AM Bible Study Group; September 14, 2011
Deuteronomy 20:1-20
Theme: In this chapter, Moses gives the people instructions on how to enter into times of warfare when the battle belongs to the Lord.
This passage contains the instructions God gave the people of Israel, through Moses, just before they were to enter the Promised Land. They had wandered in the desert for forty years, because the previous generation had refused to go at the command of God and take the land that He was giving them. That first generation had died off, and a new generation was about to claim the land that their fathers had refused to take. And so, this twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy contains God’s instructions to the Israelites on warfare. In it, He tells them how to fight and win the land God—with His unfailing help—was about to give them. It has much to teach us about our own engagement in the spiritual warfare that rages around us.
When it comes to the spiritual warfare that we’re engaged in, this passage teaches us . . .
I. DON’T BE AFRAID (v. 1).
A. Those who were originally sent by Moses to spy out the land saw, at that time, that the land “truly flows with milk and honey” (Num. 13:27) but they discouraged the people at that time (vv. 28-29). The conclusion that they presented to their fellow Israelites, therefore, was this: “‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.’ And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, ‘The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight’” (vv. 31-33).
B. It’s interesting that the spies said, “We were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight”. Fear is a thing that has a life of its own; and causes us to transfer our own sense of inadequacy onto perceptions of those we fear. In facing an intimidating enemy, God tells this new generation, “Do not be afraid of them.” And why are they not to be afraid? “… For the LORD your God is with you.” God even specifies which “LORD your God” is meant: the one “who brought you up from the land of Egypt”. The same God that fought for them before, to deliver them from their terrible, seemingly inescapable bondage from the most powerful nation in the world at that time, is the same God who fights for them now.
II. TAKE TIME TO GAIN PERSPECTIVE (vv. 2-4).
A. These words were spoken “on the verge of battle”—just before the troops went in. It may have been tempting, after hearing the words “Do not be afraid”, to dash boldly into the fray. But here, they’re told to stop “on the verge of battle”, and listen to a word of exhortation from the priest.
B. What’s instructive about this is that the priest gets specific. One by one, he identifies the very things that may have been troubling the soldiers about to go into battle. And he helps the soldiers gain perspective in these specific reactions to the enemy by holding those things up to relevant truths about God. He tells them that God Himself goes with them, fights for them, and will save them. It was God Himself who commanded the spiritual leaders to tell the soldiers all this, just before they went into battle. When you weave the exhortations together, you see what a powerful word of encouragement it was: “Do not let your hearts faint”— “for the LORD your God is He who goes with you”. “Do not be afraid”— “for the LORD your God is He who goes . . . to fight for you”. “Do not tremble”— “for the LORD your God is He who goes … to save you”. “Do not be terrified.
C. When we’re engaged in spiritual battle—particularly when the odds seem particularly overwhelming—we’ll do a lot to dispel the paralyzing fear in our hearts, and to motivate ourselves to courageous faith, if we take time out first to gain perspective. We need to follow the pattern shown to us here: first, identify the things that we’re afraid of—calling them out by name; and then, one by one, hold them up to the things that are true about God in our situation.
III. STAND AMONG THE COMMITTED (vv. 5-9).
A. Now that the priest has finished, the people may have been ready to run courageously into the battle. But it still wasn’t time to do so. The officers now step forward—just, once again, on the verge of battle—to send some people home. The officers were to release those for whom the matters of daily life might prove to be a distraction: those who might have built a house, but had not yet had a chance to dedicate it; or those who had planted a vineyard, but had not yet had a chance to eat from it; or those who had just become betrothed to a wife, but had not yet married her.
B. But also notice that the officers were to also release those who might still be fearful— even after all that had been said about how God fought for them. A man who was still fearful after all that was sent home, “lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart” (v. 8). It wasn’t that there was anything to genuinely fear; it was all a matter of perception. But this too could be a detraction to the whole-hearted devotion of the armies of Israel, and could cause others to fall into the faith-strangling grip of fear. Only after all these distraction were removed did the officers begin to appoint leaders over the people.
C. This reminds us to, like them, discipline ourselves to stand with the committed in a time of spiritual battle. It’s crucial that we align ourselves with those who have a confident, stable faith in God, and who are committed uncompromisingly to His cause. It’s important that we choose our fellow-soldiers carefully, and not allow ourselves to be brought down by the doubts, fears, excuses and distractions of the uncommitted. It’s important, in times of spiritual warfare, that we lock arms together with the faithful, and encourage one another’s confidence in God. It’s vital at such times that we stand with the genuinely committed!
IV. SEEK PEACE WITHOUT COMPROMISE (vv. 10-11).
A. After all these other preparations had been completed, it was now—at last—time to enter the battlefield. But even then, the people were not to go marching in mercilessly to conquer and destroy any city they wished. Sometimes in their journeys, the people of Israel would pass by cities—or even through them—that expressed no hostility whatsoever. These were to be left alone. But at other times, they faced hostile cities and nations that took the initiative against them. This passage is speaking of hostile cities that were not a part of the land that God was giving to Israel. In such cases, God commanded that the Israelites were to approach such hostile, aggressive cities with an offer of peace. (Again, what kind of an army would do that—except, of course, one for whom the Lord fought!)
B. In the case of such hostile cities, the Israelites were to seek peace with their enemies. But notice that it was not a ‘peace at any cost’. They were, in no way, to accept any compromise to God’s goal for them: that of taking full possession of the land He was giving them, nor to be the servants of any other nation. The peaceful offer was this: if you open to us, we will allow you to be placed under us and serve us.
C. As believers, our battle is not ultimately against people; but rather, against spiritual forces (See Ephesians 6:12). We should never go running around starting fights. But neither should we run from a fight when a fight is unavoidable. We should pursue peace, as much as it is within our power to do so; but we should do so only in as much as we can still be true to God’s calling, and faithfully fulfill our God-given commission.
V. ACT DECISIVELY (vv. 12-18).
A. These words of instruction are concerned with two different kinds of battle against two different classes of enemy. In the case of a city that had shown itself to be a hostile enemy, and yet remained outside the boundaries of the land God was giving them, they were permitted to take the spoils of the city to themselves, and assimilate the women and children into the community of Israel. But when it came to the cities in the nations of the land that God was giving them, there wasn’t even to be an offer of peace. The people groups that then occupied the land God was giving Israel—the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites— were to be completely and utterly destroyed. Totally wiped out! Nothing that breaths was to be left alive!
B. This may seem brutal to us today. But our omniscient God—who is all-wise, and who knows the end from the beginning—was simply taking serious things as seriously as they should be taken. He warned the Israelites of the danger that lay before them if it didn’t do what He said. He warned that they were to do to these people groups “just as the LORD your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.” When He gave this seemingly harsh command, He did so for the protection and preservation of the future generations of His own precious people (see Leviticus 18:24-27; Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Exodus. 34:12-13).
VI. PLAN FOR VICTORY (vv. 19-20).
A. It’s interesting that nowhere in God’s instructions for battle do we find a single word about defeat. Final victory is assumed in all these instructions from God. The battle is His to wage; His to war; and His to win. Failure is not even considered as an option; because the battle belongs to the Lord! And so, if the work of defeating an enemy city took a long time, and they needed to build siege-works, they were only to cut down trees to build with that were not fruit-producing trees. There is a little bit of variation in the way this passage is translated. Some versions translate the line in verse 19 as an assertion that the fruit trees are good for food; literally “. . . for the tree of the field is man’s . . .”, meaning that the fruit tree is given by God to be a source of food to man—not a source of building materials for desperate soldiers. Other versions translate it as if it were a rhetorical question; as it’s rendered in an almost humorous way in the New International Version: “Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?”
B. The lesson we’re to learn from this is that we should enter into times of spiritual battle with an eye to the long-term outcome. We should enter the spiritual conflict with the full expectation that our God will win. We should not become frantic and exasperated; giving ourselves over to wasteful expedients in our attempt to gain the upper-hand in our own power. We should not commit sins in fighting the battle against sin. The battle belongs to the Lord; and, so long as we trust in Him, He will certainly give us the victory. We have no reason to ever become desperate. We should treat each human adversary as if, by God’s grace and mercy, they will one day be our friend. We should choose our words in battle carefully, so that our words wont be a cause of embarrassment to us when the battle is over. We should wage war on each spiritual battlefield as if that battlefield will one day be our own homeland. We mustn’t sacrifice the future on the altar of the present; nor cut down our fruit trees to build siege works!