Reading Their Messages

Reading Their Messages

John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

   On June 4, 1944, the American task group 22.3 commanded by Captain Daniel Gallery spotted a German U-boat, the U-505.  They saw it submerge and dropped depth charges.  A few hours later, it surfaced and the crew abandoned ship.  The usual practice was to fire shells and torpedoes into the U-boat and sink it.  Captain Gallery had a wild idea that they might capture one and see what intelligence they could get from it.  So he launched a boat with a boarding crew and they captured the U-505, the first enemy warship captured by the US Navy since the War of 1812. 

   The Germans had simply abandoned ship and had not destroyed anything.  The Navy captured her with all her secret code books and many other valuable items intact.   They towed her from Africa to Bermuda and managed to keep the capture a secret from the world.

   Why was this important?  The Navy’s Intelligence agency than could read all the German’s secret messages from command HQ to the U-boats at sea.  And whenever the German command changed the codes, the changes were written in the captured code books so the Allied intelligence could follow the changes. 

   Having the secret codes of the enemy is a huge advantage in a war.  Knowing what is coming next helps to plan a counter-attack.  And if your codes are secret from your enemy, he doesn’t know what you’re planning. 

   We have been given the Bible.  Within the covers of this book are detailed descriptions of what the enemy will try to do to defeat you.  Knowing what he plans before he does it gives us the advantage of planning a counter-move.  We are, in effect, reading his secret messages. 

   We, on the other hand, have a detailed report of what God wants of us and we know what He has done to support us and have His promises written down for us.  We have our battle orders and should have no doubt as to what God expects of us.  We know that He has supplied ammo dumps for us to re-load our weapons and He has set up aid stations, (churches,) for us to go to where we can receive comfort and healing. 

   So get out there and get into the battle!  The advantages are on our side and we have a Commander Who has set us up to win!  We are not a rag-tag army barely holding on until the end, we are a powerful army destined to win the victory.

Stephen Cram                                                June 1, 2014                  

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. 

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.