Warfare and a Hidden Gem

Deuteronomy 20-21

            Moses’ regulations about warfare make me smile. He starts with a familiar argument: you’re not doing the fighting; the Lord is. We heard that all the way back in Exodus 15:14 at the crossing of the Red Sea, when Moses told the people, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” In chapter 17, the eventual king was forbidden from developing his army (no horses!). And, in the second paragraph of chapter 20, the commanders are told to dismiss all sorts of people: those with new houses, new vineyards, new wives, even those who are just plain scared. Can you imagine a general today making similar allowances?

            Why does all this make me smile? Because the Lord is going to give victory, not the army. The story of Gideon is coming up in Judges 6-7. Gideon raises an army of 32,000 men, and the Lord says, “Too many. You’ll just take the credit for your own strength.” 22,000 men are dismissed, and the Lord says, “Still too many,” and the army is winnowed down to 300. 300 Israelites against 135,000 (Judges 8:10)! There can be no doubt the Lord gives victory.

            I wish that was as easy to believe as it is write. I know that I constantly rely on my own strength, my own insight. There’s a tension there: how much are we supposed to take responsibility; how much are we supposed to let God be God. I remember many years ago a church I served was talking about a building program. The original plan was way out of our price range and there were a few voices who said we should just go ahead and trust God. But that felt wildly irresponsible, a sort of “Don’t put the Lord your God to the test” kind of moment (Deuteronomy 6:16). (We ended up doing most of the project but in, I think, two phases.) On the other hand, the Lord says in Malachi 3:10, “Test me in this!” Jesus sends His disciples out without staff, bag, bread, or money in Luke 9; but in Luke 22 He tells them, “He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one” (verse 16). So, I think we have to find a balance. We shouldn’t just go charging into something, blindly thinking, “God will take care of it.” (I suppose part of the problem is we can’t always be 100% sure our plans are what the Lord intends.) Nor should we be paralyzed with fear thinking, “I haven’t got the resources—material, emotional, or spiritual—to deal with this.” I know that for myself, the temptation is to rely too much on myself and my resources. So, for me, the challenge of a passage like this is to stop trusting my abilities and to start trusting the Lord and His Word. Other people may have exactly the opposite challenge. It’s a lot to think about.

            Now for something completely different. At the end of chapter 21, there’s a little verse tucked in. The NIV simply labels it, “Various Laws.” The verse says, “Anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse” (21:23), and it’s in a little section on dealing with the dead bodies of those who have been executed. It’s pretty easy to overlook, except that St. Paul makes it integral to his understanding of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole” (Galatians 3:13). A couple of things: you have to be impressed with St. Paul’s knowledge of the Old Testament that this little verse stood out to him, and we have to be aware that the Gospel is always lurking around, not just in the obviously messianic passages of the Bible, but in places like Deuteronomy 21:23 as well. A Facebook friend likes to say, “On every page of the Old Testament write this, ‘These are the Scriptures that testify of me [Jesus]’ (John 5:39).