By: Juliet Constantine

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you. (Proverbs 21:21-22 NKJV)
 

Sometimes, Christianity seems so impractical! Feed my enemy? Hilarious! What stupidity!

That’s how we all feel sometimes. Yet, this is Jesus’ method of countering the enemy. He always does what they did not expect Him to do. He does not play on their level – He takes it a notch up. Still, this is such a hard pill to swallow – feed your enemies. The last thing we want to do is to get far away from them as possible. Prophet Elisha, King Solomon, our Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul must have known something that we do not; because they all instructed us to feed our enemies.

It would’ve been such a sweet revenge to slay a large percentage of the now blinded Syrian army. After all, they deserved it. They wouldn’t have spared Israel if the tables were turned. After all, it was their main focus – the destruction of Israel. Now, here they were, right in Israel’s grasp; all helpless and vulnerable. The excited Israelite king could taste victory. “Shall I smite them? Shall I smite them?” He must have been surprised when Elisha’s reply did not mirror his excited desire. Elisha’s reply was for him to feed them and send them home to their master (2 Kings 6:22).

How would you feel if one of your bitterest enemies came within your grasp and you let him/her walks free. People would certainly look upon you as a nerd and foolish. Your pride would certainly feel defeat. But if you can turn-off your thoughts about yourself and place them on what God would do, you would feel differently. You would know that it’s not about you, its God who is being glorified.

Coals of fire on your enemies head must be intolerable. They can no longer remain your enemy. I would think that it would be easier to friend that person who heaps fire on my head. And that’s the outcome that these wise men expect from us. They want us to convert enemies into friends. When our response is different from what the enemy expects, we cause them to wonder about our actions. We are unpredictable. Unpredictability is our best weapon, but for the enemy it’s their worst nightmare.

Like Jesus Christ, we can choose to conquer our enemies by doing good, or we can be conquered by our hate and malice. We can choose to use good deeds as our weapon or we can use the same weapon of revenge that our enemies used. We can choose to heap coals of fire on their heads or we can keep the smile on their faces as they gloat over us. We can choose peace by fanning, and keep fanning the flames of our fire of coals, or we can chose to be miserable and defeated.

But we’ll not be defeated anymore. We will feed our enemies with plates of kindness. We will give them drink of love. We will heap coals of fire on their heads, providing light and warm for their lives, showing a better way to live. Our reward will only come when we heap coals of fire on their heads.

So what say you? Are you in for this challenge? It will not be easy at first, but it will get better with every utilized opportunity. I am in, and I would love for you to join me. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s go heap coals of fire on our enemies head.

Oh my Father in Heaven, thank You for a better way to exact revenge on our enemies. Please help us to step up our response a notch by surprising them with our unpredictability of kindness and love. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

 

Copyrighted by Juliet Constantine 2014 (for “Alone With God – Finding Jesus In The Scriptures” Daily Devotional)