What is the battle of the plains?

What is the battle of the plains?

We read about the battle of the plains (or valleys) towards the end of Bunyan’s Holy War (pages 271 to 275).
The battle of the plains is the battle that Christians fight in their secular lives. In 1 Kings 20 the enemy Ben-Hadad (symbolic of the adversary Satan), declares war on the Israelites. Firstly he fights the Israelites in the hills, and is defeated. The hills or high places are symbolic of the place of worship, or religious life whether Christian or Pagan. Christ has won the battle of the hills by his substitutionary death on the cross for the sins of His people. Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. The Syrians said “Their gods are gods of the hills,; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they” (1 Kings 20 v 23 and 28). Satan whispers in the ear of a Christian and tells him that as long as we attend church on Sunday, the rest of the week is for ourselves. We can please ourselves with entertainments, and run our business life with whatever ethical stance we like. However Christ declares that he is Lord (not just of the Sabbath) but of all the other days of the week too. “Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (1 Kings 20 v 28). We must remember to maintain a Christian testimony in our secular lives whether this is at work, school, college or in the home. Christ is Lord of the secular world.

The part of the Holy War referring to the battle on the plain shows how Christ meets us in the battle of the secular life which he has called us to. Captain Credence has told the Mansoulians that Emmanuel will meet them in the field the next day and will fight alongside them. We are reminded of the battle between Joshua and the Amorites in Joshua chapter 10. In verse 11 God sends hailstones to kill the Amorites “The Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them at Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword”. Similarly Moses prevailed by prayer against the Amelekites (Exodus 17 v 8 to 13). The Israelites prevailed over the Moabites (2 Kings 3 v 16 to 27). Is Christ interested in what we do and say at work? Yes he is. He is Lord of the secular. He will fight alongside us in our battle to uphold His name in secular settings. He will send hailstones to dampen the temptations we encounter during the week, and He will give us the victory.