God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 14:12-15 War and mercy

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, November 29, 2024

12 The LORD struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled, 13 and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that none of them survived. They were crushed before the LORD and before his army. The men of Judah carried off a large amount of plunder. 14 They attacked all the villages around Gerar, for the terror of the LORD had fallen upon them. They plundered all these villages, since there was much plunder there. 15 They also struck the camps of the herdsmen and carried off large numbers of sheep and goats and also camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

God intervened for Judah. He struck (King James Version, “smote”) the Cushites. Our prophet takes the time to record the little detail that this was done both “before Asa” and “before Judah.” The Lord was answering the king’s prayer, and the people benefitted from Asa’s faith and his prayer. This should not be lost on anyone who is in a position of leadership. Pray for your business, for your employees, for your family, for whatever people are under your guidance.

The victory continued as the Cushites retreated. More than thirty hard, dusty miles fall and rise between Mareshah where the battle began and Gerar, close to Gaza on the Besor River. This was the border between Philistia (known today as the “Gaza Strip”) and the farthest fingertip of Egypt on the northern rim of the Sinai Peninsula. Both Abraham and Isaac had dealings with the Philistine kings of Gerar (Genesis 20:1-8, 26:1-17).

The fighting madness of the men of Judah carried them into the villages and even the camps of the herding nomads as they continued to plunder the retreating Cushites, whose numbers rapidly fell from a million to zero before they could escape. The Judahite soldiers walked away with more possessions than they could carry, or had any need for. A lot of this plunder ended up in the temple (2 Chronicles 15:18) and not in the homes of the soldiers.

What does the Bible say about war? Under the Fourth Commandment, God has given the civil government the right to execute evildoers (Romans 13:4). God also reserves the right to do this himself in certain cases, which he did on a global scale in the face of worldwide unbelief and sin in the time of the flood (Genesis 6:3-7). Here, after the prayer of Asa, he also wiped out the army of the million Cushites; we don’t know whether the Lord used his immediate power to end the existence of those warriors, or worked through his angels or other supernatural means in addition to Asa’s army.

But more specifically about mankind and war, our Lutheran (Augsburg) Confession states: “Christians may without sin occupy civil offices and serve as princes and judges, render decisions and pass sentence according to imperial and other existing laws, punish evildoers with the sword, engage in just wars, serve as soldiers, buy and sell, take required oaths, possess property, get married, etc.” (XVI:2). Our Confession condemns groups like the Anabaptists that teach that certain or none of those things is Christian (XVI:3). Pacifist groups such as the modern Mennonites are in error when, in condemning all war, they try to apply Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount to a government. “Government cannot maintain order by turning the other cheek. It is charged by God to use force to protect its citizens” (Prof. Lyle Lange).

When someone such as an unbeliever or even a troubled believer questions whether a loving and merciful God could tolerate war and even command the genocide or extermination of entire nations, we need to answer with truth and patience:

• God is merciful beyond our understanding; he promised a Savior from sin on the very same day that Adam and Eve fell into sin (Genesis 3:15).
• God is also just; sin always has consequences (Romans 6:23).
• The ultimate consequence of sin is eternal damnation in hell, both for wicked men and wicked angels (2 Peter 2:4; Luke 16:23).
• Just as God punishes sin in eternity, sometimes he also punishes sin in this lifetime, as he did with the destruction of Israel (Jeremiah 25:8-14). “In our day he punishes wickedness and rebellion with governments that act violently, with war and oppression. His judgment in history should serve as a warning to us: God takes his word seriously, whether we do or not, whether people like it or not” (Deutschlander, Civil Government, p. 37).
• The innocent will suffer alongside the guilty, and they will cry out to God for relief. God sustains the innocent and he will finally repay them a thousandfold what they have lost and suffered (Romans 8:18-39).
• One of the most important purposes of government is the protection of its citizens; even Cain attempted to do this when he started to build a city for his family and followers (Genesis 4:17). In order to carry out that purpose, a government may have to wage war against those who threaten the life and territory of the nation.

A perfect king would forbid his soldiers of robbing villages and the countryside. The great poet put these words into the lips of one such king: “We give express charge, that in our marches through the country, there be nothing compelled from the villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the French upbraided or abused in disdainful language; for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.” (Henry V, III:6). Sin will always accompany war just as sin infects every man and every action of man. But in Christ there is forgiveness for each sin, for every sin, for every single wrong committed. Our Savior says: “All the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them” (Mark 3:28), for salvation is through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15).

During the Great War, a British poet was turned into a soldier and wrote:

Horror of wounds and anger at the foe,
And loss of things desired; all these must pass.
We are the happy legion, for we know
Time’s but a golden wind that shakes the grass.

Pray for our soldiers and do not condemn them, no matter what their post-service flaws. When a government trains their fingers for war, their minds will often be so transformed that they are changed for life. Only some of the scars of the battlefield are in the flesh. Praise God that he is merciful even upon those who have been compelled to be merciless.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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