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War. What it is good for?
When I was a kid, playing Risk, the board game, was a game of war. The card game ‘war’ was a battle between two warring peoples. No blood was as usually spilled. Playing war often in the back yards of our houses was between cowboys and Indians, and we used sticks as weaponry, only as pretend guns.
Maybe I moved up a notch and played Battleship against a friend in our afternoon playtime. War was nothing but often was everything.
On the television, Hogan’s Heroes and McHale’s Navy showed nothing of World War II but was all I knew of it. My father never spoke about his experiences in the US Navy unless we almost demanded to know, and we rarely asked.
War in my childhood was frivolity and entertainment. I lived between WWII and Vietnam. It wasn’t real at all.
Then I turned into a teenager and Vietnam was in focus and in the late 60s became the subject of nightly news like we are seeing the last 18 months with Covid updates. Vietnam was the first televised war, almost live and in colour. I didn’t know much about it, but I knew one thing, war—what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
Since then, of course the world has changed, but I want to talk today about war, even biblical war, and I get it. We are in unfamiliar territory here today. I’m speaking about a topic and not helping us get through a chapter of the Bible. And we are also speaking about a topic that is very unfamiliar to most westerners in the 21st century—the topic of war. And finally, we are going out on the proverbial limb as we address war in the Bible itself, sometimes called ‘holy war’ and sometimes words without the adjective ‘holy.’ We have a lot of information to get through, so in the first 30 minutes or so, I will try to lay out what I have found. Then in the final half hour we will let everyone in on the zoom call, and we can discuss this with your questions or comments.
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Holy War, what is that?
We will cover some topics, but seriously, I want you to investigate and ponder the depths of ideas like Jewish laws concerning war, the problems of war in Jewish history, the purposes of war, God’s intervention in war, war and peace, and finally can I really call something VonRad called ‘holy war?’
We know God will make wars to cease (Psalm 46.9) and that there is a time for war and a time for peace (Eccl. 3.8). Yeshua said the end would be characterised by wars and rumours of wars. (Matt. 24.6). We know the Messiah, the Lamb of God, who sits on the white horse (Rev. 19.11), the Faithful and true, judges and makes war. In other words, there is a year’s worth of information to unpack. I encourage you to start today, but don’t finish. Let’s jump in.
Older Testament stories
We have spent considerable time in the last 18 months looking at the history of the Jewish people, and it’s impossible to study that without noticing how often God tells Israel to conduct a war against their enemies. From our beginnings, leaving the slavery in Egypt, God is called ‘a man of war.’ (Exodus 15.3) But even before that, and perhaps even more fundamental is the account of Abraham fighting to retrieve his nephew Lot recorded in Genesis 14. The four kings had taken Lot and much of Abraham’s goods. Abraham gathered 318 military folks and they fought a battle; they won the battle and the story ends.
Later, in our studies in Torah and certainly in the book of Joshua, God instructs the Jewish people to initiate and conduct wars against the 7 nations that abound in Canaan in 1400 BCE, and to take it for their possession. The words are clear. The imagery is clear. It’s God’s land and he wants his people who will represent him to live there. That displacement requires war. And dear friends, that biblical war is the basis of what every people group after that time has used to justify their own ‘just war.’
Whether it’s the Crusades of the medieval period, the Irish Catholics vs the Protestants in the 20th century, or the Jihad of the Muslim terrorists in 9/11—just war, or holy war, is in question today. Is it ever right? Is it right for us?
Mike Southon works at Youthworks and received his bachelor’s degree from Moore College here in Sydney. His major thesis in 2011 was on pacifism and just war. He said of the OT period,
“It starts with war as the role of Israel as they conquer and then defend the land. As the land is secured and the history of the nation progresses, Israel is no longer commanded to war. Instead, God protects (or punishes) them by his sovereign control of the nations to achieve his purposes – regardless of Israel’s military strength or weakness at the time.
Southon argues in his thesis that two other factors must be noticed. Providence and prayer should take more significant roles in our understanding of the Scripture rather than being committed to national conflicts being solved in military engagement. He said that prayer is not doing nothing, in fact, the actions of Yeshua and of Paul and even John testify to their conviction that striking back is not God’s answer, but letting your requests be made known to God is active and accomplishes much.
Southon also highlights Providence since the people of God after the times of the Judges and certainly in the Psalms and later prophets look to God rather than to their own weaponry. He said,
“Finally, in the later prophets, the theme of war is transformed completely into the future, looking towards God’s eschatological defeat of his enemies. In fact, this shift in theological focus looks fairly like the developing theology of the Temple throughout the Old Testament.”
Of course, war in the Jewish world does not begin with the conquest of Canaan, but as I’ve said, with Abraham retrieving his nephew. One of Mike’s friends wrote Mike about the Abraham passage
There is nothing in the text (Genesis 14) to suggest that God commanded Abram to take military action, though he clearly gave him success in that action. I don’t see a connection to a previous command or promise, either, as Lot was not included in the promises (he was not to inherit the land, etc.). The only justification for Abram going to war seems to be his concern for the welfare of his relative: “When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men …” (Gen 14:14, ESV). To me this seems to suggest that there are generally acceptable reasons to go to war without the need for a direct command from God. If you would say that Genesis 14 is OT and the coming of Jesus has changed all that, I don’t understand why. Why would the death and resurrection of Jesus nullify previously good reasons to go to war? … Christ’s defeat of his enemies is assured but not yet complete (1 Corinthians 15:25). Wouldn’t there still be a place for just war until that victory is complete?
In my research for today’s lesson, I find most Christians believe in war as a protection against evil. When we see injustice in Germany in World War II or in South Sudan or in Kuwait, we should get involved, they say. By that I mean when a neighbour is in need, being beaten or threatened, it seems right and permissible to defend that person against the intruder. And isn’t that a biblical precept? What about when nations are being harassed and people in cities are threatened by outsiders and marauders? Is it right to defend them against the perpetrators?
Consider these two texts. First from Torah.
Deuteronomy 22.23-27
“If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbour’s wife. Thus, you shall purge the evil from among you. But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. 26 “But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbour and murders him, so is this case. 27 “When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.”
Here the issue is the crying out. Why? Because if she’s in the city and didn’t cry out, then she is culpable. If she’s in the field, and she cries out, ‘no one was there to save her.’ Fighting literally to defend a damsel in distress is not only characteristic of a hero in a fairy tale, but also significantly biblical.
One more text. After Esther and Mordecai produce greatness in Shushan in the Purim story. Chapters 8 and 9 show the end of the story with the killing of the 10 sons of Haman, but also includes the edict of Ahasuerus.
“In them the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and to plunder their spoil.” (8.11) As a result of the edict, we read this in chapter 9
“Thus, the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying; and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. At the citadel in Shushan the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.” (9.5-6)
“Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled, to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies and kill 75,000 of those who hated them; but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.” (9.16)
This killing of 75,500 people in the provinces of Persia sounds like wars of defence rather than wars of offense, which may help some to sort out the military actions described in the end of an otherwise Jewish morality play in the book.
Problems of war in the Bible
We who know the book or who know the Author of Life at all, know that we messianic folks usually comment on war and victories when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Yeshua, in his battle with Satan in the Temptations and in the final temptations at Calvary and the Garden of Gethsemane. Because Yeshua died and rose from the dead, which so far, we title the ultimate victory, we don’t usually ponder military actions. Today we are pondering those fights and battles from Older Testament. They seem like distant memories, but they inform us of God’s heart which is how anyone should learn and properly define theology, going forward.
The battle belongs to the Lord
One of my favourite Older Testament chapters is found in 2 Chronicles 20, a landmark history section. There the Judean king Jehosophat is featured as seeing the handwriting on the proverbial wall that Ammon and Moab and Mt Seir are gathering to take some of the land of Israel away from the Jewish people.
Look at verse 3 of 2 Chronicles 20. “Then Jehosophat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.” The king calls a fast for Judah and the people respond.
Verse 13 says all Judah was there, standing, before the Lord, including infants, wives and children.” The Spirit of the Lord came on a certain Levite, Jahaziel who prophesied victory. Why? “The lord is with you” (v. 17) Jehosophat bowed down, everyone bowed down, the Levites led a ‘very loud voice’ worship service (.19)
The next day Jehosophat declared to Israel twice to “trust in the Lord”, singers led worship again, and the three enemies fought each other, and Judah was spared.
Dear friends, this victory stands out both in its unusual manner and in its understanding of Providence and Prayer. The king saw the problem. He sought God. He invited the people to seek God. God answered in a way no one would have ever imagined.
Raymond Dillard in the Word Biblical Commentary says this. “The modern historian may be tempted “to poke fun at Jehoshaphat in Chronicles for sending out the temple choir to meet an invading army; it is still funnier when the choir puts the foe to flight and causes great slaughter with a few well-directed psalms” (W. Stinespring, JBL 80 [1961] 209). Though the role of the musicians may be enlarged or enhanced in the eyes of a modern historian, one must not forget the role of music in warfare ancient and modern; armies through the millennia have gone into battle to musical cadence. Particularly within Israel’s tradition of holy war, music has been assigned an important function (13:11–12; Josh 6:4–20; Judg 7:18–20; Job 39:24–25); music accompanies the appearance of the divine warrior to execute judgment (Ps 47; 96; 98). Yahweh marches at the head of the armies of heaven and Israel (Deut 33:2–5, 26–29; Josh 5:13–15; Judg 5; Ps 68:8–13; 2 Kgs 6:15–19; 7:6; Isa 13:1–13; Joel 3:9–12 [4:9–12]; Hab 3); his appearance on the Day of Yahweh is marked by a trumpet blast (Exod 19:16, 19; Isa 18:3; 27:13; Amos 2; 2; Zeph 1:14–16; Zech 9:14; Matt 24:31; 1 Cor 15:52; Rev 8–9; 10:7; 11:15).”
I guess what I’m saying is that the role of prayer and confidence in God’s sovereignty appears in this history section to have replaced the role of military might and dominance.
Maybe this in hinted in the conquering of the Philistines under David or even Samson. In David’s case, we read that a small lad takes on the powerful Terminator played by Goliath. We don’t send Bruce Willis or Liam Neeson to win; we send Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle) or Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver out to beat up our mortal enemy.
In Samson’s case, he uses the jawbone of a donkey to slay the enemy. And ends up pushing down the false temple in his blindness.
Maybe the words of Paul should be said,
“God has chosen the foolish things of bthe world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of bthe world to shame the things which are strong,” (1 Cor. 1.27)
Dear friends, I’m not talking today about a biblical and national response by Australia against an invading horde from PNG. I’m not giving military advice to the US Secretary of Defence considering Afghanistan.
Christopher Wright says this.
“(Deuteronomy 20) does not pretend to be a manual for military operations and it is hermeneutically futile to read it or criticize it as if it were. Rather, as in the law of the king (which is no manual for government administration either), it is concerned with fundamental principles, principles that must govern Israelites at war as in any sphere of life. The two most basic covenantal principles of Israel’s life under God were: love for Yahweh (Deut. 6.5) and love for one’s neighbour. This vertical and horizontal duality was fundamental to the covenant dynamic. Love for God can be seen operative in the opening challenge of Deut. 20.1-4, but is there any way that love for neighbour can be operative in the context of war? Two responses may be made to this question.
“First, love of neighbour clearly does not mean a facile niceness to everybody in all circumstances. Love of neighbour is not incompatible with discipline and punishment. One’s duty to one’s neighbour may include for example, the duty to expose the apostate or idolater or to execute the criminal. Love of neighbour did not exclude the need to ‘purge the evil from among you‘. On a wider canvas, likewise, the historical execution of divine justice upon the wickedness of the Canaanites is not incompatible with the overall belief in God’s ultimate intention to bless the nations through Israel. Nor does it prevent the remarkable degree of social compassion and legal protection afforded to the foreigner within Israel, even in Deuteronomy. The mere fact, then that Deuteronomy makes provision for war does not invalidate all it has to say concerning human ethical duties of compassion, neighbourliness, and generosity.
“Secondly, it is precisely within the imperfections and fallenness of human life that love for neighbour has to operate. Deuteronomy is well aware that sometimes the priority is to work for the humane within the inhumane, to mitigate the worst effects of human sin, to control the worst human instincts, to protect the interests of those most vulnerable in contexts of brokenness (in its laws on polygamy, slavery, and divorce). Seen from this perspective on the one hand and in the light of the horrors and extremeness of cruelty in ancient warfare on the other, the provisions of Dt. 20.5ff and 21:10-14 are an exercise of neighbour love within the constraints of the grim reality of warfare.“ (Wright, page 227-8)
The ideas Wright brings up are remarkably consistent with our concerns in these days. We don’t want to forget the Geneva Convention, and that ethic has its beginnings, not in Switzerland, but in the Scriptures.
“The term ‘holy war’ has been increasingly criticized as inadequate and misleading. “Yahweh war’ has been preferred for expressing the fact that some of the wars of Israel were described and celebrated as the wars of Yahweh against his enemies. It should be remembered that not all the wars fought by Israel in the OT fall into this category, and sometimes kings were prophetically challenged over wars that were not sanctioned by Yahweh.
“As regards the humaneness of the warfare during the conquest or monarchy eras. While it is true that Israel’s practice did not follow what is prescribed here, it seems to be as likely that the idealization preceded Israel’s wars in the land as that it was a 7th century post-idealization of what should have happened, but everybody knew had not. It is hard to see what possible point the distinctions of Deut. 20.10-18 would have had centuries after the actual settlement of Israel in the land, or indeed what purpose Deut. 20 would have served at all in relation to a 7th century reformation.
“As regards the moral and theological question of how Christian readers of the OT should view the wars of the OT, or the kind of instructions given in this chapter. We should note first the degree of humaneness and restraint in Deuteronomy’s laws of war, which is often overlooked in generalized criticisms of ‘OT violence.’ Secondly one must be careful to set the whole issue of war in the OT in the theological context in which it is clearly set in Deuteronomy. It is seen not merely as a matter of Israel’s supremacy over the nations, but of Yahweh’s supremacy over all other gods and as the exercise of Yahweh’s legitimate moral judgment on human wickedness in the context of God’s overall sovereignty in history.” (Ibid. page 231)
At the end of the day, when Isaiah’s prophecy is finally realized,
“He will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples. and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” (Isaiah 2.4)
Until that day, let us be using the weapons of our warfare to bring down strongholds
“The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10.4-6)
Let God be exalted in your life.
Let Yeshua be the one who vindicates you.
The apostle Paul told us in Messiah that we are to use the weapons of our warfare to exalt Yeshua. He wrote the Ephesians that we are to have military garb on, but not to go out and brutalize people. Our war is not against ‘flesh and blood’. We should have a shield of faith, a helmet of the hope of salvation, the Gospel of peace on our feet, and carry the “Sword of the Spirit” which is the Word of God.
Somehow we have lost the plot and made military weaponry into our confidence. Enough of us ought to be able to take down the few of you. It’s like the backyard game when I was a kid.
These are some of my thoughts today and I call you to ponder and study this from now on, certainly for the next while. How does Sovereignty (Providence) and Prayer to the God in whom you are still believing guide us. Next week I’m going to begin a new study series on the Book of James. And you are invited to join us on the Zoom call. Write for more information.
Bibliography
Bromley, Geoffrey, editor, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1988.
Dickson, John. Website: https://www.publicchristianity.org/holy-war/
Thompson, Frank Charles, The new Chain Reference Bible, Kirkbride Bible Col, Indianapolis, 1964.
Wright, Christopher, Deuteronomy, New International Biblical Commentary, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody (MA), 1996.
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