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Is God anti-war?
Struggle is a part of maturity, but sometimes there are individuals, groups or nations that don’t want to live at peace with those around them. Other times, toxic influences can destroy without lifting a finger in anger.
Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near; for God said, “The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea; and the sons of Israel went up in martial array from the land of Egypt.
Exodus 13:17–18 NASB
God was not moving them so they would avoid war altogether. After all, the text says they were armed “in martial array.” God only wanted to make sure that the way they would end up facing, was one they had no choice but to actually fight.
Regardless of which route the children of Israel would take out of Egypt, they would face war-like people. The northern way would have them confront the Philistines, which they could simply run back to Egypt to avoid, while on the route God sent them on, they would have to face the people of Amalek, who they could not avoid as running back to Egypt would no longer be an option.
An oath within an oath
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you.”
Exodus 13:19 NASB
Joseph gave his brothers a prophetic word, in faith, that they would leave Egypt one day and when that day comes. Joseph then places an oath on them and asked them to take his bodily remains with them to return to the Promised Land. We see here that Moses made sure this promise was fulfilled.
Salvation is a gift of God
In the Passover, it was an act of God’s salvation, not the people. The children of Israel did absolutely nothing. They did not use their spears or throw rocks at the Egyptian Army. God did all the work. Their salvation was a gift from God to His people.
You can’t lose a gift of God. You can lose an item but you can never lose the heart behind the gift. God doesn’t take it back. We can put it away or throw it in the trash. People change their minds, but God doesn’t change His mind.
When we face with external difficulties, such a threat to our physical life, we are limited in what we can do about that. However, the internal difficulties that we have, we must address those issues.
God didn’t change His mind about giving the land to the descendants of Abraham. God gave them the promised land, the first generation out of Egypt rejected it so it was given to the second generation instead.
The children of Israel had to understand that they would experience many things that were outside their direct control, such as war, thirst, famine, etc. These external struggles are given to us by God to make us better.
Be thankful for the chance to retake the test
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
James 1:2–8 NASB
After the “baptism” in the sea, the newly freed of Israel were ready to go to war and face the external threats. Once we are baptized, we have the weapons and tools we need to fight the battles.
Every believer will have battles and wars, but we battle our Amalek’s the same way as Israel did, though prayer (Eph. 6:10–16). We are not alone in our battles and trials.
Internal vs. external battles
God gives us the tools we need to fight the battle, not to put them on a shelf and dust them once in a while. When God gives you the tools you need to do the job, God expects you to actually do the job He gives you. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail but God expects you do to do the work, not just hide or run away.
1Corinthians 10:1–15 shows us the difference between dealing with internal vs. external struggles. Being chased by an army and walking through the sea were external struggles, while their cravings and lusts were internal struggles.
Rock of Ages, move with me!
Regarding the external struggles, God did the heavy lifting. Regarding the internal struggles, God gave them the tools to handle those. For example, the rock that followed them in the wilderness obviously was moved supernaturally, the people didn’t have the technology or ability to do that themselves.
The rock itself was merely a large mineral deposit, but God uses it to teach the children of Israel and those who came after them a lesson. Yeshua only did what the Father told Him to do.
God was responsible for both the salvation of Israel and the destruction of Egypt. He was also later responsible for the destruction of the first generation who refused to enter the Promised Land, that He had provided as a gift to them.
And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.”
Exodus 15:26 NASB
Did the children of Israel pass this test? We should all ask ourselves this when God gives us a test. If we fail a test, we have to re-take it again and again until we pass it before we can achieve our goal. That is true whether our goal is a college degree or the Kingdom of Heaven.
God knew when He lead them to the bitter stream that they would die if they drank it and that they needed water to live. What was the test in this? This test, which seems strange, was a metaphor of a test, not the test itself. They had to have faith that God knows what they need and that He would do whatever needed to be done to give it to them. In this case, they needed to have faith that God can make bitter water sweet.
This particular test was not pass/fail. They were there because God led them there. They didn’t lead themselves there. However, as time went on, they were tested and the testing revealed a serious character flaw. They were addicted to complaining, and the first generation did not learn the lesson of not complaining until it was too late (Ex. 15:23–16:12; 17:1–7).
It’s hard enough to acknowledge our own character flaws, it’s much harder when we see our character flaws reflected in our children. We have to address our character flaws regardless of how embarassing or humiliating it might be.
God doesn’t have an issue with short-term memory loss. He thinks and acts in the long term. Humans, on the other hand, have very short memories. We only think of the present. We might think of Israel’s primary character flaw as their ingratitude, but their real character flaw was their short term memory. They very quickly forgot the 10 plagues and their miraculous escape from Egypt to complain about their changing living conditions.
If you are not sure if you passed or failed a particular test, keep in mind if an issue repeats in your life, it means you didn’t pass the test the first time.
to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me
2Corinthians 12:7 NASB
God is being kind to you by allowing you to retake it. Rather than being mad at God for a repeat of a test, we should be grateful for another opportunity to improve.
Summary: Tammy