Israel: Sometimes God’s “Executioner of the State”
Next Part Message About Government
Back to By David C. Pack
God did not want Israel to be led by a physical king (Saul and David were the first two). He permitted it because Israel made this choice. Samuel warned them in great detail not to do this and why, but they rejected his advice and did it anyway. Israel rejected virtually everything God told them to do, in order to follow their own ideas and customs. Since Israel was determined to have their own king, God gave them instructions for how to do it.
The same thing happened regarding war. God instructed Israel that He would protect them—that they did not need to fight and protect themselves. However, they rejected this instruction—and protection—so that they could participate in the adventures and conquests of war waged by the nations around them. Again, God allowed them to do this, but gave them instructions—rules of war—that they were to follow if they did. These rules are found in Deuteronomy 20:1-20.
Notice, none of them involved the actual teaching of war skills, strategies and tactics—the art of war—to Israel. They also allowed for certain ones to receive military exemptions (Deut 20:5-9). Study the chapter. God said (twice) that He would now fight “with” them (Deut 20:1, 4) at the same time they actually went to war. He would no longer exclusively defeat Israel’s enemies.
But this did allow Israel to be able to drive out certain degenerate, idolatrous peoples from the Promised Land. Yet, Acts 7:45 reveals who was really responsible for their success. Stephen, before he was stoned, referred to “the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers.”
God created life. He has the right to take it. He can use any tool to do this if that is what He wishes. It was not Israel that defeated, and sometimes annihilated, the peoples that God wished them to dispossess. It was God who did this through them.
Capital punishment was practiced in the Old Testament for certain offenses. Israel did not do this of her own choice—God’s Word instructed, indeed commanded, them to do this under certain circumstances. God holds the prerogative, as the Giver of life, to decide that certain utterly degenerate, rotten nations should be put to death, wholesale.
We must ask: Did Israel execute capital offenders when they were following God’s direct instructions, or did God execute them through Israel? Similarly, did Israel go to war against and execute specific nations that God instructed them to remove, or did God execute them? You see the point.
Only God has the right to give or take away life. He relinquishes this authority to no one, and anyone—any leader or nation—who presumptuously takes this prerogative is in direct rebellion against God.
What About David?
God called the great King David “a man after My own heart, which shall fulfil all My will” (Acts 13:22). Yet, David was a warrior of great renown. How is this explained?
Here is what David said to his son Solomon near the end of his life. He was speaking of his desire to build God a “house”—a temple: “My son, as for me, it was in my mind TO BUILD AN HOUSE unto the name of the LORD my God: But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, You have shed blood abundantly, and have made great wars: you shall not build an house unto My Name, because you have shed much blood upon the earth in My sight. Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest [peace]; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build an house for My Name; and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever” (I Chron. 22:7-10).
God made it very clear to David that He was displeased with David’s constant war-making. The Bible shows David eventually repented of this. Though he often “sinned big,” he also “repented big.” Psalm 51:1-19, among others, describes the depth of David’s repentance and sorrow for some of his greatest sins. Though God loved this quality, and praised the purity of David’s heart, his tendency and practice of going to war prohibited God from allowing him to build the temple.
David repented of war! Nations can also repent of war!
Going to war, fighting and killing are choices that nations make. Whole countries, like people, possess free moral agency. All people and nations do everything that they do because they made the choice to do it! They can either choose to trust God or to “perish with their sword.”
Ancient Israel chose war and never repented. They were eventually taken into captivity (721-718 B.C. by Assyria), and the result was that ten of the twelve tribes have lost their identity to this day. David chose to go to war, but repented—and, as a result, numerous prophecies show he will one day rule over all the tribes of Israel at the Return of Christ.
Some Cases in Point
The history of ancient Israel contains several dramatic examples of how God delivered them from powerful aggressors who otherwise could have easily defeated them.
First, in Exodus 14:1-31, God miraculously delivered Israel from certain destruction at the hand of the Egyptian army by parting the Red Sea. Israel quickly forgot this, just three chapters later, when they were ready to fight the Amalekites.
The second example has to do with King Asa of Judah when he faced an enormous army of one million Ethiopian soldiers, with 300 chariots! II Chronicles 14:11-12 relates this account. Take time to read it and see how “The LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.” This is an astonishing statement about the power of God. How many nations TODAY have armies of such tremendous size? Yet, for God, it was no problem.
Sadly, not long after this account, Asa neglected to rely on God. Instead, he sought out and hired an ally (II Chron. 16:1-3) when he felt threatened by the nation of Israel (the other ten tribes that had split away from Judah during the reign of Solomon’s son). Because of Asa’s faithlessness, God said, “Therefore from henceforth you shall have wars.” God told him that he had done foolishly and that his “heart [was no longer] perfect toward [God]” (II Chron 7-9). In other words, because Asa sought war, God sentenced Him and Judah to non-stop war.
The third account involves Asa’s son Jehoshaphat, also the king of Judah. This entire account is found in II Chronicles 20:1-3. It is a fascinating story and worth careful study. Jehoshaphat and Judah faced three huge armies that had formed an alliance and come against them. II Chron 20:12 describes Jehoshaphat saying to God, “our eyes are on You.” II Chron 20:15-17 show how God told them, “You shall not need to fight in this battle…for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”
Jehoshaphat instructed all of Judah to sing to and praise God. And as “they began to sing and praise,” God intervened and utterly destroyed the army. The account records that “none escaped” (II Chron 20:24).
Can you imagine a modern-day general or national leader demonstrating this kind of faith in God? Yet, if one did, and truly repented of all that he was doing to displease God, it would yield the same result. God says to all nations today, “I am the LORD, I change not” (Mal. 3:6).
Nations may not choose to repent and change, but individuals can. Jehoshaphat’s faith, mixed with courage, allowed him to break away from his father’s pattern.
The fourth example is found in II Chronicles 32:1-33. Once again, it involves a king of Judah, Hezekiah. A huge and historically fierce Assyrian army came against Judah and Jerusalem and besieged them. Hezekiah told his subjects that God will “fight our battles” (II Chron 32:8). The people believed him, and God utterly destroyed this army. II Chron 32:21 says, “the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men…and the leaders and captains in the camp…of Assyria.” The king, with a few other survivors, slipped home in defeat.
The account goes on to add that, during Hezekiah’s reign, Israel was given peace for a number of years. Like the Ninevites, who repented due to Jonah’s warning, nations today are free to seek, yield to and obey God. But prophecy shows that this will not happen until Christ’s Return and the abolition of war.
Paul said that the events in the Old Testament stand for us “for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:6, 11).
Will you be part of copying ancient Israel’s mistakes, or will you learn from David and copy his righteousness?