“War has always been horrible, whether fought with sticks and stones, bows and arrows, swords and spears, muskets and rifles, or bayonets and bombs.” – John Stott. The present Israel-Palestine (represented by the Hammas) war in Gaza strip is a grave concern for humanity to thrive. Besides the threat of life and survival, there is widespread media presentations which are detrimental for consumption. Especially, Christians supporting war will have greater negative impact than the real damages of war caused in Israel. What I see in the media is the propaganda of the west, Zionism and Christian crusaders (on social media).
In the OT times it was Yahweh who was waging war against the nations that disobeyed him. It is imperative for us to know the Divine Warrior’s Motif. The Concept of War in the OT is understood in three stages:
First, “God is a Warrior: He Fights on Behalf of His People Israel” Ex. 15 (time from Exodus to Monarch) (Physical deliverance). In all the wars God was the one who waged war and every victory belongs to God and not Israel. E.g., Had the Israelites fought the Egyptians on the banks of the Red sea that would have been the end of the story of Israel? The story of the fall of Jericho was a sheer miracle that the Israelites achieved without using a single war tool of those days. It is clear that God was with them and was at the same time judging the other nations for their disobedience. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt; Israelites were nomads, wanderers, looking for the Promised Land.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]Second, “God is an Enemy: He Fights against His Unfaithful People (Israel)” (Deut. 28:5-7). The OT period ends with Israel’s prophet looking forward for a powerful divine warrior (Messiah). After Israelites settled in Canaan, they started to look at the other nations and demanded for a human King to rule over them.
“1 Samuel 8:5-7, “v5 They said to him, You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” v6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. v7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”
Saul became the first King of Israel, but we see in Saul a human king wanting to imitate God’s righteousness, waging wars to do justice but eventually he failed and many kings of Israel eventually failed as well. From the time of Joshua till the Judges and Kings, there were many victories, failures even civil wars among them while conquering the land. The conquest of Canaan was divine instruction, but in the end the Israelites have fallen to moral, spiritual and covenantal apostasy. It is evident that, the Promised Land was conquered (not fully conquered and controlled) but with human motives, imitating God’s justice with human efforts, that has cost them so much, as inter-marriage, idolatry, prostitution continued, there was no sense of God, also in choosing a human king. The book of Judges tells us “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]It is evident that, instead of God fighting for them, God was fighting against his own people for the wrongs committed by his chosen people. In the book of Samuel (1 Sam.4) you will find Israelites being defeated by the Philistines and the Ark of the Covenant was taken away by the Philistines.
Who were there first in the Promised Land, Israel or Philistines?
If we read Joshua 13:1-7, it clearly indicates that Philistines were there near Canaan and have already taken portions of land belonging to the Canaanites.
Jos 13:2 “This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Geshurites; Jos 13:3 from the Shihor which is east of Egypt, even as far as the border of Ekron to the north (it is counted as Canaanite); the five lords of the Philistines: the Gazite, the Ashdodite, the Ashkelonite, the Gittite, the Ekronite; and the Avvite.
“Ekron” was the farthest north of the five major Philistine cities; it was regarded as “Canaanite,” for although the Philistines were not Canaanite, they had taken this area from the Canaanites. Gaza, Ashdod, and Ashkelon were near the coast, whereas Gath and Ekron were farther inland. “Canaanite” refers here to any people, irrespective of origin, who lived in the lowlands. “Sidonian” here includes all the residents of the northern coastal plains.
Prior to the Israelites who went in conquering the land into the Promised Land. The Philistines have already captured lands belonging to the Canaanites, which were part of the claims of the Promised Land for the Israelites. Because Canaan is considered the Promised Land and Israelites went fighting to gain the Promised Land, eventually several wars were fought to capture those lands. Eventually the Philistines became one of the strongest opponents of the Israelites after they settled in the Promised Land, until King David subdued them all.
Thus, the term Holy war was no more holy after Theocracy was replaced by monarchy; human kings wanted to achieve peace, do justice, act morally but would rather displease a holy God. Thus the Jewish scripture ends with God being silent, but God did not end His work with human beings. Rudolf Bultmann argues that “the Hebrew Bible ends with a miscarriage because of its failure to break free from its entanglement with the empirical world.”
Third, with the coming of Jesus Christ, the idea of holy war has been shifted to a non-physical war. Holy war today is a spiritual battle and not physical anymore. Most of Jesus’ message was targeting about cleansing our hearts, thoughts and motives. Just because Christianity sprouted from Judaism doesn’t mean we should support the Jews. No doubt, our Christian faith has its cradle from Judaism, Jesus was a Jew, Paul and the Disciples were all Jews. But all these do not give us the right to justify the present horrendous war.
When Jesus came into this earth, he did not wage war against any political kingdom. He neither took side with the zealots (Jewish nationalists) nor with the Romans (Oppressive Gov’t). Jesus came talking about the Kingdom of God. To Pilate Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world (Jn. 18:36). He was more interested in the cleansing of our heart, rectifying our attitudes and transforming structures and principles that are evil, corrupted and discriminating. In fact Jesus said in Matthew 26:52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw sword will die by the sword.”
Implication:
1. The modern Israel-Palestine war is not a holy war that was once waged by God in the OT. Holy wars have ended, since then human Kings replaced God. Today, no war can be holy; any kind of war is evil, because it brings bloodshed, hunger, poverty, injustice, killings and confusion.
2. Christians cannot support Israel in any kind of physical war today. Especially when Israel is bombing Gaza in response to the attack of the Hamas. The act of Self-defence should not be acted indiscriminately; Just-war is not waged the way Israel is responding to the attack of the Hamas. It is a declaration of war upon a nation, targeting a group of terrorists, but the fear, havoc and damage caused is much higher.
3. If we hate terrorism, we must condemn every act of terror; caused by our people around the world and not just Hamas alone, especially this time around. The act of Hams must be dealt with strict measure by the International Law, but not the way Israel is doing now.
4. As Christians, we must pray that this war will end, but not by supporting one group to commit the lesser evil and labelling the other as the greater evil. We must pray for peace in Israel, but we cannot pray for both peace and war. Israel as a nation supported by America and being the chosen nation in the OT times definitely has a soft corner in many hearts. But that does not put the Palestinians in disfavour of God. We are not better than the crusaders, if we continue to support warring between Israel and Palestine.
5. The Divine warrior will appear in the future and He will be the judge that day.
Dr. Villo Naleo
villonaleo@gmail.com