THE CHRISTIAN AND THE WEAPONS

“And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.”  Isaiah 32:17.

 

CHRISTIANS COMPOSE A KINGDOM OF PEACE

Christ  gave  His  followers  true peace.  “These  things  I  have spoken  unto  you,  that in  Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

“For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in His flesh the enmity,…” Ephesians 2:14

He is the Prince of peace. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6.

Christians are ambassadors of peace. “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (He is Lord of all:).” Acts 10:36. “And when ye come into an house, salute it [Menage, give the greeting of peace].” Matthew 10:12

They carry this joyful message to all peoples and nations. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14

Since they preach this joyful mes-sage, they rejoice to be called God’s children. “They are the blessed and happy children of God because they work for peace.” Matthew 5:9.

 WAR IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Old Testament of the Bible reports concerning the wars of Israel  However, war was and is not part of God’s will and plan but is a result of sin. Sickness, slavery, polygamy, and death are also the wages of sin. “From whence come war and fighting among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” James 4:1.

When the people of Israel were faithful to God and were threatened with invasion or attack by their enemies, according to God’s plan, He Himself would defend them. The “fear of God” would come over the enemy and they would suffer an invasion of hornets and pestilence or some other calamity

“But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” “I will send fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee, And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.” Exodus 23:22, 27, 28.

Through such intervention by God, the Egyptians were struck with terrible retribution, including even the death of their firstborn; and Israel was delivered without resorting to weapons. Exodus 7-12; 14:4, 24, 25

The gradual destruction of the Canaanites would have happened in the same way. “Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. Thou shalt not be afright at them: for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.

And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayst not consume them at once, lest the beast of the field increase upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. And He shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.” Deuteronomy 7:20-24

However, they soon became disobedient. They disregarded God’s wonderful intervention and were un thankful and rebellious. Because of their actions, the Lord could not help them any more, and they felt compelled to reach for weapons to defend themselves.

“Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way,… How he met thee by the way,… When the Lord thy God hath given thee rest,… that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it!” Deuteronomy 25:17-19. See also Exodus 17:7-16

The wars to liberate Palestine must be regarded as judgments upon the depraved heathen. “But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breaths  But thou shalt utterly destroy them,… That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 20:16-18. In other cases, Israel was to offer peace before reaching for weapons.

“When thou comes nigh unto a city to fight against it, then pro-claim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.” Deuteronomy 20:10,11

THE THEOCRACY OF ISRAEL

Theocracy (derived from “theo,” God, and “kratia,” rule) means “rule by God” and is the form of government in which the power to enact laws, as well as the executive and judicial functions, are direct-ly in God’s hands or in the hands of those of His authorized representatives. This is a term that is not used in the Bible itself. It was used by Fla

The Christian and Weapon vius Josephus to depict that form of government which God instituted on Mount Sinai.

From the exodus of Israel from Egypt until the prophet Samuel, thus for several centuries, elders, judges, and prophets led the people of Israel under God’s direct guidance. Around 1050 before Christ, Israel rejected this divine leading and demanded a king to assume the rulership, who would lead them in times of war, as was common among the heathen. In reality, they rejected God’s rulership, which led to a government that was halfway a theocracy. God permitted this, although it was not His plan for the people of Israel.

“…Behold thou art old,… now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

“But the thing displeased Sam-uel,… And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Sam-uel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” 1 Samuel 8:5-

During the theocracy of Israel, there were some wars which were fought according to God’s will; oth-ers were entered into without His assistance or against His will. “But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely the Hittites….” Deuteronomy 20:16,

“But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. Then ye an-swered and said unto me, We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us.

And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war,… And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, …Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. So I spake unto you ; and ye would not hear,… and went presumptuously up into the hill. And the Amorites came out, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.” Deuter-onomy 1:40-44. See also Numbers 14:40-45

Time spans of apostasy were followed by others of spiritual res-toration. Then, time and again God defended His people Himself in won-derful ways:

1. By hail: “And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.” Joshua 10:11.

2. By blindness: “And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And He smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:18.

3. By an angel: “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thou-sand: and when they arose ear-ly in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” 2 Kings 19:35

By bringing confusion and strife into the enemy’s camp so the people of Israel didn’t need to fight: “And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Je-hoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dis-mayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

“And they rose early in the morn-ing, and went forth into the wilder-ness of Tekoa; and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabit-ants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be estab-lished; believe His prophets, so shall rosper.

“And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambush-ments against the children of Am-mon,… and they were smitten.” “… And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.… They looked unto the multitude, and, be-hold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.” 2 Chronicles 20:15, 20, 22-24.

On general principle, the Bible explains that God used these wars as punishment

 To chastise different nations be-cause of their sins: “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of these fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, be-cause of the sword that I will send among them.” “Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunk-en, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them,

Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.” Jeremiah  25:15, 16, 27, 28

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the be-half of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:9

• To resolve a bad situation, or if there was no other way to bring about improvement. “Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the na-tions are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is de-filed: therefore I do visit the iniq-uity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabit-ants.” Leviticus 18:24, 25.
• To carry out His plans and achieve a victory. “And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.” Josh-ua 10:42. See also Joshua 6.
• To accomplish righteousness and preserve the Lord’s honor. “If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? Thou  shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the

 

Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the won-ders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid. Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.” Deuteronomy 7:17-20

To teach the nations and even the sraelites a visible and important lesson concerning the terrible re-sults of sin.

When the apostasy among the people of Israel reached terrible pro-portions, the consequences could not be held back. “The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.” Deuteronomy 28:25, 26. See also Judges 2:11-23.

Chastisement could not be met-ed out by people, even when it con-cerned a ruler, for they were always faulty. Those who were responsible did not go unpunished if they gave commands that were contrary to

God’s will. In this case, the people were not bound to obey, rather it was their solemn duty to resist.

“And the king said unto the foot-men that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and be-cause they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the ser-vants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord.” 1 Samuel 22:17. See also 2 Samuel 24.

Sister Ellen G. White wrote: “David’s power had been given to him by God, but to be exercised only in harmony with the divine law. When he commanded that which was contrary to God’s law, it became sin to obey.” –Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 719

 END OF THE THEOCRACY

The monarchy demanded by the people did not meet their expectations. It led to apostasy, violence, and even to terrible bloodshed.

Division soon came between Judah in the south and the ten tribes in the north (1 Kings 12), often leading to discord and strife.

The first blow to these unfortunate circumstances came in B.C. 722 with Israel being carried captive to Assyria (2 Kings 17); and the last, which for all practical purposes ended the monarchy, occurred when Judah was taken captive to Babylon in B.C. 586.

“And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” Ezekiel 21:25-27. See also 2 Kings 24:25.

Then followed the domination of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. When finally, in the presence of Christ, the Jewish nation gave preference to the Roman Caesar, they rejected the theocracy forever (The Desire of Ages, pp. 737, 738), thus sealing their own guilt and dispersion among the nations. That included the loss of divine prophecy as well.

“And it was the preparation of the Passover  and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out,

Away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.” John 19:14, 15

“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled…. for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away cap-tive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Luke 21:20, 22-24. See also Matthew 21:33, 46.

Thus, the true believers have no kingdom in this world and live as pilgrims in search of the heavenly home: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.” Hebrews 11:13-15.

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