Britain faced a ruthless, powerful and determined enemy. Hitler would concentrate all his firepower on this one nation.
When young David approached Goliath on that ancient battlefield, he spoke with shocking boldness: “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands” (verses 45-47).
David was filled with faith. He knew God was alive. “Do you see how we can impact the world today with this kind of faith in the living God?” Gerald Flurry writes. “David was motivated to fight Goliath so that all the Earth may know there is a God in Israel. … Oh how Britain, America and Judah need to hear that message today. They need to know that there’s a God in Israel. … What problem are you facing that you can’t handle? No matter how gigantic it is, there is no problem you can’t handle if you face it the way David did. We can conquer anything if the battle is the Eternal’s. … Trust God and face your problems in faith, and God will deliver you. … This is not just a nice slogan or a cute formula: I’m talking about having faith in the living God—trusting God to do great things in your life. He has promised to do that—and He cannot lie” (ibid).
Bracing for War
“On May 14, 1940, Anthony Eden, Britain’s secretary of state for war, broadcast an appeal for the formation of a volunteer force of male civilians to help guard Britain against the threat of German parachute invaders,” Ira Peck wrote. “Even before he had finished speaking, thousands of men between the ages of 16 and 65 had rushed to local police stations to volunteer. Within six days, more than a quarter of a million had enrolled, and by August, this new citizens’ army, later called the Home Guard, numbered more than a million” (The Battle of Britain).
These men showed an inspiring spirit of sacrifice, but this home guard had little equipment and armaments. “About one third of the volunteers were armed with rifles. The rest had such weapons as shotguns, sporting rifles, golf clubs, axes, pikes and sticks” (ibid). Meanwhile, the German parachutists had submachine guns and grenades.
Even Britain’s regular army was terribly underarmed. The Chiefs of Staff told Churchill that if German forces landed in England, the British simply did not have enough firepower to resist. Britain needed time to build up its defenses.
Everything depended on the Royal Air Force (raf) repelling the German air attack.
However, the raf too was low on numbers of men and material. It had been devastated while fighting alongside the French against the Germans. The head of Fighter Command said that Britain needed at least 52 fighter squadrons at home to defend Britain, but they were down to only 37 squadrons.
At this point, Britain was practically at its weakest militarily.
Much of the military equipment that Britain did have had been left behind in France after the French fell and Britain retreated from the European mainland. The British military had only about 100 tanks and three divisions, which were underequipped.
The Germans had 45 highly trained divisions and were ready to supply 65 more. Had Hitler invaded at that point, the odds would have been overwhelmingly in his favor. The Germans had superiority of men and arms against the British—at an incredible ratio of 32 to 1.
Thankfully, Hitler delayed invading Britain for several weeks, giving them time to regroup. What held Hitler back? Many people considered it nothing less than a miracle from God.
“While Hitler hesitated,” Peck wrote, “the British people rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Weeks of hectic activity followed as Britain steeled itself against invasion. War production began to climb steadily. In the factories, men worked long hours until, exhausted, they fell asleep at their machines. In homes, middle-aged women held ‘filing parties’ after tea to smooth down the rough edges of machine parts. In school workshops, boys helped rim the edges of airplane seats with hammers that were too big for some of them to hold.”
The Navy was busy preparing their destroyers, and the raf was adding radar stations, constructing airfields, building planes and anti-aircraft guns, and training pilots. They hung balloons over cities and ports to deter low-flying enemy planes. They knew the Germans were coming, and they were the first and the only real line of defense.
“I look forward confidently to the exploits of our fighter pilots,” Churchill remarked. “These splendid men, this brilliant youth who will have the glory of saving their native land, their island home, and all they love, from the most deadly of all attacks.”
The Battle of Britain Historical Society wrote, “These brave pilots came from all walks of life. Many were trained and experienced, but most had come from civilian duties to become fighter pilots with raf Fighter Command.”
So often, God is looking for warriors who are eager to fight. During Israel’s history, in the time of the judges, when the Israelites faced a battle against the Midianites, God instructed their leader, Gideon, to say to the army, “Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart.” And out of 32,000 soldiers, 22,000 left the battle—nearly 7 in 10. The nation was weak and faithless—and God didn’t want fearful men on the battlefield! Victory in battle requires courage!
The account in Judges 7 shows how God eliminated many more of these soldiers through a test: He brought them to the water and watched to see how they drank from it. Those who set down their weapons, got down on their hands and knees to drink, God culled from the army. He only retained those few who brought the water with their hand up to their mouth and remained vigilant.
These men were eager to do battle and to go on the offensive. But there were only 300 of them!
It tends to be only a tiny minority who will truly embrace the rigors of warfare. Only “The Few” are eager to fight.
Don’t underestimate the importance of one person’s contribution. God is going to use every last eager soldier! He offers the glory of saving our native land and all we love from the deadliest of spiritual attacks if we eagerly go out and do our duty for God, King and country.
Face Down Fear
On June 5, 1940, Germany started small air raids on England. The attacks intensified in July. raf pilots launched themselves against the German warplanes, often being severely outnumbered.
Here is how one British Spitfire pilot described how he felt when he saw the enemy: “On sighting an overwhelmingly large enemy formation, there was a sort of hysterical humor at the hopelessness of the task—erased almost immediately by the onset of quick, stabbing shafts of fear as the armada of aircraft drew closer—and finally, before joining combat, a consciousness of a thudding and moist brow accompanied by a breathless, panicky fear.”
These men had to face down their fear to do their job. “Someone can look like a warrior, but it takes real faith to stand up to giants and other problems,” Mr. Flurry writes in The Former Prophets. “Trials reveal who the real warriors are. We cannot fake this. When the big battle comes, who will stand up like David and fight for the living God?”
Proverbs 28:1 says, “The righteous are bold as a lion.” This is the key to being bold spiritual soldiers: We must be righteous. You have to build that righteousness so you have the boldness when you need it. Think about this with your little decisions each day. Are you building the righteousness of God?
In Malachi’s Message, Mr. Flurry writes, “Spiritual courage may be the greatest need. Without it, the other virtues are of little value. God’s people can’t cower in fear and still grow in God’s love.” Spiritually, we have to be like those British pilots were physically: They had to love their country and their countrymen more than they feared the enemy. We have to love this world enough to conquer our fears. We have to love this world enough to conquer sin and build righteousness so we can be bold as lions!
Hitler started preparing for a ground invasion. He wanted to attack Britain’s shipping capacity, pulverize the towns on the coast that they would land on, and especially tried to draw more British planes into battle to further reduce their numbers.
The Germans were confident they could do the job in two to four weeks.
Churchill rallied the British with a rousing radio broadcast: “Now it has come to us to stand alone in the breach and face the worst that the tyrant’s might and enmity can do. Bearing ourselves humbly before God, but conscious that we serve an unfolding purpose, we are ready to defend our native land against the invasion by which it is threatened. We are fighting by ourselves alone, but we are not fighting for ourselves alone. Here in this strong city of refuge which enshrines the title-deeds of human progress and is of deep consequence to Christian civilization, here, girt about by the seas and oceans where the navy reigns, shielded from above by the prowess and devotion of our airmen, we await undismayed the impending assault.”
To do our job, we must see the bigger cause. The world needs us to throw ourselves into our duties. Your prayer life, your work, your daily character development, your support for this work. Everything you do is of deep consequence in the bigger picture.
It is too easy to underestimate the difference your individual contribution makes. But we are not fighting for ourselves alone. We have a lot of people depending on us. Thankfully, we have divine help. We don’t have to fear the impending assault.
War Directive No. 17
The Germans had been targeting factories and other targets on the ground, and they realized they weren’t achieving what they had hoped. So they decided to concentrate their firepower and focus entirely on destroying the raf.
Hitler issued War Directive No. 17: “The German Air Forces must with all means in their power and as quickly as possible destroy the English Air Force.”
The Luftwaffe launched several attacks, heavily bombing several British airfields. On August 15, the Germans decided to try for a knockout blow. The Luftwaffe flew 1,786 sorties against the British in a single day. But when the fighting was over, the Luftwaffe had lost 76 planes, and Britain’s Fighter Command lost less than half that.
The British fighters’ better maneuverability compared to German fighters’ provided a slight advantage. More importantly, the British morale, persistence and determination to defend their homeland showed that they were tough warriors. British pilots managed to stay in action. They “got used to landing their planes on cratered runways, zig-zagging around the holes” (Peck, op cit). This truly was frustrating to Hitler.
“The loss of Fighter Command pilots during this period was severe, but it would have been worse if some had not been able to bail out of their planes or successfully crash-land them. Many pilots were able to get back into action again, some of them quite quickly” (ibid).
But the Germans kept coming. They seriously battered the British airfields. They destroyed British planes and pilots far faster than the Brits could replace them. Between August 24 and September 6, 295 fighter planes were destroyed and 171 were badly damaged; 103 Fighter Command pilots were killed or missing, and 128 more were wounded.
“British replacement pilots were often easy prey for the more experienced Luftwaffe pilots,” wrote Peck. “As for the experienced Fighter Command pilots, the strain of flying seven or eight sorties a day was producing a terrible weariness in them. … Fighter Command was slowly but surely being bled to death. Only a miracle could save it from destruction.”
Some of the commanders felt that if the Germans maintained their bombing for another week, they would have been finished. The whole outcome of the war hinged on very close margins. But if you are going to succeed in warfare, “you must be able to recover from a lost battle now and then. Just because you lost a battle doesn’t mean you’ve lost the war,” writes Mr. Flurry (The Former Prophets).
The Blitz
For some time, Germans had been dropping bombs on the outskirts of London, mainly as a means of demoralizing the British. Hitler had forbidden them to bomb London itself—he was saving that as his trump card. However, on August 24, one German pilot bombed the center of London, probably because of a navigational error.
Churchill didn’t know it was an accident, so he responded by ordering a bombing of Berlin the next night and for several nights afterward.
This infuriated Hitler, and he decided that the time had come to target London. This was not because it made sense militarily—it was because he had become enraged and emotional. He took all the firepower—that was in the process of completely wiping out Fighter Command—and redirected it against London.
This was a horrific result for Londoners. The bombing on the British capital started at 5:15 a.m. on September 7. The British weren’t expecting the attack, and it inflicted terrible damage. The Germans dropped more than 300 tons of high-explosive bombs and thousands of incendiaries on the slums of East End. By the end of the day, London was on fire for miles.
That night, as firemen were trying to put the fires out, the Germans came back. They used the fires as beacons to guide them and bombed for seven more hours. Britain had practically no defenses for night raids.
That night, Herman Goering said on German radio: “This is the historic hour when for the first time our Air Force delivered its thrust right into the enemy’s heart.”
These bombings continued for several days—and Germany was finishing plans for an invasion. Hitler felt they were on the cusp of victory.
“Hitler still nurtured the dream that bombing would terrorize the British people and make them sue for peace,” wrote Peck.
London endured “The Blitz” for over two months of almost nightly bombing by an average of 160 German bombers. The night of Oct. 15, 1940, more than 400 bombers dropped about 540 tons of explosives on the city—killing 400 people and injuring 800 others. That was a lot of terrible tragedy. These bombings ended up killing almost 20,000 people.
But there were two remarkable outcomes of this tragic set of events.
First, the Brits took it amazingly well. There was a lot of tragedy in the Blitz, “Yet there was another side,” Peck wrote. “The people of London, of all classes, became much friendlier than ever before or, perhaps, ever since. … People were thrown together with their neighbors, and even perfect strangers, in numerous situations—in air raid shelters, first-aid stations, fire-fighting groups, and groups to repair each other’s homes. … People showed their friendship in other ways, too. They looked after each other’s children, shared their stoves with less fortunate neighbors, and lent each other all kinds of necessities. There was kindness, there was sympathy, and there was understanding.
“[I]nstances of panic were very rare in London throughout the entire period of the Blitz. While Hitler hoped for ‘mass hysteria,’ and the British government feared it, the people themselves remained remarkably calm and cheerful. During the Blitz, the number of Londoners with mental disorders actually declined. There were fewer suicides, much less drunkenness, and less disorderly conduct.”
The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” We must have high morale in this warfare—even in very difficult circumstances. The British people set a marvelous example in this respect. These bombings “failed to break their spirit and end their will to fight.”
The second remarkable thing about the Blitz was that when Hitler redirected his attack from the Royal Air Force onto the city of London, he essentially saved the raf.
British ace and commanding officer of RAF No. 242 Squadron Douglas “Tin Legs” Bader, the legless English fighter pilot, was one of many squadron leaders who led raf pilots into the fray. The British airmen inflicted heavy losses on their German attackers. England regained air superiority over Britain, which the Luftwaffe had almost seized prior to Hitler switching his air attack to London. This spared the British air bases and vital command posts from further damage. It gave them time to patch up their airfields and communication lines.
“This great mistake of Hitler’s, born out of a fit of anger and desire for revenge, literally cost the Nazi Air Force the advantage in the Battle of Britain and turned the tables in favor of Britain,” Peck wrote. Again, this all hinged on minute factors: just a few days’ difference; bombing this area and not that. But in the end, the decision to target London proved to be Hitler’s undoing.
David Gardner said, “It was then that the really big miracle happened. At the very moment when they were right on the edge of final victory in the air, and when the German plans for invasion were complete, Hitler suddenly ordered the Luftwaffe to switch its attack to London. It saved Fighter Command. The German leadership had committed the most catastrophic blunder, and in so doing had saved the day.”
We need miracles if we are to prevail. God has to work things out for us.
Seeking God’s Help
In September 1940, at the height of the air battle, King George vi perceived the threat of imminent invasion. He called for a national day of prayer on September 8.
Churchill spoke to the nation over radio. He spoke about the historic successes of Lord Horatio Nelson and Sir Francis Drake, and said: “We have read about this in the history books; but what is happening now is on a far greater scale and of far more consequence to the life and future of the world and its civilization than these brave old days of the past. Every man and woman will therefore prepare himself to do his duty whatever it may be, with special pride and care. … It is with devout but sure confidence that I say, ‘Let God defend the right.’”
These godly-oriented leaders motivated a nation to mass prayer to God for deliverance.
Exactly a week later, the crisis of the Battle of Britain peaked.
Hitler chose September 15 to be the day for the Luftwaffe to overwhelm Fighter Command and deliver a fatal blow. The German Air Force began amassing formations off the coast of France that morning in order to mount its heaviest ever attack on British defenses. Successive waves of Luftwaffe fighters and bombers would come against the British.
The British anticipated the attack and threw every fighter plane they had up in the air. All day long, as crowds on the ground watched, the great battle unfolded in the skies over southeast England.
A Fateful Day
At the height of battle, Churchill visited Group HQ of the No. 11 group, commanded by Keith Park. “I became conscious of the anxiety of the Commander,” he later wrote. “I had watched in silence. I now asked, ‘What other reserves have we?’ ‘There are none,’ said Air Vice-Marshal Park. In an account which he wrote about it afterward, he said that at this I ‘looked grave.’ Well I might. What losses should we not suffer if our refueling planes were caught on the ground by further raids of ’40 plus’ or ’50 plus.’ The odds were great; our margins small; the stakes infinite.”
Imagine a handful of college boys being thrown into battle and realizing that your survival depends on their success. Surely you would be anxious. But you would surely also be filled with admiration and appreciation, watching them throw themselves into the jaws of death.
So much hinged on the efforts of so few.
The same is true of those supporting God’s work today. There are so few of us. But we have God with us. 1 Chronicles 12:8 has a fantastic description of the people God needs in this intense spiritual warfare: “And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains.”
“That is what we need to be today,” Mr. Flurry writes. “God has called us to be spiritual soldiers. We are here to take on the worst Goliath of all time: Satan the devil in his worst wrath. We must be fit for this spiritual battle” (op cit). We have to see ourselves as spiritual warriors for God. We must fight the good fight. This takes effort. It can be difficult to really keep this in mind day to day in the same way a soldier would who is on a physical battlefield and looking his enemy in the eye.
On that fateful day, those few British pilots did a terrific job of battling back the German assault. By the end of the day, the Luftwaffe had lost 60 planes. The Fighter Command lost only 26. This was after the Germans had lost 140 planes in the previous week.
This was “a stunning blow to the Germans,” wrote Peck. “Even the Luftwaffe could not afford to lose planes at such a rate. Furthermore, Fighter Command had shown conclusively that it was not about to be driven from the air. The Luftwaffe commanders, once supremely confident, were now shaken. The German Navy, never keen on invading England, was now even less keen. The Army, confident earlier that it could do its part once the Luftwaffe had won air supremacy, was now having doubts of its own.”
Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding said, “At the end of the battle one had the feeling that there had been some special divine intervention to alter some sequence of events which would otherwise have occurred. I see that this intervention was no last-minute happening … it was all part of the Mighty Plan …. I say with absolute conviction that I can trace the intervention of God, not only in the battle itself, but in the events which led up to it; and that if it had not been for this intervention, the battle would have been joined in conditions which, humanly speaking, would have rendered victory impossible.”
After the defeat that day, Hitler decided to postpone an invasion of England indefinitely.
“15 September was the day that the battle was won,” Douglas Bader wrote. “Britain had been saved chiefly by about 1,000 boys and young men who flew for Fighter Command.”
Churchill famously declared, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
The Few
“Oddly enough, at the time of this epic … battle, the men who fought it had little idea of its importance,” Peck wrote. “It is very unlikely that any Royal Air Force fighter pilot ever said, or even thought, ‘I am fighting the Battle of Britain and on its outcome depends the fate of the world.’ … The fact is, the average fighter pilot at the time just thought he was doing his everyday job.”
One squadron leader remarked, “At the time, we didn’t know that it was a vital battle. We thought that that was the way a war was fought. You know—it was fighting every day and you just carried on. We didn’t know we were quite so close to defeat, either. Because down at the squadron level, pilot level, we didn’t know how short we were of aircraft and of pilot replacements. We didn’t have the overall picture. … [W]e were just young boys. I was 23, and I was one of the experienced ones.”
It’s easy to underestimate how much our daily battles impact God’s work overall. But the tougher each of us is individually, the greater this work will be.
David—that young man who single-handedly stood up to Goliath—when he became king, inspired the men under him. 2 Samuel 21 lists David’s mighty men. “And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant. And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him” (verses 18-21).
“Why did Israel become so great under David? These men wanted to do all they could to help their king. They killed giants just as David did. This faithful attitude came from David right on down through his generals,” Mr. Flurry writes. “This is how we can become the greatest possible Church. … Follow the faith of the man God is using to lead spiritual Israel. … We all need to be giant-killers. God makes that possible for every one of us. That is how the body of Christ will become powerful and accomplish amazing things. … It is not enough that David be great. Everybody under him must be great. That is what is required if we are to have a great Church. There can be no breakdown in any link. … This towering lesson in government is what will help us finish the work with real strength” (op cit).
“Not enough can be said for ‘The Few’—the pilots of Fighter Command who never considered defeat and who outdid themselves in combat, knowing all along that theirs was a just cause” (Peck, op cit).
Anne Turley George was the wife of a former fighter pilot. She said this about the Battle of Britain: “We lay in ditches and watched the dogfights and cheered on our warriors and laughed and danced and sang with them in the evenings, and saw them off the next day with the tight fist of fear knotted deep in our insides—and more and more fell …. They held our lives, our happiness, and our heritage in their young strong hands—and they never flinched. I wish I could write music—I would create one great triumphant shout of a hymn—praising and honoring them and telling of our love and gratitude to them for ever and ever. Amen.”
God wants us to take the victory. We are fighting so that all Britain, all Europe, all nations and peoples around the world may be free, and the life of the world may move into broad, sunlit uplands.
And what love and gratitude they will have when we take the victory. For eternity, we are going to enjoy the praise and honor of our spiritual children and all the people of this world because of the warfare we are waging today.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, when this Empire lasts for a thousand years and beyond, men will say, “This was their finest hour!”