For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth...Eph 5:9
Winter 2006 Volume 7, Issue 1 |
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In the book of Joshua, chapter 11, Jabin king of Hazor, calls upon several other kings in the area to unitedly go up against Joshua and the army of Israel in order to prevent their further advance in the land of Palestine. The army that developed in this confederacy was “...even as the sand that is upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.” (11:4). Joshua was assured by Jehovah that Israel would be given victory the next day, and that the enemies’ horses would be hocked or hamstrung, and that their chariots would be burned. Victory came the next day as promised by God. The cities of the kings who had joined themselves together to engage Israel in war were all destroyed, and the spoil of war was taken by the army of God. But, as God had ordered, the horses were hocked and the chariots were burned with fire (11:9). When one first reads God’s order regarding the horses and then finds that the order was indeed carried out, he wonders as to the purpose of, what would at first appear to be, such cruelty and waste involved in executing the order. The horses, being sub-human, were not guilty of any crime, and so were not hocked because they were blameworthy for any wrongdoing. They were no more guilty of crime than the fig tree which Jesus condemned (Mt. 21:18,19). And, one would think that these horses of war could be of great value and that they should be utilized by the army of God in future efforts to destroy the enemies of Israel. But such was not to be. In Deut. 17:14ff God had spoken of the day when Israel would be brought into the land of Palestine. God said that His people would call for a king to be placed over them, and He said that the king to be appointed would be one that He, Himself, would choose. Then God proceeded to warn Israel regarding this situation which was still on the horizon by saying: “Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; forasmuch as Jehovah hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.” Solomon, the third king of Israel, out rightly disobeyed the prohibition |
given and developed a large band of horses. “And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem" (2 Chron. 9:25) It is clear , then, that God never intended the army of Israel to come to depend upon the horse or the chariot as the means whereby victory would be forthcoming. When God assigned the task of hocking or hamstringing the horses He was issuing a decree that, if carried out, would render the horses useless for further service. It would seem that two points would be involved in this decree. First, God was showing Israel that the war horses just used in fighting against them would never be used against them again. And, secondly (and more importantly), God was removing the temptation that Israel faced in coming to rely upon such tools and equipment as that which had been used by the enemy. And, thus, the point is clear that Israel was not to take up the strategy of the enemy in battle. Victory from God was not to be predicated upon Israelitish employment of enemy tactics. If the army of Israel were simply one of many equally valuable armies in the land, it would seem that their utilization of horses and chariots would have been quite practical, and even necessary to their survival. But, the army of Israel was one of a kind. It was in a category or classification all to itself. It was God’s army! It was a spiritual army in that the people were in covenant relationship with the God of heaven. The army was different; the motive of war was different; the strategy was different; and the ultimate outcome would be different. It would have been an act of rebellion with self-destructive consequences had Israel’s fighting men decided to take up the weapons of the enemy in her pursuit of victory in the land. She was absolutely disallowed the prerogative of relying upon the methods of the enemy for the victory which God wanted her to have. Brethren, why can’t we learn that lesson? Why is it that we have people among us, some of whom are prominent in the church, who are greatly impressed with the ungodly idea that the church of our Lord, to be | |
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