Today’s Reading: Joshua 11
Ecclesiastes 3:8 tells us there is
"a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace.”
Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses.
And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal
allotments. “And the land had rest from war." At long last, the time for
peace had come.
The purpose of all wars, is (or should
be) peace. No war should ever be
perpetual. No war should ever be started
without a just cause. And once peace has
been achieved, the war should cease.
“War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity; it destroys
religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable
to it.” Martin Luther
The Bible is very clear that all mankind
is created as "Imago Dei" (in the Image of God). This alone makes all human life
extremely precious and tells us that ongoing war is not God’s ideal plan for
humanity. We know from Isaiah 2:4, that
in God’s future kingdom, “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their
spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor
will they train for war anymore.” What a glorious Day that will be!
In the meantime, all followers of Christ
are fighting a war. Discipleship is
always an inescapable war between the kingdom of self and the Kingdom of
God. This is a just war that we must
win! As Christians, we are in a
spiritual skirmish of some sort on a daily basis. In warfare, battles are fought
on different fronts, for different reasons, and with varying degrees of
intensity. The same is true in spiritual warfare. Our spiritual battles and
warfare are real, even though we cannot physically see the attacker. But we can train ourselves and arm ourselves
with the weapons of our warfare (truth, faith, righteousness, salvation). This is how the battles are fought and the
only way they can be won.
It is the spiritual forces of darkness
that control the societies of the world.
Those forces are in conflict with God. We, as Christians, are God’s
children. Thus, if the world is in conflict with God, the world is also in
conflict with us. So, fight the good
fight. Confront your enemies. Fight to conquer that persistent sin in your
life. Fight to save the lives of the
unborn. Fight to return the fear of God
to the public square. Fight to reach the
lost for Christ.
One day you will “take the whole land”
and have rest from war. The Bible promises us that “the meek shall inherit the
earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace!” (Psalm 37:11)
But that day is not today. So fight,
dear Christian, fight!
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