Today we begin Deuteronomy Chapter 19.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James version, click here.
“When Adonai your God cuts off the nations whose land Adonai your God is giving you, and you take their place and settle in their cities and houses, you are to set aside three cities for yourselves in your land that Adonai your God is giving you to possess.”-Deuteronomy 19:1-3
The opening verse of Deuteronomy 19 which states “When Adonai your God cuts off the nations whose land Adonai your God is giving you” reminds us of a very important point critical to our understanding of Deuteronomy.
What am I talking about?
The point is this.
Even though it is a 600,000-man physical army that is going to enter the Promised Land to do battle with the Canaanites, this war actually belongs to God.
In other words, the real General in this war is HASHEM Himself.
Literally.
When we think of warfare, we typically think of a human general leading his army into battle and seeing to it that the enemy is defeated.
Not so in this case.
It is NOT the people of Israel who are making war on the Canaanites.
It is God Himself.
The people are just instruments of His warfare.
The true definition of a Holy War is a war led by God Himself.
This is different than a war led in the Name of God.
In addition, the rules governing holy warfare are quite different than secular or typical human warfare.
Most likely our understanding of war comes from what we’ve learned in school about World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam war, and now the struggle we are facing in Iraq.
But again this is far different than true Biblical Holy War.
When you think of a “holy war”, what usually comes to mind?
Do you think it’s something that occurred way in the past like the Crusades which took place about 900 years ago?
Or do you assume it’s something like the Islamic Holy War (known as Jihad) currently being waged against Jews and Christians all over the world?
Let me assure you with absolute confidence that neither the Crusades nor Islamic Jihad even comes close to representing a true Biblical Holy War.
A real Holy War is based on the instructions written in this very Torah we are studying and is what Israel is about to wage on the Lord’s behalf as they prepare to enter the land of Canaan led by Moses and then later by his successor Joshua.
We’ll continue this discussion the next time we meet.
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