They say that if blood was indelible, Jerusalem, the “city of peace,” would be red, all red.
Few other nations, if any, have faced more warfare than Israel. The land they occupied was at the crossroads of the ancient world, with the superpowers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Nubia to the south and Chaldea, Assyria and Babylon to the north. Thus Canaan became the incessant battlefield. Later the Greeks and Romans, the Crusaders and Turks, then the Germans, French and British, all marched through this little land. To this very day, it is a powder keg, surrounded by many nations intent on her destruction. And she still awaits the mother of all battles, Armageddon. There is, of course, a spiritual dimension to this, for the devil wants nothing more than to make God a liar by destroying the people of the Covenant. That will never be. But it is no wonder that instructions are included in the book of the Law regarding warfare. Thus Deuteronomy 20 begins, “When you go out to battle against your enemies…” (v 1). What is the first point to be made? When they saw the odds against them, with “people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you” (v 1). Nonetheless, they were not to be careless regarding their own responsibility. First, a priest should remind them, “Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you” (vv 3-4). There were to be more directions from the officers, but this was crucial. Don’t we need to be reminded of this each day? Surely every believer has daily battles, too. Yes, “thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ” (2 Cor 2:14) “because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 Jn 4:4).