The topic of warfare is too large to let go. Ezekiel said nations will go down to hell with their weapons of war. (Ezekiel 32:27) War is a sin against God’s creation. Nearly every sin is accented during warfare. Much that is good in man and nature is challenged. We need to be reminded that warfare and its accompaniments have made up much of man’s historical record. During many centuries it has been a major industry in its excesses. The leaders of the earth have commonly been measured by their soldiery. Alexander spent nearly his whole adult life making war. So did Nebuchadnezzar. Napoleon is remembered for his genius and folly in warfare – battles won and lost. The people of Israel were drawn to David, during the latter years of King Saul because: Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Presidents have been elected by appreciative citizens because of public appreciation of leaders in warfare victory. We name Washington, Jackson, Grant, Eisenhower and others. The public is not warm to those who have avoided danger and shirked their generation when the military called to danger.
Warfare has been used of God to achieve his purposes. (Job 19:29) Israel was ordered to scorched earth policy in confronting the Canaanites. Nothing was to be taken as booty and no one spared. There is nothing in pagan man that could have exceeded the total war ordered by God. He went out to battle. When King Saul spared animals from an encounter, he was confronted by the prophet. Saul lost the meaning of God’s judgment in profiting from the carnage. He was judged for it. Death may come from the wars of mankind, from the wars of nature in wind, fire and flood, and from the wars of the physical body in disease and decline. Mankind plays out to terrors.
God is a God of Peace, unwilling to reward violence. All wars remind us of our need for heaven. God appears to permit war as one of the evidences of human depravity, leading to judgment. War is seen here as precursor to ultimate judgment. (Micah 4:3) God does not remove nature’s wars – fire, flood, wind or eruptions. God does not leave out our private wars that set husband against wife, or child against parent. They are attention-getting for our need for reconciliation. He does not reward our intellectual war-like arrogance that takes him out of the equations of our lives. Even achievements like harnessing atoms will destroy mankind unless we find a way to enter into peace. King David’s greatest goal for his legacy was lost because of war-blood on his hands. Military success disqualified him for building the Temple. There are no statues to military heroes in the new earth. There are memorials to the ones who carried peace and love in Christ to the World. The Apostles’ names (ordinary men) are noted in the new Jerusalem. We, like David, surrender some of the awards of heaven by taking life and raping nature. Nobility is reduced for mankind. Values are distorted by us, even in God’s promises. He prepared the way of peace in his own sacrifice. Historically, even the church tried holy wars. If God wanted wars, he might send legions of angels to start and end them. He is the Prince of Peace, all peace. That includes peace for all persons and for all nations. When nations make war no more we know God is closer to us than before. Here is one of the great prophetic messages of Scripture. That belief ought to prompt Christians to influence society to resist warfare as a solution to social ills, and to work for peace, knowing in advance that the olive branch will not always be accepted. If a nation were to guide its business in the spirit suggested by Scripture, the world would be improved – for peace and life. Even when the worst of wars is engaged, we believe in peace. Whatever cleansing and solution we may have found in warfare, it could have been found in peace. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020