The Deceitful Heart

It was August of 1942, and the U.S. Marines were locked in deadly combat with Imperial Japanese forces for possession of the island of Guadalcanal. It would turn out to be a pivotal point in the war in the Pacific, but the early days of the epic battle up to that point had been bleak, with no end in sight.

Enter one Lt. Col. Frank Goettge, a Marine Intelligence officer attached to the First Marine Division. Because of the surrender of several Japanese and Korean laborers involved in building a landing strip in the jungle as well as the testimony of a captured Japanese Warrant Officer, he decided that the enemy had had enough and would surrender if prodded to do so. Someone had also reported seeing a white flag of surrender in a tree farther back in the jungle. He put together a patrol of around twenty-five men and boarded a landing craft to travel around the island to scout out the situation. Though it went against protocol, Goettge felt in his heart that there was a good chance that a lot of lives could be saved if the Japanese simply surrendered.

Goettge never returned, and only three Marines survived the patrol. The rest of the patrol was wiped out on the landing beach, and most of their bodies were never recovered. In many ways, it can be regarded as the Marine equivalent to Custer’s Last Stand. Goettge followed his heart because he felt that what he was doing would have dramatic results on the outcome of the battle. Because he felt so strongly in his convictions, he ignored many of the warning signs that an Intelligence officer like himself should have picked up on.

He was warned by Colonel Whaling, the 5th Marine Regiment's executive officer, that resistance close to the area he had chosen to go ashore had been heavy. It was also later learned that the captured enemy Warrant Officer had been plied with alcohol before he began giving out information on the morale of the enemy. The ‘white’ flag that had been spotted in the jungle closely resembled a common Japanese battle flag at the time.

So many times we also ignore the warning signs in our own spiritual lives and instead we simply follow our feelings or emotions. From the pulpit we are warned of impending judgment, and we listen but it never touches our lives. We feel the Holy Spirit directing us in one direction, and we ignore Him and go in another. The Bible lays it all out for us, by the book, and we rationalize it away by becoming self-righteous in our own eyes. Because we think we have plenty of time and besides, who knows better what we need to do in our lives than our own heart of hearts? It is dangerous to follow your heart while disregarding Spiritual truths presented to us in God’s Word and expressed to us by His Holy Spirit.

The Bible, in Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” I’ve learned over the years the truth associated with this verse. My heart is deceitful, and it has placed me in harm’s way more than once when I followed it without backing it up with scripture. By the way, I’m not talking about the blood-pumping organ that resides in your chest; I’m talking about your heart.

How’s your heart these days? Jeremiah adds, “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” God’s Word states that He is searching our hearts this morning – what is he finding there?

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