Yesterday I made it clear that a true Holy War is a battle that the Lord Himself starts and finishes according to His Will.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is not about spreading religion.
Although proselytizing is so central Christianity, it was not practiced by Israel.
In fact, to this day Judaism doesn’t actively seek converts, quite the opposite actually.
So, historically speaking, what are some examples of events that people mistakenly assume were Holy Wars?
Well for starters, every one of the following wars were NOT Holy Wars:
-World War II (The Germans and the Japanese started this war and then the other nations jumped in and finished it, especially the USA.)
-The Crusades (Even though the Crusades are labelled “holy wars” in our history textbooks, they were NOT. They were a series of wars initiated by some Catholic Popes and European noblemen who attached God’s name to their battles. However, these wars were most definitely about religion.)
-Islamic Jihad (This type of war being waged by extreme adherents of the Muslim religion is all about forced conversion of the whole world to Islam. Again, this is NOT what a true Biblical Holy War is all about.)
So here’s what you’ve got to understand.
According to Holy Scripture, albeit the Jewish Bible, there are only TWO true Holy Wars and there will only ever be two true holy wars in all of history.
The first one is the Holy War to take the land of Canaan.
The second one is the Holy War to take over the whole planet normally called the Battle of Armageddon.
And that’s it.
Here’s another important point you should know.
Israel never had any beef with the Canaanites.
Up to this point in time, these nations were not historical antagonists.
The people of Israel never declared war on the indigenous inhabitants of Canaan.
It was God who did.
This is an important distinction to make.
This whole thing was on God…
…from the beginning to the very bloody end.
It was the God of Israel who declared that the residents of Canaan were His enemies.
It was the God of Israel who declared that the land the native Canaanites were currently inhabiting was to be turned over to His Chosen People Israel.
And it was God who declared that He would achieve His intentions via merciless warfare down to the very last man, woman and child if necessary.
In fact, it so turned out that merciless warfare was a necessity to achieve the Lord’s Will.
The army of Israel was nothing but God’s earthly instrument of wrath and destruction upon a people the Lord had concluded was wicked and deserving of being driven out of the land where He decided to place His Name.
Is this point clear?
The people of Israel did NOT possess any inherent hatred or rage towards the indigenous people groups of Canaan.
And the opposite is also true.
The Canaanites weren’t harboring any pent-up resentment or hatred towards the people of Israel.
Up until now, neither group had done anything to harm nor threaten each other.
This understanding goes a long way towards explaining why Israel was hesitant to wage war with the Canaanites in the first place and instead sought the more “peaceful” solution of making treaties with the many diverse city-states of Canaan rather than driving them out or killing them if they refused to accept Israel’s rule over them.
Again, this war was all on God.
This realization kind of gives new meaning to the saying “The Battle Belongs To The Lord”, doesn’t it?
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