WARFARE: AN ONGOING BIBLICAL THEME
The concept of spiritual warfare is found throughout the Bible. It is introduced in Genesis where we find the cherubim guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden with flaming swords. And it is found in the book of Revelation where war is a constant theme. In total, war or warfare is mentioned three hundred sixty-four times in the NASB. That compares with two hundred thirty-one times for peace. The lesson here is that there is no peace unless there has also been a war that secures peace.
War is major Biblical topic that must be understood symbolically — not in terms of the historical wars in which people used physical weapons to take physical life. A wrong concept of Biblical warfare might have been avoided if Genesis 1:28 had been accurately interpreted by Bible scribes:
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
This short statement is full of symbolism that prophetically anticipates enemies and warfare in the rest of the Bible. To understand it, we must first look at the Hebrew words (click on English words below) from which the English words are translated. But the Hebrew words themselves do not provide all that we need to understand the meaning. We must also understand the symbolism of each word:
| English Word | Symbolic Meaning | ||||||||||
| blessed | In Biblical language, people are either blessed or they are cursed. Old/First Covenant religionists are cursed, and New Covenant disciples are blessed. In God’s eyes, there is no in-between status.
The words bless, blessed and blessing are all code words for the New Covenant which is all about listening to God’s spoken voice. See this link for understanding of blessing. Curse and cursed are code words for Old/First Covenant religion. Thus, people under the curse of practicing Old/First Covenant religion received a blessing when they received God’s spirit that enabled them to walk by faith as New Covenant disciples. In effect, God turns their curses into blessings. But when New Covenant disciples backslide into religious activity, he will also bring curses on them. The interpretation of blessing as an indicator of the presence of the spirit in New Covenant disciples is inferred from several scriptures:
|
||||||||||
| fruitful
|
The kind of fruit to which Genesis 1:28 refers is good spiritual fruit — not fruit of the flesh (i.e. religion). It is the same kind of fruit to which Jesus refers when he connects fruitfulness with obedience.
STUDY TIPS: See this link for understanding of good fruit that God wants his people to produce. Also see Fruit of the Tree of Life. Since Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant, only New Covenant disciples are able to produce good fruit. Good fruit comes, therefore, only after repenting for practicing Old/First Covenant religion and obeying God’s laws written on the heart — not on paper. With the above understanding of fruitfulness, it becomes very clear that God is not talking about natural children as is taught by many religions. Almost anyone is able to produce a natural child, but only New Covenant disciples can parent a spiritual child. |
||||||||||
| multiply | Just like the word “fruitful” does not apply to material fruitfulness, the word “multiply” does not apply to material (e.g. money, children, property, etc.) multiplication. Therefore, God is not commanding Abram, nor anyone else, to have as many natural children as possible. Rather, God is commanding Abram to spread spiritual seed (i.e. God’s spoken word).
Abram had several children, but only Isaac, the son born to Sarah, a free woman, was a spiritual child who was born according to God’s promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations (i.e. New Covenant disciples.) All other offspring, including Ishmael were slave children born of the flesh, but they also fulfilled God’s promise that Abraham would be the father of many religions. These nations were different, however, in that being offspring of the flesh, they would be in conflict with children of the spirit. Since the flesh counts for nothing, Abraham’s sons and descendants by Hagar and Keturah are not counted in the list of descendants that are relevant to God because they are born to concubines — not to a legitimate (i.e. spiritual) wife. Nevertheless, God’s commands to Adam and Noah to be fruitful and multiply are also fulfilled through these offspring of Abraham. God, of course, allowed these non-spiritual offspring to flourish, but to what purpose if they only caused trouble for his chosen people? The reason for the presence of these religious nations was, and is, to teach Israel (i.e. Jews and Christians) about warfare and test them to see if they would obey God’s commandments. King David was the ultimate example of a Biblical warrior. A good share of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel are devoted to his successes and failures as a warrior king. Many nations of both slave (Old/First Covenant) and free (New Covenant) descendants multiplied and lived side-by-side but never peacefully. Israel was always at war with one religious nation/kingdom or the other. One good example is Keturah’s son Midian, from whom the Midianite nation evolved and proved to be a constant source of trouble for Israel. Another good example is Amalek, grandson of Esau, who also caused constant trouble for Israel. These two nations had multiplied according to God’s promises to Abraham, but were not spiritual children like Isaac, Jacob and Israel. Instead of being free children born of the spirit, they were slaves born of the flesh, and they were a constant source of irritation for Abraham’s spiritual children. In other words, God allowed Old/First Covenant religions multiply right along with New Covenant disciples, thus creating a ripe environment for conflict between the flesh and the spirit. The conflict between Shem and Canaan, Isaac and Ishmael, Isaac and half-brothers born to Keturah, and Jacob and Esau represents the same conflict that existed between Cain and Abel: Old/First Covenant against New Covenant. This conflict between Old/First Covenant religion and New Covenant disciples is the basis of the warfare theme we find throughout the Bible. This conflict is discussed in more detail in Sibling Conflict and in Egypt, Babylon and Canaan. |
||||||||||
| fill | In addition to the common meaning of “fill,” the Hebrew word also has the following interpretations: complete, completed, consecrate, endow, fulfill, gratify, ordain, refresh and satisfy.
These convey a much more spiritual meaning. |
||||||||||
| earth | See Land and Earth for a discussion of the meaning of earth.
Since the Hebrew word “erets” can be translated as either land or earth, and since land is appropriately interpreted to symbolically refer to people, God’s command to “fill the earth” should be interpreted as “fill the people” with God’s spirit (i.e. something that refreshes, satisfies and completes) people. This of course anticipates God’s spirit being poured out on Old/First Covenant religionists to transform them into New Covenant disciples. In this transformation, natural (i.e. fleshly, religious) earthy, people are born again as spiritual people who worship in spirit and truth — not according to human rules that define worship. We see this change represented in scriptures about a new earth and new heaven. As this transformation occurs in many people over time, people who are temples of the living God where God has his throne are individually filled with God’s glory. |
||||||||||
| subdue | The English word subdue is a light translation of the tone of the Hebrew word kabash which has a much stronger association with force, violence and bondage. These strong, words agree with many other scriptures that speak of taking possession of the land in terms of promises, commandments and assurances that God gave to Abraham and his descendants (i.e. spiritual Israel) before they actually entered the promised land.
After Israel entered the promised land under the leadership of Joshua and Judges, Israel had many successes, and some failures in their attempts to be faithful to God’s commands to possess the land (i.e. people). God’s command to “subdue” with force at the beginning of the Bible anticipates all the violent warfare that is found in the rest of the Bible. |
||||||||||
| rule | The Hebrew word from which “rule” is translated conveys the idea of dominion and subjugation of one entity over another. A literal interpretation of the scripture says that man has dominion over every living thing that moves over the earth. This is one of those ludicrous literal interpretations that is totally illogical.
The concept of dominion and subjugation found in the Bible always refers to one nation or person ruled by another nation or person. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that the concept of ruling/dominion in Genesis 1:28 also refers to one entity ruling over another. This theme is introduced in the sibling rivalry between Cain and Abel and further developed in conflict between Abraham’s sons and Jacob’s sons. In all examples, one son was favored by God at the expense of the other. These stories anticipate all subsequent stories of warfare in the Bible. The basic issues are the depth of God’s affections for New Covenant disciples compared to Old/First Covenant religionists, and authority of one brother to rule over the other. This authority to rule changes from one brother (i.e. covenant) to rule over the other is found throughout the Bible. The loved brother (i.e. New Covenant disciple) rules over the unloved brother (i.e. Old/First Covenant religionist) as long as the loved brother obeys God’s commands and listens to his voice. When he does not obey, the unloved brother (i.e. the religious brother) is given authority to rule over him until he repents of the sin of practicing religion. This back and forth pattern is repeated often in the Bible but ends with the loved brother overcoming and ruling in the book of Revelation. God uses the symbolism of one brother ruling over another to represent the conflict (i.e. warfare) between the spirit and the flesh. That the loved brother that rules is guided by the spirit of God and the unloved brother is guided by his flesh testifies to the superior value of the spirit. |
||||||||||
| Every living thing that moves (i.e. fish, beasts, birds and insects) | The nature of God is spirit that cannot be seen. It should be no surprise, therefore, that he desires worship in spirit and truth — not worship in the flesh. These facts strongly imply that anyone who worships in spirit cannot be seen while they worship. This is true because they are worshiping in their hearts — not with their natural bodies. This is a stark contrast to natural men who can be seen moving on the earth, in water or in the air while practicing their religions.
Understanding these clear differences between spirit and flesh, it is then possible to understand why God employs the following symbolism to represent people who do not worship in spirit and truth:
Fleshy creatures can be seen moving while performing religious worship in seas, on the earth and in the air (i.e. heavens) for anyone to see. But spiritual creatures cannot be seen worshiping because they worship and pray in secret, out of sight. Thus, references to fish, beasts, birds and insects are symbolic references to people who move about in one way or another to practice religion. STUDY TIP: See this link for scriptures that explain that beasts are men. These are the living things over which God’s people will eventually rule in the sense that Old/First Covenant religionists are converted to New Covenant disciples as they fulfill their function as warriors and prophets. This is what Jesus did. Convert Old/First Covenant Jews to New Covenant disciples. And that is what Jesus’ followers do also as they fulfill Jesus’ ministry functions. God uses Biblical references to clean and unclean animals, birds and insects to train us to discern between the two kinds of worship (i.e. flesh and spirit). Creatures that are declared unclean represent religious people who worship in the flesh. Creatures that are clean represent people who worship in the spirit. This is a warning to avoid participation in fleshly, religious worship. That the distinctions between clean and unclean creatures are very subtle and cannot be recognized without careful study is God’s way of saying that his people must be careful to study and learn the differences between spiritual worship and religion. There is nothing intrinsically clean or unclean about the creatures. It is all about training to know the differences between spirit and flesh. Everyone begins as flesh. We are first raised in the religion of our parents or someone who teaches us to be religious. That is how we develop the fleshly nature to sin through religion. Everyone spends a period of time (symbolically represented as 40 years) in religion before being born again in the spirit (i.e. crossing into the promised land) as a New Covenant disciple because God uses the laws of religion to lead people to faith (i.e. New Covenant). Then, after God opens their eyes, they learn that their fleshly religious activity counts for nothing in God’s eyes. They understand that religion only counts for religious people who do religion in public so that others will see them doing it and praise them for their religious behaviors. In this new, spiritual condition, people embody Godly qualities that that only God sees because he looks at the heart — not at the external appearances or religious activity. Once reborn, they no longer live for themselves with their eyes focused on things that can be seen (i.e. religious activities based on religious laws created by men), but on heavenly, spiritual things that only God can see because their spiritual life is hidden — not public like religion. Then the only praise they receive is from God. Being spirit, the invisible spiritual qualities of God that reside in the hearts of New Covenant disciples cannot be observed like the religious activities of Old/First Covenant religionists are observed. New Covenant disciples live by faith that the unseen spirit of God is at work in them according to God’s will — which is just what we would expect for people who have God’s laws written on their hearts. As spiritual people, they are a sweet aroma to people who are attracted to God through them. This contrasts with their religious life which is the smell of death. These sweet, hidden spiritual qualities are the total opposite of public religion. The spirit moves over the earth like the wind that cannot be seen. Religion, on the other hand is always visible like the movements of fleshly things of all kinds (i.e. animals, birds, fish) may be seen with the natural eye. These fleshly activities are the substance of religion when people assign religious value to them and do them ritualistically according to religious traditions. Such earthly/worldly activities are the opposite of faith which is eternal and cannot be seen. God often makes the point about flesh that moves when he refers to fish, animals and birds. Thus we see many verses that show beasts, fish and birds engaged in activities that cause trouble for God’s people. These unclean creatures are all symbolic references to false prophets, priests and shepherds who deceive, enslave and oppress God’s people with religion, and by convincing them that engaging in commercial religion is what God wants. |
||||||||||
| sea | Sea and large bodies of water, but not springs of living water, are common Biblical symbols for Old/First Covenant religion. We see this symbolism in the great flood, Israel passing through the sea, and Jesus walking on water. In all cases these stories symbolize the power of the New Covenant to subdue and replace Old/First Covenant religion. | ||||||||||
| sky (heaven) | We know that the conventional understanding of heaven is not what God means by heaven. And we know that heaven is not where the souls or spirits go after death. We know these truths because the Kingdom of God, also known as the Kingdom of Heaven is within people — not in a physical place out in space somewhere.
Heaven and earth will be shaken prior to God revealing himself. This contrasts with New Covenant disciples who cannot be shaken. |
||||||||||
| fish, birds, living things | The fish of the sea and bird of the air commonly symbolize religious people who are busy moving about doing their religious activities. They all represent Old/First Covenant religion which will be subdued by New Covenant disciples.
Living, religious things (i.e. people) are contrasted with spiritual, New Covenant disciples who are still and at rest because they observe the Sabbath. |
Interpreting Genesis 1:28 in these ways we see that it tells us much more than the conventional, simplified, literal, and wrong interpretation tells us. When we come to understand the issue of warfare in its fullness, we see that this one, short verse prepares us for the conflict we find throughout the Bible.