In my last blog I commented that it does us some good to learn from biblical history so we can know how to avoid some of Israel’s mistakes and capitalize on their successes. The Bible is full of important lessons that apply to us and can be used by us to grow in our faith.

The people of Israel were in God’s Army – but they didn’t always know what they were doing (because they didn’t always listen) and they didn’t always win (because they failed to do what God told them to do). It’s the same with us: we don’t always know what we’re doing because we don’t always listen, and we don’t always win because we often fail to do what God tells us to do!

War is a very sensitive subject. By definition, war is where armies and navies try to inflict as much damage on property and personnel until – by sheer attrition – one side of the conflict is forced to withdraw. That means people die. Soldiers and civilians; the combatants and the innocent. It’s always difficult to think on war – and wonder why God would allow such hurt and destruction to take place. It’s especially difficult to understand warfare when we read about it in the Bible, and realize that God commanded His people to engage in war.

Holy War is difficult to understand. We hear in the news about “jihad” or Holy War being waged by some religious zealots against people they consider “infidels” or “unfaithful” and wonder how anyone could fight “in the name of God.” Why would God need soldiers? Why would He give instructions for battle? Why would God tell the Israelites to go in to the land and kill and destroy the people there?

God knew that the people the Israelites found residing in the land God promised to them would become a spiritual snare to them. They would lead them astray, and cause their faith to be damaged.

In Deuteronomy 7:1-6 we read: “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you – and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession. You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. Again, in Deuteronomy 20:17-19, God tells them “Completely destroy them – the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.”

In Leviticus 18:2-5, 24 God told Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord. Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.’”

God is Sovereign. He has the power and the right of life and death over all of humanity. Those who respect, revere, love, and serve Him – He blesses; those who do not, He has the right to use them in any way He wishes – including causing their deaths should He so choose. The people of Israel were told to drive out or eliminate the nations who were living in the land that God had claimed and promised to the Israelites so these ungodly people could not be a spiritual snare.

God wanted the Israelites to have a chance for success. If they allowed huge numbers of people who worshipped other gods and idols to live in their land, or if they intermingled or intermarried with these people, God knew they would fall away from Him, and God did not want that to happen. He gave them harsh orders – and it’s sometimes difficult for us in this day and age to understand that harshness from our loving, Heavenly Father.

In our day and age things have changed, or, more to the point, things have matured and progressed. The brief timeline is that humanity wandered away from God, then God gave us the Law to help us live and point us to the need for a Savior; then Jesus was born to show us how to live and died in our place to bring forgiveness and a restored eternity with our Heavenly Father. Throughout history God’s plan has been progressing and maturing and coming to fruition.

Remember, God’s words were: “You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.” (Deuteronomy 7:16) Now read the words God gave the Prophet Zechariah 500 years before Jesus’ birth; we begin to see God bringing a new element of His plan into being.

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the war-horses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9:9-10)

The Messiah will declare peace to the nations. Is this the end of war – or the beginning of a different kind of warfare? Jesus came to us to save us. If we needed saving there must be something pretty horrendous, or a mean and nasty enemy that had set itself against us. God knew the Israelites would begin to worship other gods, and take for themselves idols and fall away from devout worship; God knew we would continue to wander far away from Him and into the embrace of a cunning, deceitful enemy bent on our destruction. In this age, God is less concerned about nations who will deceive us, and far more concerned about freeing us from the deceit to which we have succumbed; deceit foisted upon us by the evil one - Satan. The warfare is different but it’s still very much a war, and we’re very much front-line soldiers in all the battles!

Paul defines our war: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) For Christ’s Church, our war and our warfare is very different than that of the Israelites. We have a specific assignment - instead of driving out the nations, we’re to embrace them and lead them to Jesus Christ.

Our war really has two fronts: one is against spiritual forces bent on robbing people of the chance for eternal life; the other is for the opportunity to bring the knowledge of Christ to the world.

The first front is where we serve God and serve people by helping them in times of need. We pray with them. We meet their physical needs. We teach them. We show them God’s promises in His Word. We help them fight the enemy’s sneak attacks and the wily way in which he wriggles his way into their life. He gets a claw-hold, then slowly rips them open spiritually – slowly so they don’t know they’re under attack – then he comes in and takes over and begins to systematically ruin and run their life. The enemy lies to them about their eternity – telling them they’re too sinful, or too awful a person to be forgiven, or he lies to them and tells them they’re a “good” person and being a “good” person should be good enough for God, right? The enemy lies to them and little by little, one lie at a time, and one claw at a time, works to separate them from the love God is offering – robbing them of eternal life because they simply never surrender their lives to Jesus.

It’s no different than what the people the Israelites encountered: they found people who would deceive them and mislead them and draw them away from God; so too do our friends and family get drawn away from Christ by the world and all its allure – it’s temptation and horror and heartache. We fight on this front by offering love, truth, hope. We stand with them. We fight for them. We never give up – and we never let them surrender!

The second front is where we proactively bring to them the knowledge of Jesus. Jesus gave us this command: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

The Apostle Paul mirrored the Master’s commands, giving us many instructions on how to go about being unconditional followers of Jesus Christ – words like these from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.”

We’re soldiers of Christ! We’re in His army. We march and fight and work right alongside of Jesus Himself. We’re given weapons of spiritual warfare – truth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, spiritual gifts of hospitality, mercy, encouragement, helping others, teaching, and more.

So – if we’re solidiers, and we’re in the Lord’s Army, and if we are on the front-lines of a spiritual war – what are we to do? How do we fight? We follow Jesus, serving Him and others along the way, and allow Jesus to be seen in us. More than that – we let the world catch the fragrance of Jesus!

Read Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 2:14: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” If you go on to verses 15 and 16 we find that our lives are a fragrance presented by Christ to God, but this fragrance is perceived differently by those being saved and by those perishing. To those who are perishing (the people who refuse to hear the Good News, or once they hear it, they refuse to believe it) we are a fearful smell of death and doom; they don’t like us! But to those who are being saved (the people who are interested to hear more about Jesus, and can be easily led to cross the line of faith and become unconditional followers – to them. . .) we are a life-giving perfume. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation as an aroma fragrant and sweet-smelling with life - but those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.

Paul speaks for us by asking a logical question: “And who is adequate for such a task as this?” Our job is just to follow in His path, serve Him and serve others, and smell the world up! Sure – we want to put off the right aroma. Sometimes we can taint the aroma with our own willfulness, our own sin, our own refusal to serve or follow His footsteps. So we need to make sure we’re in His “triumphal procession!” If we are – then God will use us to spread the “fragrance of the knowledge” of Jesus!

This mission is a terrific responsibility; are you up to the task for serving in the Lord’s Army? Are you equal to the task as Paul asked? We have this assurance – this promise from Jesus Himself: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

The entire world is our mission field. We’ve been placed in this battle arena – this fighting zone. We have friends and family who get a whiff of Jesus on us from time to time – and want more of the good-smelling stuff. We’re the ones who need to get in His “triumphal procession” walking in His footsteps, so our friends and family can find their way to Jesus.

Right now, so many of the people in our lives don’t know what they’re missing. You’ve met those people – maybe you were one of them: they think they have it all, and what they don’t have, they think they will get if they can only have more money, more time, and more popularity. They may have heard of Jesus – but most of them will be quick to say they don’t need Him or anything like Him. They don’t need religion. They don’t need God. They certainly don’t realize they’re in need of a Savior.

You have what they need! You’re a soldier in the Lord’s Army – and you need to follow His lead, get in step with Him, and let God use the sweet perfume of your live lived in Christ to attract the world to Jesus!

Paul writes this to Pastor Timothy at the Church in Ephesus: “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.” (2 Timothy 2:3-5)

Your job is to realize you’re enlisted, and to begin serving like the soldier you’re called to be. . . working to make sure you allow the fragrance of the knowledge of Him to permeate your world, and attract your friends and family to Jesus!

You are in a Holy War.

The Holy Wars of the Old Testament can be a bit difficult to understand, but with some careful study, we can realize that God was working to restore humanity’s relationship with Him, and some humans just weren’t going to let that happen; the people of Israel were told to drive out or eliminate these ungodly people so they would not be a spiritual snare to the Hebrew people.

Today, we’re fighting in a Holy War – a spiritual war or “jihad” if you will – but for Christ’s Church, our warfare is different. Instead of driving out the nations, we’re to embrace them. Our war has two fronts: one is against spiritual forces bent on robbing people of the chance for eternal life; the other is for the opportunity to bring the knowledge of Christ to the world.

Here are some words, gleaned from the Apostles’ instructions to us, found in their letters in the New Testament:

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be a courageous follower; be strong. Do everything in love. Endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Rid yourself of sin and the things that cause your devotion to be weakened. Join willingly in the triumphal procession in Christ, so that through you He may spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him! Who is adequate for such a task as this? You are! Jesus Himself assures you: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”