Category Archives: peace

The Bible & War: The Conquest

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The Conquest of the Promised Land is, for many people, a troubling time in Israel’s history. I’ve talked before about God’s ordering the destruction of the peoples of Canaan; I won’t spend time on it now. What I want to focus on is the role of God in the Conquest.

He had promised the Israelites that He would drive out the peoples of this land, little by little. He told them that the battles would not depend on the strength of Israel’s army, but on the strength of Israel’s God.

So, what happened? Why were the Israelites unable to complete the Conquest? The Bible points to their unfaithfulness, beginning with the foolishness of the treaty with the Gibeonites. Later passages suggest that they failed to destroy the idols of the nations of Canaan, and that this failure was the biggest contributor to their failings.

In the end, we need to see that the Conquest was the fulfillment of a promise made to Abraham and repeated to his descendants. These battles were fought to secure the land of their inheritance. God was also using them to punish the people of Canaan. Israel was, in this specific instance, the tool of God for punishing the nations, just as were Assyria, Babylon, etc. in later times. This case is unique in that God used His people for this task, but I think that had to do with the Promise.

To some degree, many of the battles fought by Saul and David would have to be included in the Conquest, for they were securing land which had been promised to the Israelites. By my calculations, the Conquest ended with David’s wars, but I’m open to correction on that.

The Bible & War: What the Law of Moses says

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Now we turn our attention to the Law. To a good Jew, of course, all of what we’ve been discussing so far is part of the Torah, what we call the Law. But I’m speaking specifically of the legal code found in Exodus through Deuteronomy.

A commenter the other day suggested that arguments for pacifism are based on “Thou shalt not kill” from the Ten Commandments. I’ve yet to read a pacifist who presented that as a main argument, nor have I seen it in the discussion on this blog. It doesn’t take much reading to realize that the very next chapter in Exodus lays out situations in which the death penalty is to be applied! No, those four words from the Ten Commandments lend little to the discussion.

A better insight into the Law’s views toward war are found in Deuteronomy 20. Some interesting things in that chapter:

  • Priests play a major role in the army’s activities
  • Broad exceptions are granted to those who choose not to fight
  • Differences are made between battles within the Promised Land and battles outside the Promised Land
  • Tactics avoid harming food-bearing trees

Admittedly, that third point rocked my world recently. I had a nice little theology about war, and Deuteronomy 20:10-15 doesn’t fit! I’m still looking to find balance. I had believed (and taught) that wars in the Old Testament fell into two categories: self-defense and conquest of the Promised Land. Lo and behold, these verses don’t fit either of those categories. While I can’t think of an example of this, of the Israelites fighting merely to conquer a distant city, the Law does allow for it. Sounds like a license for “imperialism.”

So do we just write it off to the sort of things that happened before God became a Christian? Or how do we understand these verses?

The Bible & War: Battles in the wilderness

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As the book of Exodus begins, the Israelites are in Egypt and quickly become slaves there. As I mentioned yesterday, it’s only logical to suppose that their oppressors disarmed them.

When they left Egypt, they had weapons, enough to fight against the Amalekites when attacked in Exodus 17. Best guess is that this was part of the spoils they took from the Egyptian people. In Exodus 32, the Levites were told that each man should strap a sword to his side to kill the Israelites who were worshiping the golden calf.

On the way to the Promised Land, the Israelites had to fight several battles. In Numbers 21, the Israelites were attacked by the king of Arad, either because he thought they were invading his land or merely because he saw a chance to plunder a virtually defenseless people. In retaliation, the Israelites “utterly destroyed” all of the cities in his kingdom.

Farther down in the same chapter, the Israelites request permission to pass through the Amorite nation ruled by Sihon. Sihon responded by attacking the Israelites. God’s people won the battle and took possession of the land of Sihon. The same thing happened with Og, king of Bashan.

These were the battles that weren’t actually part of the conquest of the Promised Land but were fought en route to the Promised Land. The slave nation was now able to defend itself. We’ll look next at what the Law has to say about war, before talking about the Conquest.

The Bible & War: Living By The Sword in Genesis

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I hadn’t planned on discussing them, but I think it might be worth taking a moment to look at some of the other characters in Genesis. When Isaac gave Esau a “consolation blessing” (after Jacob stole the real one), Isaac’s description of Esau’s hard life included “you will live by the sword.” This was not a thing to look forward to, but a description of a life without shalom, without peace.

Later we see the case of Simeon and Levi, when they avenged their sister’s honor by killing the men of Shechem. Genesis 34:25 speaks of them taking “their swords,” which seems to indicate that swords were a normal part of their equipment. Later, Jacob refers to having taken Shechem with his bow and his sword (Genesis 48:22), that being the only land that belonged to the family (Genesis 33:19 and Joshua 24:32 refer tot hat land as having been purchased).

Jacob made it clear at the time that he was not in agreement with Simeon and Levi’s actions, and late in life he cursed them for it, saying, “their swords are weapons of violence.” The Levites would later redeem themselves (at the incident of the golden calf), but the Simeonites would pass into oblivion.

It seems likely that the Egyptians would have disarmed the Israelites during the years of slavery, so we shouldn’t expect to see any use of weaponry until after the exodus.

The Bible & War: General Abraham?

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Bible & soldiersOK, I’m ready to start looking some at God’s people and war in the Bible. Genesis 14 seems like a good place to start, though someone may want to point out an earlier passage.

In Genesis 14, we see two groups of kings going to battle against one another. At this time, kings tended to rule over city states, rather than countries. In the ensuing fighting, Sodom is conquered and Abraham’s nephew lot is taken captive. So Abraham decides to rescue his nephew.

“When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.” (Genesis 14:14)

That’s an intriguing verse. While Matthew Henry suggests that these men may have been religiously trained, that is, Abraham only took those who had faith in God. However, this phrase, while unique to the Bible, has been seen in other writings to refer to “armed retainers,” according to the NIV Study Bible. I would tend to think that in this context it’s referring to some sort of combat training. Which is in itself remarkable. What use did Abraham have of a fighting force, besides this one incident we see here? It’s a small army, granted. But it’s an army.

It should be noted, however, that Abraham did not pledge his loyalty to any of these kings, not even the king of Sodom. He refused to accept anything in payment.

Another interesting part of this story is the tribute Abraham pays to Melchizedek, the king of Peace. There is no record that Melchizedek’s people took part in the fighting, yet Melchizedek came out to bless Abraham.

Here’s our first foray into the fighting world of ancient times. What shall we make of it?