FORT!

This massive fire machine is called the Seri Rambai and is located in Fort Cornwallis in Penang, Malaysia, the largest intact fortress in that country, and the first administrative and military base of the British East India Company. (And that’s my friend with whom I traipsed around the country a few months ago.) The fortress was built in the 1780s with labor imported from India. Sitting on the tip of the island of Penang, the fort was protected with cannons mounted all along its perimeter.

Despite all the weaponry and hostile equipment located in the Fort, history has never recorded any battle in that place. Carefully built, in the shape of star to better protect itself from cannon-fire, with a 27-foot wide moat (later filled in during a malaria epidemic), and costing 67,000 Spanish dollars, the Fort never fought.

These days, the Seri Rambai cannon, though has its own idiosyncratic use. Locals believe the it has a magical spirit dwelling in it. Women who place flowers on the barrel are guaranteed, so they say, to improve their fertility.

But, no battles in that fort!

And there’s a chapel in the fort, too. That has found use as well … for marriages, the first recorded one being in 1799.

But, battles? Nope, not in that fort!

Great structures, grand cannons. But no battles.

Now, I, for one, am glad no battles were fought there, no lives lost, no damage wrought on man, beast, or structure. I am thankful for that. Maybe it was the deterrent effect of all the cannons. I don’t know. In any case, the irony of a fort that has never seen battle is pungent.

The Bible is replete with warnings of battles of all kinds, persecutions aplenty, drowning oppression and overwhelming tribulation, and the like.
In fact, Jesus Himself pronounced a blessing on those persecuted for His sake.

“Blessed are you
when people insult you
and persecute you,
and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward in heaven is great
for in the same way
they persecuted the prophets
who were before you.”
Matthew 5:11–12

And in the Gospel of Mark, to those disciples who have given all to follow Him, Jesus promised:

“Truly I say to you,
there is no one who has left
house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or farms,
for My sake and for the gospel's sake
but that he will receive
a hundred times as much now
in the present age,
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and farms,
along with persecutions;
and in the age to come, eternal life.”
Mark 10:29–30

Yup, that’s promised to disciples as well—“persecutions.”

Paul wasn’t at all silent about this stuff either.

Indeed, all who desire
to live godly in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted.
2 Timothy 3:12

One starts to wonder, in this fairly peaceful nation we dwell in, if we are forts that have never fought battles. Of course, I am thankful for peace and for the Lord’s allowing us to dwell in relative safety without undue tumults and trials and turmoils afflicting us. But one does begin to wonder ….

Maybe it is on its way.

Let us remain alert.

With all prayer and petition
pray at all times in the Spirit,
and with this in view,
be on the alert
with all perseverance and petition
for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:18

It can’t be too far away, can it? God does keep His word!