“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:20-21).
Desert etiquette is an Hebraic term and action that describes what “heaping coals of fire on our enemies head” means. This metaphor needs to be accurately understood so that we are not in any way lead away from the will of God. I cannot think of a more appropriate time to teach this, as we are in the Passover week which, this year, parallels the children of Israel’s movements from the slaughtering of a lamb to the crossing of the Red Sea and entering into the wilderness.
What is so special about the desert? The desert is where the LORD spoke to Moses. The book of Numbers begins with, “And God spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai…“(Numbers 1:1). The wilderness is where God gave His people their instructions and directives for a life on the earth pleasing to Him. The wilderness is the place where God speaks. The desert is a place of emptying out. If we are full of ourselves, we will all have trouble receiving fresh directives and revelations from God. God is the orchestrator of our desert journeys. In the desert, one must abandon previous flesh-and- blood masters. Can any of us in the western world really comprehend owning nothing in order to be empty enough to receive truths and lessons that cannot be learned otherwise? In this respect, to be ownerless does not mean that we don’t possess any materials. Being ownerless, in this example, would be the state in which we view “ourselves.” We, in fact, were bought with an enormous price.
We all get put to the test in the desert. The LORD can use the smallest situation to reveal hidden pride, self-sufficiency, arrogance and even our ignorance concerning His Word. None of us likes to be offended. If we are easily offended, our soil is weak according to Matthew 13:20-21. “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that hears the Word and with joy receives it, yet has he no root in himself, but endures for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arise because of the Word, by and by he is offended.” Once we have been offended, we have taken Satan’s bait. We are then caught in a trap, often not aware of our bondage. If we are people who hold offense, we do not understand “desert etiquette.”
WHAT IS DESERT ETIQUETTE?
In the book of Romans 12:19, we are warned by the Apostle Paul not to avenge ourselves because it is written in the Torah, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Deut. 32:35). “Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head” (Romans 12:20). We must get an Hebraic picture of what heaping coals of fire actually means. In the East, the Bible lands, nearly everything was carried on one’s head, baskets of fruit, water jars, even hot coals. In most of the dwellings, a fire is kept in a container called a “brazier.” A “brazier” was a pan that could hold hot coals. The book of Jeremiah speaks of the “brazier.” “The king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the “brazier” before him” (Jeremiah 36:22).
During the cold winter months of the desert, if a tribe of Bedouins came near their enemy who lacked heat and warmth, they provided for them by giving them hot coals to rekindle their fires. The hot coals were contained in the pan upon one’s head. Blessing our enemies is not a suggestion from the LORD; it is divine instruction from Him. “If your enemy be hungry give him bread to eat; And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For you shall heap coals of fire upon his head and the LORD will reward you” (Proverbs 25:22-23).
Heaping coals of fire upon those who have offended us is not a mindless or easy task. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit in us to obey these instructions from God. Here especially, we must be emptied of our self-assurance, our high opinions of ourselves and, certainly of any smugness. If we will take these divine instructions seriously and practice what we’re told, we will enter into the supernatural realm of blessing and reward that God desires for us.
If we repay evil for good, the LORD has nothing in us regarding that matter which He can use for the repayment plan. “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may INHERIT a blessing” (I Peter 3:9). So, let’s all determine to be the “blesser,” even when circumstances appear to dictate otherwise.
