Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Lest We Forget

View from D-Day Landing Craft, June 6, 1944

Each year we mark November 11th as Remembrance Day in Canada (Veterans Day in the US).

On this special day, we remember the servicemen and -women who lost their lives to ensure the freedom we cherish so deeply today.

The numbers are staggering: it’s estimated that over 400,000 U.S. military personnel lost their lives during World War II. The US National D-Day Memorial Foundation estimates that over 4,000 Allied servicemen lost their lives on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) alone.

The fatalities during World War I are equally appalling, with close to 60,000 Canadians having lost their lives in service. The best estimate of war historians is that over 140,000 Allied soldiers lost their lives during the hellish Battle of the Somme alone in 1916 (including my great-uncle Pte. Robert John Tisdale, still in his teens).

The numbers who lost their lives in the Korean War, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and others only adds to the toll of war’s terrible cost.

But wait a minute…every sentence I just wrote contained a mistake. Did you spot it?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Commander of the Universe Has Your Back

Canadian Army reservists train at Fort Pickett.
Photo from Virginia Guard Public Affairs.

Do you ever wish you had your own personal army?

It would come in handy, wouldn’t it, when your boss chews you out, or when someone cuts you off in traffic. Just summon your cavalry, and your tormentors would soon change their tune.

The Bible doesn’t promise us our own armed forces, but it does say that we can call on the name of the Commander of all the forces in the universe:

The Lord of Hosts.

This compound name for God is found over 270 times in Scripture. The Hebrew word for “hosts,” Sabaoth, can refer to human armies, angelic armies, or celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and stars. It’s a military term: God as Commander of all creation.

We see this name for God appear when David confronts Goliath. David says,

“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Samuel 17:45)

Goliath must have wondered what David was talking about. The only army he could see, the Israelite army under King Saul, had been quaking in their boots for 40 days at the thought of confronting him in battle. And now here’s this kid with a slingshot talking about armies in the plural. Faced with David’s “threat,” Goliath might have thought, “Oh, yeah, you and whose army?” Famous last words, indeed!

Elisha and his servant were given the privilege of seeing God’s Heavenly armies. When they were surrounded by the Aramean army, Elisha prayed that his servant’s spiritual eyes would be opened. They were able to see the fiery multitudes of the Lord’s armies protecting them, the horses and chariots of fire. It was actually the Arameans who were surrounded! (2 Kings 6:17).

The title “Lord of Hosts” includes control over military forces, but it is also employed in Scripture to describe God’s power over every aspect of life…

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