Fall Forward, Spring Back – Part 1

By Grant Gaines

George Hudson was just a simple man living in New Zealand in the late 1800’s. He was a relatively unknown entomologist and astronomer until he came up with an interesting and revolutionary idea. His idea revolved around moving the clocks backwards and forwards to adjust to the earth’s tilted axis which produces the four seasons which would in turn allow for farmers to have more sunlight during the shorter winter months.

Today we know George’s idea as “Day Light Savings Time” (also known as “DST”). And while the concept is a great idea, the practical outplaying of Daylight Savings has caused major problems over the years since it has been implemented. Namely, which way do we set our clocks when DST comes around? An hour forward or an hour backward?

Fortunately for us, a wise and creative soul came up with a genius expression to help resolve this problem. The expression is “Fall Back, Spring Forward.” So if you are approaching DST in the fall and you need to know which way to adjust your clock, just think “fall back” and move your clock back an hour. When DST comes around in the spring all you need to think is “spring forward” and you move your clock an hour forward. Pretty simple, right?

As I began thinking about Day Light Savings’ motto – “Fall Back, Spring Forward” – I realized that this expression applies to something way more significant than just Day Light Savings. It applies to the Christian life…or at least if the world had things its way, this expression would apply to the Christian life.

Over the next two weeks I want to take a look at this expression and see what the Scriptures have to say about this ideology. Let’s start with “Fall Back.”

Right now in our world there is a giant wave of immorality that is rising in our culture – premarital sex is higher than it’s ever been, the divorce rate seemingly rises every year, and profanity and explicit material is now the new normal in the media. But none of this is shocking or appalling to those who are of the world. Instead, they boast and brag about all of this sin. Or as Philippians 3:19 (NIV) says it, “…their glory is in their shame.”

With all of this chaos going on, the world would love nothing more than for Christians to just “fall back.” What I mean by that is that the world desires for Christians to fall back into complacency and passivity rather than standing up for what is right. Non-believers don’t want to have anyone swimming upstream because it interferes with their sinful way of living and brings a light upon their self-produced darkness.

God on the other hand, as you could imagine, is a “fall forward” type of a Guy. He wants His children resisting evil and being influencers of the world rather than those who are influenced by the world. And of all the people who had the “fall forward” mentality in the Bible, no one did it better than Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14.

Jonathan was King Saul’s son who served as one of Saul’s top generals during a time when the Philistines had been subjecting the Israelites to slavery for many years. Jonathan was fed up with all of this injustice and decided he needed to do something about it. With freedom and justice in mind, Jonathan turned to his young armor bearer and said, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side” (1 Samuel 14:1, NIV).

Jonathan didn’t simply want to go meet and greet this group of Philistines, he wanted to pick a fight with them. But before he could, Jonathan had to deal with three significant hurdles first.

First off, he was greatly outmatched and horribly under-prepared. 1 Samuel 13 tells us that while the Philistines had an army that was as numerous as the sand on the seashore (1 Samuel 13:5), Israel only had 600 soldiers (1 Samuel 13:15). To make matters worse, because the Philistines foresaw the Israelites revolting against them someday, they didn’t allow a single blacksmith in the entire country of which meant that in this puny 600-man army, only Jonathan and Saul had swords (1 Samuel 13:22). Yikes!

Secondly, Jonathan’s countrymen were falling back all around him. While there was still 600 soldiers at this point in the story, the Israelites at one point boasted a giant army. However, as soon as the Israelites saw the Philistine warriors line up on the battle field, 1 Samuel 13:6-7 tells us that the majority of the Israelites fled in fear, leaving only 600 men remaining. Oh yeah, and those measly 600 men were with King Saul on the opposite end of town away from Jonathan, leaving him and his lone armor bearer completely isolated (1 Samuel 14:2).

Lastly, the group of 20 Philistines that Jonathan wanted to go fight were on top of a cliff which would require him to climb up one of two treacherous rock faces whose Hebrew names mean “thorny” and “glistening (or slippery)” (1 Samuel 14:4-5).

If Jonathan wanted to rise against this tidal wave of injustice, he had to really want it. With all of these circumstances against him he couldn’t go into this battle being driven by emotions or outward circumstances. He had to be driven by an inward purpose. Or to put it another way, he had to decide if he wanted to live his life based on outward pressure or inward conviction.

I bet you can guess which route Jonathan chose to take.

As the story goes on, we read of how the Lord used Jonathan’s fall-forward-mentality to defeat the Philistines on that cliff which in turn gave the rest of the Israelites (including those who ran away) the confidence to join the battle and win their freedom from their oppressors.

One man was willing to stand up against injustice and the Lord brought about an unbelievable victory that changed the landscape of his nation’s culture, history, and freedom.

I firmly believe that God would love to do the same thing with our culture today which is falling back and crumbling all around us. I believe that He is looking for one man or one woman who would rise up against the current and rather than allowing the wave of injustice and immorality to rush over them, to fight for what is right. Or at least that’s the idea 2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV) seems to communicate when it says, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him….”

Will you be the one that God chooses to strengthen today to accomplish His will?