“When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?”-Deuteronomy 20:19
We are currently discussing the seven nations the Lord earmarked for destruction due to their wickedness.
There were some special rules that needed to be obeyed when Israel waged its war of total destruction upon the inhabitants of these nations.
In the Biblical era, siege warfare was the typical method used to attack and defeat those cities that were protected by huge towering walls.
The three basic steps of siege warfare in those days were as follows:
STEP ONE
The invading army surrounded the city it intended to take over.
STEP TWO
All of the cities’ food supplies and water sources were cut off.
STEP THREE
The invading army camped outside of the city and patiently waited until starvation and dehydration did its job upon the inhabitants.
However, there was one problem with this methodology.
It could take the attacking army a friggin’ loooooooooooooooong time to defeat the city or town they wanted to conquer.
Since siege warfare was so common in those days, a lot of cities prepared for such an attack by building up storehouses for food and even erected walls to protect their water supply.
A well-fortified city could keep an attacking army at bay for months on end.
So what could the invading soldiers do to speed up the siege?
Simple.
They developed various methods to breech the stone walls.
Now usually when we think of siege warfare, we have this image of the Romans charging towards a city’s walls riding tall chariots and using catapults, battering rams and other somewhat sophisticated weapons to launch their offensive.
However, the truth is all of these things were much later developments.
During Bible times, siege warfare was a much simpler process.
I’m talking about soldiers just using ladders to scale over the tops of walls OR…
…lighting up a fire at the base of a wall.
A blazing fire was especially effective if the wall was constructed out of limestone blocks.
What would happen is that as the limestone blocks gradually heated up, the moisture inside them would turn into steam and then KABOOM!
The bricks of the wall would literally explode creating a big enough opening for the invading soldiers to enter through and make their way into the city.
Now what did building ladders and stoking fires both have in common?
The answer is easy.
They both required the use of wood…
…which is why we are given the following instructions.
“When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them? However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.”
Did you notice something quite fascinating about the above instructions?
The Lord is making it clear that Israel is NOT to turn fruit trees into siege weapons.
Why?
Because those fruit trees provide food which will very soon become very valuable to the Israelite army once the enemy is dispatched.
Therefore, Israel is to only use non-fruit bearing trees as implements of siege warfare.
Now I don’t know about you, but aren’t you like thinking duh?
Think about it for a second.
Israel wasn’t stupid.
They knew darn well the value of trees that bore delicious and nutritious fruit, especially during a time of war.
I’m going to close here but before I do, I want to leave you with this question.
Why in the world do you think God had to go out of His way to instruct Israel to…
…NOT wipe out their own food resources by destroying the fruit trees?
Think hard on this.
Because if you know the answer to this question, your Bible knowledge already surpasses practically 99% of all Bible teachers, pastors, and preachers out there and yes that includes all those professors with PHDs too…PRACTICALLY GUARANTEED!
See you next time.
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