The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 4 – 7
The Bible is rather schizophrenic on the topic of war. “The LORD is a man of war”, said Moses in Exodus 15:3. Yet Paul calls Him “the God of peace” in Romans 16:20. “Thou shalt not kill”, says the sixth commandment. Yet He Himself has killed innumerable people throughout the Bible, both directly and indirectly.
God speaks of a future when He makes wars cease to the ends of the Earth (Psalms 46:9), yet in the same book David says, “He teaches my hands to war” (Psalms 18:34). Yet God later criticized David because he warred so much, and forbade him to build the temple.
God says He will “scatter the people who delight in war” (Psalms 68:30), yet when the Israelites entered Canaan, at God’s command they took Jericho and slew every man, woman, and child in the city. You can read extensive comments by God about war and killing in Deuteronomy 32:39-42.
Nahum 1:2 tells us “the LORD revengeth, and is furious… and he reserveth wrath for his enemies”, yet when Jesus was betrayed to be killed, He would not allow His servants to fight even to defend Him. Are these contradictions? Is God as irrational as these verses make Him seem?
In the last lesson, we saw that all war is a result of sin, and that a Christian joining a war is fighting against the just judgment of God. And yet that doesn’t explain the many, many examples in the Bible of apparently good people going to war, apparently with God’s blessing.
Christians throughout history have been cherry-picking the verses they wanted to believe in and dismissing the others. The same Bible was used to justify the absolute pacifism of the Quakers and the murderous Crusades of the Catholics. Both believed they were doing God’s will, and both were wrong.
Those who went passively to their fiery death at the stake and those who kindled the flames beneath them learned about the same God from the same source! How could the same words yield such a different conclusion? Because both failed to merge and harmonize these verses by finding the answer that makes every verse make sense.
WARRING COVENANTS
Like most apparent contradictions in the Bible, these dissolve once you understand the terms of the covenants. In the OC, your heart didn’t have to trust God – it simply had to obey God. In the OC, you were allowed to hate your enemies (Matthew 5:43), and even war against them.
But the NC is a much stricter set of internal rules, which DO apply to your heart; now, you must not only obey God’s laws, but also trust Him to protect you (Hebrews 11:6). This was never required under the OC, though it was always appreciated (Numbers 14:11).
When the Israelites walked out of Egypt, God knew they had no experience managing their beasts’ fear, so when their heart said “flee to the mountains” (Psalms 11:1), God knew they couldn’t be expected to keep it in check… yet. So He specifically avoided exposing Israel to war during the Exodus (Exodus 13:17).
And when Pharaoh approached, did Moses arm the people for battle? Exodus 14:13-14. Notice they were to stand still – not help God fight, not to have God make them stronger or bless their battle… they were to STAND STILL and DO NOTHING, and God would do ALL the fighting for them! How did God do that? Exodus 14:24-27. And what did the people learn from this? Exodus 14:30-31.
This was God’s ideal! The people saw that, and believed God – they had faith in Him! But did they remember that lesson? Exodus 15:24, 16:2-3. A week or two later, the Israelites had forgotten the mighty miracle God had done! Were they being obedient during this time? Exodus 16:27-28. Did they continue tempting God? Exodus 17:1-4. Immediately after they tempted God, what happened? Exodus 17:8-13.
Do you see the pattern here? At first, God was happy to fight their battles for them! They didn’t have to lift a finger to help! But as their obedience faltered, so did their faith! Because now their hearts condemned them, because it knew they weren’t worthy! And as their faith faltered, God became less willing to fight their battles for them!
In a matter of about five weeks, God went from killing the Egyptians for Israel, to merely helping Israel fight. But that wasn’t the original plan! And the fact that God was willing to tolerate them killing their enemies doesn’t mean that’s what He wanted them – or us – to do!
After they arrived at Sinai, God formally offered Israel the NC and with it, a chance at repentance and a new start. So with that new start, how did God feel about war? Exodus 23:20-33. God was planning to bring Israel into the Promised Land without shedding any blood! What weapon was God planning to use? Exodus 23:27-28.
God’s intention was to use FEAR and BEES to drive out the Canaanites! God wanted the Canaanites destroyed for their sins, but He was well able to do that without Israel bloodying their hands to help slaughter them!
Those were the terms of war under the NC offered to the faithful at Sinai. But there was a problem. There were conditions attached to this promise! What were those conditions? Exodus 23:20-23. God said He would be an enemy to their enemies ONLY IF they obeyed His voice and did ALL that He spoke! And if they stopped obeying Him, then He would stop fighting for them!
See, your spear doesn’t have any conditions. Your gun will shoot your enemies no matter how righteous or faithful you are. It is a much more loyal ally than God, so of course faithless beasts prefer a weapon they can feel and touch to a God they cannot.
God’s protection is stronger than your sword’s, but there is a price for that protection: Psalms 34:11-22, particularly verse 18. Ruling your beast and your spirit is that price. And as you read the rest of the story of the Exodus, you watch Israel continually fail to keep their fear, anger, and lust in check.
THE FAITHFUL…
The typical example of war in the Bible is something like 1 Chronicles 5:20-22. Not the ideal, but the typical example, where God helped them by giving them extra strength, confusing their enemies, or just giving a few men incredible fighting skills like David’s mighty men or Samson.
Yet God was perfectly willing to do all the work if they’d only let Him, and there are many examples of that in the Bible. Take 2 Chronicles 20:1-13. Jehoshaphat was afraid, and set himself to seek God and proclaimed a fast throughout the nation. This was a good start! And God answered him through a prophet in 2 Chronicles 20:14-17. God was impressed by Jehoshaphat’s attitude, and what was His response?
He said “ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, STAND YE STILL, and SEE the salvation of the LORD”! Just like the Red Sea, they wouldn’t need to lift a finger to win this battle!
Now read 2 Chronicles 20:20-24. The first thing Jehoshaphat reminded them was TO HAVE FAITH! Without faith, they’d have been no different from the other kings who had to fight their own battles in the Bible!
And when the army of Judah came out, every single man of the enemy were dead without them shedding the first drop of blood! That’s what God WILL do for a righteous nation that has faith! And when the other nations heard of what had happened, it made them fear to attack Judah again – thus avoiding future wars! (2 Chronicles 20:29-30).
Another example is Hezekiah, king of Judah, a rare king who restored the temple and re-established the priesthood and got the nation to keep the law again (2 Chronicles 31:1-4, 20-21). And when the king of Assyria attacked him, what did he do? 2 Chronicles 32:1-6.
Again, these are not ideal examples because these people were still under the Old Covenant. They still had armies and weapons, but considering they were under the OC, they had fairly good faith. What did Hezekiah advise his people? 2 Chronicles 32:7.
You’ll notice Hezekiah isn’t talking about troops and weapons! What was he talking about? 2 Chronicles 32:8. Hezekiah had some faith! The king of Assyria sent messengers telling them to surrender, making a big mistake by mocking God and Hezekiah’s faith in the process (2 Chronicles 32:9-19). How did Hezekiah respond? Remember, God hadn’t delivered them yet. Things looked pretty bad. Most nations would have surrendered or sought another army to help their defense by then. What did he do? 2 Chronicles 32:20.
And what did God do? That’s the true test of whether someone did the right thing or not – how did God feel about this choice? Did He feel they should have “helped him”, and made a bigger army? Or hired someone to do it for Him? 2 Chronicles 32:21-23.
A better version of the same event is recorded in 2 Kings 19:35. 185,000 men killed, and Hezekiah and the men of God didn’t lift the first sword! Not the first drop of blood was spilled by the men with faith in God!
…AND THE FAITHLESS
…But there’s a problem; the Bible shows repeatedly that war is the result of sin, yet here we see Hezekiah did all the right things, and war came anyway! But this is not the whole story! For that, you have to merge the whole Bible together, as always!
If you had just read this version, you might be forgiven for concluding that we should trust God, but keep our gun handy. That God helps those who help themselves, and we should make sure we have a strong army so that God can “help us, and to fight our battles”. So read 2 Kings 18:1-8.
Hezekiah was a great king. But even great kings make mistakes: 2 Kings 18:13-16. Now does it make more sense why God brought war to his nation? At first, Hezekiah did great things. He rebelled against Assyria, set the nation back on track, but when the first real test came – when Assyria threatened to go to war with them – Hezekiah folded.
He apologized to Assyria, begged their forgiveness, and promised to pay whatever fine they levied on him. And what’s worse, he got the money to pay the fine from the silver and gold in the temple of God! Did Assyria honor their deal? 2 Kings 18:17-19.
Remember, Assyria is the rod of God’s anger, and paying a pagan nation protection money with the gold in God’s temple surely made God angry! But Hezekiah still hadn’t learned to trust God! (2 Kings 18:20-21).
See, Hezekiah made a lot of mistakes. That’s easy for us to say in hindsight, but it’s just a fact. You can’t fight the judgment of God with money or weapons! Yet had you asked Hezekiah if he had faith in God, he would certainly have told you he did!
Even as he was putting his trust in his weapons and his soldiers, even as he was packing God’s gold off to the heathen kings, he believed he was trusting God! 2 Kings 18:22. Hezekiah didn’t see it as turning his back on God to trust these other nations. No one ever does!
He thought he was trusting in God… he was just keeping his gun handy too! Which is exactly what any faithless person will tell you today as they pack their concealed weapon under their vest! But God is jealous of your trust and doesn’t like to share it with a gun, an army, or another nation!
Meanwhile, the Assyrian king makes a fascinating statement in 2 Kings 18:25. The Assyrians were the rod of God’s anger, and they were indeed sent by God because Hezekiah, and Judah, needed to learn a lesson! The rest of the chapter mirrors 2 Chronicles pretty well, but new pieces are added in 2 Kings 19:1-37.
Notice how much information is added to the same event by reading BOTH versions! It’s obvious now that while Hezekiah did great things at first, God could see that his faith was weak and needed testing. So He sent the Assyrians to threaten him, and Hezekiah lost faith and paid them off, and compounded the mistake by hiring the Egyptians.
And only after that didn’t work and the nation was at the brink of disaster did Hezekiah learn those things were foolish and worthless, and the only thing he had to do was trust in God, and God would save him without a single shot being fired!
ASA
A nearly identical story was played out with King Asa of Judah. He was a good king, which you can read about in 2 Chronicles 14:1-7. And he built an army (2 Chronicles 14:8). Not an act of faith, but for an Old Covenant king, it was acceptable – that covenant didn’t require faith, remember! (Galatians 3:12).
Then Zerah the Ethiopian came against Israel with an enormous army – over a million troops (Galatians 3:9-10). Asa realized his armies were worthless in this battle (as they really had been all along), and did the right thing in Galatians 3:11-15. God made promises to Asa in 2 Chronicles 15:1-7; these promises show how God deals with all kingdoms, so study them carefully.
The prophet said, “The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you” (verse 2). When your churches teach the law and the people obey it, GOD IS WITH YOU! When your churches teach that obedience to God is offensive to Him, and those who do evil are blessed (Malachi 2:17), then GOD IS AGAINST YOU.
Asa heard this, and was pleased. 2 Chronicles 15:8-19 shows all his good acts brought peace to Israel for many decades. But then in 2 Chronicles 16:1-6 this same man made a huge mistake! He hired PAGAN KINGS to defend him from his enemies! And to make matters worse he did it with the gold in God’s temple.
This man had SEEN God’s power. He had defeated an army of a MILLION SOLDIERS with God’s help! He KNEW he didn’t need to fear this pagan king! But how easily the heart of man forgets the blessings of God!
How did God feel about Asa making a treaty with this pagan king? 2 Chronicles 16:7-9. God punished him with wars for the rest of his life! All because he made a treaty with a pagan king, and forced God to share his trust with a human king!
If he’d only asked, God would have given him victory again, but no! He had to do it HIS way. He wanted to trust men he could SEE and bribe, not an invisible God! And God was MAD. Why? Deuteronomy 4:24.
God is JEALOUS of your obedience, JEALOUS of your trust, and when Asa betrayed Him and turned to the Syrian army for help, God was furious! And as a punishment for that foolish decision of Asa’s, God said He would send WARS to PUNISH HIM!
Asa did not take this well (2 Chronicles 16:10), which suggests it was because of Asa’s lack of faith and growing unrighteousness that God sent the war in the first place. God only sends war to a disobedient nation, a people who need to learn to put their faith in God!
War and adversity should make a nation look at their works and put their faith in God (Ecclesiastes 7:14, Jeremiah 8:5-6). The battles are there to show that you need to change your way of life! And to make the problem go away, you only have to repent!
But carnal men would always prefer to buy more guns than commit less sins! It’s much easier to send your sons off to die in war than it is to humble yourself before God and admit you were wrong and need His help!
A TOLERABLE SOLUTION
God’s original plan was to bring Israel out of Egypt without war. They would not have needed Him to fight battles for them had they not feared (Exodus 14:10-12). God created the crisis so that they could see Him solve it, and learn to trust Him (Exodus 14:13, 30-31).
God knew they had no idea who He was, nor did they have any particular reason to trust Him. So God was generous, showing them exactly WHY they should trust Him. And yet despite ten solid reasons to trust God, they simply wouldn’t learn it. They wouldn’t control their hearts fear and trust God instead (Numbers 14:22).
And so God had to compromise on His ideal and allow them to fight their own battles. And that’s why for the rest of the trip, God never again completely fought battles for them. He helped them fight their own battles when they were righteous, but when they weren’t… Numbers 14:40-45.
Make no mistake, Joshua’s physical battles served God’s purpose… but flocks of hornets would have done just as well. Goliath could have been killed by a lightning bolt as well as by David. Because God doesn’t need us to kill for Him.
God struck down Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5-10) at Peter’s word, and could easily have done the same for Phinehas (Numbers 25:6-13). Yet was God pleased with Phinehas? Absolutely – because Phinehas was under the OC, and couldn’t be expected to do what Peter did! Given what Phinehas understood, his actions were commendable, but that doesn’t mean they were ideal!
God tolerates all sorts of things from people under the OC because of their lack of faith and sometimes He even supports them! …But it is not what He wants us to do! (Compare to Matthew 19:7-8). Why not? Exodus 19:6.
God wanted the entire nation to be holy. Every last one was supposed to be a part of the holy priesthood of God, a nation of priests to the world! Does shedding blood in war disqualify you from working on (or presumably, in) the temple of God? 1 Chronicles 28:2-3. For Israel to be holy priests in the NC, they had to be free of human blood.
And when it became clear to God that all of Israel wasn’t going to keep the NC, He allowed them to fight their own battles, commanded them to execute their own criminals, and avenge themselves on their enemies… but not all of them.
Did He let everyone in Israel fight in those wars? Numbers 1:1-3. Here, God is commanding Moses to count all the people who can go to war in Israel. Was EVERYONE counted? Numbers 1:45, 47. Why not?Numbers 1:50-53.
So even in the Old Testament, even under the Old Covenant, even when God permitted a nation to war, there were always some in the nation who were strictly forbidden from fighting! THE PRIESTHOOD NEVER FOUGHT!
What was the job of the priest? Malachi 2:7. The Levite’s job was to stay home and teach the law to the people. When they did their job properly, the nation was righteous; when they didn’t, the nation became evil and found itself fighting a war (Judges 3:12).
In the Bible there are hundreds of examples of Israel fighting against their enemies. Often God blessed these battles, other times He didn’t. If you open a random page anywhere between Numbers and Nehemiah, and you’ll probably find them fighting. And every battle was caused by Israel’s sins! And if they won, it was only because they repented, and again became slightly less evil than their enemies!
But these battles were never necessary, if the people had simply ruled their own beasts and broken their own spirits! That’s why the Levites were far more vital to the peace of the nation than the soldiers! Because when the priest failed, the soldiers lost anyway! And when the priest was successful, no soldiers were needed!
ABOVE WAR
When a nation had faith, they were treated under the terms of the New Covenant. But when they lacked faith and to the exact extent they lacked faith, they had to fight their own battles. It really is that simple. Take the example of Abraham, the father of the faithful.
In Genesis 14 you’ll find this man going to war to rescue his nephew, Lot. On his way back, Melchizedek – Jesus – blessed him. Abraham didn’t war for greed (Genesis 14:21-24), but to rescue his family. Does this justify us going to war for “good reasons”?
You can answer for yourself – what covenant was Abraham under at the time? God didn’t make the New Covenant with him until “after these things” in Genesis 15:1. Therefore he was not yet under the covenant of faith, and so by going to war for noble reasons he was obeying the terms of the Old Covenant and God blessed him for it!
But after he accepted the NC, Abraham never again went to war, nor did God put him in a position where it would be necessary. Because that is the real blessing. When God no longer needs to punish you or test your faith, you simply won’t have any need to fight! (Proverbs 16:7).
We see many examples of this in the Bible; Abraham’s old age was a time of peace for him (Genesis 15:15, Genesis 25:8), as was David’s (2 Samuel 7:1), Joshua’s (Joshua 23:1), etc. That is the true ideal.
Is it better to see God miraculously deliver you from a terrifying enemy… or to simply never have an enemy in the first place? Is it better to miraculously walk away from a plane crash, or to simply miss your flight that day?
The beast loves miracles because they validate the hope that God cares about you; but would your soul choose the constant stress of catastrophe-and-deliverance… or the peace of, well, peace? Isn’t it better to live in a world where God simply sees to it that nothing bad ever happens near you? (Psalms 91).
The true blessing of God is not giving you the strength to win a war, nor even Him winning a war for you… it’s to be blessed so much He doesn’t have to fight for you (Deuteronomy 11:25).
The truly blessed of God do not win wars, they are above war. They don’t need to be carried on angel’s wings to a miraculous bunker for safety… the war simply doesn’t come near them (Isaiah 54:14-17).
OURWAR
Who is God’s priesthood today? 1 Peter 2:5, 9. The true church of God, every single member, is that priesthood. As such, your job is to teach the law to this world, not to murder at the behest of some Earthly government (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
Wars come from sin, and your job is to strike at the root of the problem so we won’t need a military, so there will be no wars! So that rather than dead heroes and bloody survivors, we can have righteous people working to make the world a better place.
Pro-self-defense Christians will object and point to Luke 22:36-38, saying since Jesus commanded them to take up a sword, that He wanted them to fight. It would be difficult to miss the point more, because the very same night He said they were NOT supposed to fight!
The same verse clearly tells us why Jesus commanded them to take up swords – “to fulfill prophecy”. It was illegal for Jews to carry weapons at the time, so He told them to carry swords to fulfill the prophecy. But only two swords were found, and He said “it is enough”.
Not enough to defend Him from the Romans, just enough to break their law! Because the prophecy said He would be “reckoned among the transgressors”. “Transgressors” is plural, so at least two people had to be breaking a law. Therefore, two swords were enough!
Notice how exactly the tiniest little prophecy was fulfilled to the letter! Did Jesus want them to use those swords to defend Him? Matthew 26:52. I’m not saying it was easy for Peter to stand by and watch his Friend and Master be murdered… it took faith not to grab a sword! (Revelation 13:10). Faith, and patience, neither of which were Peter’s strong suit, but which he learned in time (1 Peter 2:20).
I am always dumbfounded when someone uses this event to justify self-defense, because not only did Jesus not permit them to use their swords, but when Peter cut off the man’s ear, Jesus healed him – His enemy, who was delivering Him to death! (Luke 22:49-51, John 18:10-11). Jesus’ enemies were not harmed by the sword of His true followers that day or any other!
WE ARE NOT PACIFISTS
The world tends to classify anyone who is opposed to military service as a pacifist. Let me be clear: the saints are not pacifists. We believe in violence, for our God is a man of war (Exodus 15:3). We believe sin should dealt with swiftly and decisively (Ecclesiastes 8:11).
When Jesus returns, we will rise to meet Him in the air, and after the wedding supper we will follow Him into battle against the armies of this world. There we will take part in one of the bloodiest, most violent wars ever to take place (Revelation 14:20).
But when we fight that battle, what will we be fighting for? Revelation 19:11. We will not be making war because of anger, fear, or greed as the world does. We will make war for the law. We will make war against all those who insist on breaking the golden rule and hurting their neighbors. We will war righteously to create righteousness.
But we can’t do that yet. Why? Because righteousness can’t be created by the unrighteous (Job 14:4), and we are not good enough to create a righteous world! No human today, however righteous, is “good”. Not even Jesus was! (Matthew 19:17).
Does any good thing exist in our flesh (excepting God’s spirit, of course)? Romans 7:18. Was even Jesus, as a man, qualified to judge sin until He had overcome sin Himself? John 12:47-48. If even Jesus was not qualified to execute sinners, how can we be?
Jesus gave us a principle in John 8:7 that only He who is without sin is qualified to enforce the death penalty on sinners! Are you without sin? 1 John 1:8-10. Therefore you are not qualified to grab a gun and execute a sinner! Not EVEN if that sinner is in the act of murdering you!
This is summed up in 2 Corinthians 10:6. We are supposed to be READY to avenge all disobedience when our own obedience is complete! When will that happen? 1 John 3:9. When you are resurrected as an Elohim, made of spirit and incapable of sinning, then and only then, you will be qualified to execute judgment on others.
Until then, no human should take part in such a war. We’re supposed to be learning how! (Psalms 144:1, Psalms 18:34). We’re supposed to be prepared to execute sinners… not practicing. True Christians don’t go to war, execute heretics, or even kill in self-defense, because no human being is qualified to execute sinners until he is without sin.
Because any time men take it upon themselves to label any group of people as worthy of death, the innocent always die with the guilty. For now, we are commanded to be mentally prepared to avenge all disobedience AFTER our obedience is filled. And when that day comes, we will help Him fulfill Psalms 46:9; we will break the bow, cut the spear, and burn the chariot with fire through war.
We are not, however, supposed to be overthrowing the government and slaughtering infidels today! Because who are we to decide who is an infidel and who is not? How can we be sure that this person won’t repent tomorrow, and become our brother in Christ? And how can we be sure our own motives are pure, and that we are not guilty of an even greater sin? (Luke 6:41-42).
By now you’re accustomed to a verse that sums up the whole lesson, and this time it’s John 18:36. Anyone who truly thought about that verse wouldn’t have needed this lesson. It plainly says those whose kingdom is of this world – those under the OC who believe the physical kingdoms matter to God – fight and war in Jesus’ name.
But those of us under the NC who realize that this is not our nation, not our world (Hebrews 11:13-16), and that nothing that happens here matters, will not take up arms even to save our Lord from torture and death! That is what Jesus demands from His servants. …For now.
Because He also said that when His kingdom comes, and it will come, His servants will fight to defend their Kingdom. When their obedience is full.