Following on the heels of yesterday’s post dealing with holy war, let me share a comment I received from a reader:
“Your comments may be viewed as harsh. But I view them as correct as “Israel” was to completely destroy its enemies, man woman old, young, even the animals, They did not. Just as Physical Israel has to completely destroy its, enemies, Spiritual Israel must completely destroy and not leave any trace of its enemies “.
That really is the point.
And honestly, I haven’t said anything your pastor or preacher hasn’t already told you.
As followers of the God of Israel, the context of our lives are already being played out in the heavenly realm.
But because that realm is invisible to us, we assume we’re engaged in only a physical earthly struggle.
But that’s not the case.
So let me rephrase it in a way you probably haven’t heard from the pulpit.
Every single person, male or female, Jew or Greek, who is called by Adonai to serve Him and in one form or another will eventually be drafted in His army.
This means YOU who are reading this right now.
You will experience war with the enemy.
You will be expected to draw your sword in the eternal battle against wickedness.
There are no exceptions to this.
The Lord doesn’t have a nice cushy corner office job away from the battlefield where you can sit on your butt and type on your computer all day while chomping on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
There are only those people who accept we are in a war and boldly put on the full armor of God to prepare for battle
And there are those who deny we are in a war and do anything to avoid conflict.
These folks are more controlled by fear and what other people think.
They’re usually really easy to spot because they hold to this idea that the maple syrupy love of Jesus is above all and supersedes everything.
They take the maxim “love your neighbor” to such an extreme that for them doing away with the death penalty (which means allowing a murderer to live) or holding co-worship services with those of other faiths (committing idolatry) are actually acts of love.
Let me make this crystal clear again.
If you’re a believer, you are destined for war just as just as much you are destined for heaven.
You can’t separate one from the other.
The two are like peanut butter and jelly (can you tell I’m hungry?), they go hand in hand.
The only question is are you going to accept your Godly responsibilities or not?
Are you going to follow the Lord’s orders and go to war against the enemy?
Or are you going to try and lead a life that makes every effort to avoid conflict and danger?
Unfortunately, here in the Book of Judges, Israel chose to do the latter.
They preferred political correctness and false “peace” to war.
You know what happens when you try to make peace with God’s enemies against His will?
He will cause your efforts at peace to fail.
We see this happen throughout a good portion of the Scriptures
The Lord had a good supply of Canaanites He could use to harass Israel.
And believe me, He used them.
He still uses them today.
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