All the way through junior high, I was fairly tall, though I was on the skinny side. Mostly, the bullies left me alone. However, in the eighth grade, there was one guy much bigger than me. He was not only taller but much heavier too. I preferred avoiding fights, but he didn’t.

So, one day, against my better judgement, we faced off. Even though he had both the height and weight advantage, he decided he needed a rock to face me. After it was all over, I did have a bruise over my eye. A small wound compared to what he left with. Oddly, he never bothered me after that.

Unfortunately, after reaching high school, most everyone caught up with me in height and, of course, I was still skinny. That was when I learned a little of tact. Still, there were those who wanted to prove he was the better fighter.

Since those days, I spent a little time in the Marines and bulked up a little. I have hardly been confronted by bullies since then. There was one that wanted to fight me one night. Though he was much bigger, he was about to make a mistake. He was, well, should we say, inebriated. You might say, one good rule for any bully would be to avoid fights while under the influence. In this case, his girlfriend talked him out of it.

Thinking back over it, Jesus actually has some sound advice for bullies as well. Even though I am sure he never quite meant it that way, a bully should still pay heed to it.

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?” Luke 14:31Berean Study Bible.

Of course Jesus was speaking of kings and going to war. Still, it does seem to be a good idea for bullies to avoid trying to start fights with people who are bigger than them. Moreover, they might also stay away from those who have spent nine years in the Marines. Just a suggestion. Had that man tried to fight with me, he might have hurt me, but if I hit him once, they would have carried him away in a stretcher. He was bigger. I would have had to use whatever I knew to stop him.

However, if I may, let me get back to what Jesus was talking about, warring between nations. As the implication is, even warring nations prefer to find weaker nations, as did Hitler at the beginning of his endeavors. His error was when he started going after the more powerful ones. Or as the Japanese admiral said after attacking Perl Harbor, “I’m afraid we have waken a sleeping giant.”

My conclusion from all the above is, if you don’t like war, keep yourself strong and powerful. The others may not like you but neither will they fight you. This of course means keeping any enemy from from infiltrating our borders. One enemy inside our borders can do far more damage than ten outside. Even worse, we might not be able to tell who sent him.

At this point there are many who would like to attack us and they can all take advantage of the open border Joe has provided them. The enemy needn’t fight his way in. All he need do is walk in.