War

Deuteronomy 20:1 (HCSB) “When you go out to war…”

Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy Commentary

Ever since the Fall, humankind has been hostile to and in rebellion against the Creator, a condition that, if unrepented, leads ultimately to divine retribution and death. In the Old Testament, that conflict was frequently manifested historically by Yahweh’s “taking up arms” against his and Israel’s implacable foes, those who had so entrenched themselves in moral corruption and spiritual rebellion as to be beyond hope of redemption.

Moses wanted this new generation to be aware that crossing into the land of promise was not going to be easy. When we were children we yearned to be 16 so we could learn to drive, only to discover that our parents allowed us to get our license in order to have another driver inn the family for errands and such. Then we longed to be 21, to be an adult only to realize later, adulting is hard. Who knew getting married was to enter into a discussion of ‘What’s for dinner?’ for day after day after day after day….

Add to the relentness nature of errands and tasks around the house, we are often blissfully ignorant of the conflict occuring around us. The Vietnam action (never declared as a ‘war) was brought into our homes via television images unlike any previous conflicts. Even then, unless we knew someone in particular, the conflict rarely occupied the center of our lives.

As Moses prepared this new generation to enter into the ancient promise of God Moses wanted them to recognize that claiming what God had already given would be challenging. Even now we look to a future in God’s presence that will be free of conflict, a time described in the OT as:

Isaiah 65:25 “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the serpent’s food will be dust! They will not do what is evil or destroy on My entire holy mountain,” says the Lord.”

Moses’ words in Deut 20 remind us that getting from where we are to where God calls us to be requires war.

Deuteronomy 20:1 (HCSB) …do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.”

In this chapter Moses identifies two types of conflict the Israelites will face. First, there will be conflict outside the land of Promise for various reasons.

In vs 16, however, Moses reminds this generation of a conflict they cannot solve diplomatically:

Deuteronomy 20:16–18 HCSB

However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. You must completely destroy them—the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that they won’t teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.

This is the visible appearance of a conflict that has been ongoing since before the creation of the world in which we live.

Why were there foreigners living in God’s Promised Land?

Genesis 11:5–9 HCSB

Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

God ‘scattered’ the people to the places He had prepared for them. Remember, this is generations prior to God’s gifting of the land to one known as Abraham! These people groups settled, built villages, towns, cities; cultivated the land for agriculture; had children who had children who had childrem and so on,

All the while as these nations are enlarging within these boundaries, Israel, God’s chosen people are stirring to return home, even though not one of them had ever been there.