UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Before coming to understanding of warfare with an enemy, it is critical to establish that all scripture is useful for training in righteousness. We either believe this is true or we don’t. Those who do not believe this statement will never understand scriptures about warfare with enemies. And if they don’t understand warfare and enemies, they will not understand God, their relationship with him, or their relationship with other religious people. Those who do accept that all scripture is useful for training in righteousness have the potential to understand, but they must first accept that Biblical warfare symbolizes the eternal contest between flesh and spirit and — not about war as it has existed historically or represented in the literal words of the Bible.
People who do believe that every part of the Bible has something to teach must also understand that the nations with which Israel fought symbolize religious peoples — not geopolitical entities engaged in international relations through diplomacy, trade and war. In short, nations represent religious kingdoms that are opposed to God’s kingdom. There is no other logical explanation for the ongoing cycles of killing, and being killed, by the sword that Israel experienced. This interpretation may not be immediately self-evident to most readers, but those who are curious enough to read on will not be disappointed.
Without understanding of the symbolism of soldiers, armies, war, bloodshed and dying/killing by the sword, it is impossible to understand warfare scriptures. It is hard enough to accept that foreign nations would engage in such merciless killing, but it is harder yet to accept that God actually instructs Israel to do the same to its enemies. Considering the numbers killed on both sides, the conflict has all the appearances of obsessive, mutual destruction aimed at full extinction of neighboring kingdoms in ongoing conflict. In fact, extinction is exactly what each religion seeks because the long-term survival of one kingdom depends on the destruction of other kingdoms. While mutual destruction is the ultimate end for worldly kingdoms, God’s kingdom overcomes them all and absorbs all nations into one spiritual kingdom — a kingdom of priests.
Some Christians like to say that they have read the end of the book (i.e. Bible) and that they win. This is a cute religious saying that reinforces their confidence in their religion, but they are wrong in thinking that their religion wins. What they fail to recognize is that if they are religious, they are God’s enemy and they lose when God overcomes their Old/First Covenant religion with New Covenant truth. In other words, God triumphs over religion.
Neither Christians nor Jews understand who wins and who loses because they apply a literal interpretation of Old Testament stories about warfare. Jews are still looking for the Messiah to come and deliver them while Christians think that because they have Jesus they have won their personal victory over sin. And both religions wait expectantly for their version of the final days when the Messiah comes for the first time (in the case of the Jews) or returns (in the case of the Christians) to fight their battles for them. This is a major disconnect between two Abrahamic religions that claim to believe in the same God.
The reason for the disconnect between Judaism and Christianity is faulty interpretation of the Old Testament. They both read it literally and do not understand the symbolism of enemies, warfare and salvation. Failing to understand, they effectively ignore stories about warfare because they cannot reconcile how God can say that they should not commit murder and also command his people to utterly destroy entire nations by killing men, women and children. Some may know, or at least suspect, that God uses such hyperbolic language to make a point, but they still do not understanding the spiritual meaning of these commands and err by failing to obey either command.
Lacking the correct interpretation of scriptures about enemies and warfare, Bible readers are quick to dismiss them as irrelevant to modern times. This is a major disconnect for Christians’ claims about believing that all scripture is God breathed and profitable for training in righteousness. It is also a disconnect for Jews who claim to have a very high regard for books of the law and prophets that talk about endless warfare and killing. In their hypocritical double-mindedness, both religions are challenged to understand the symbolism of those references to war, bloodshed and enemies in ways that can be applied to their own spiritual lives in real time.
Lacking the correct interpretation, there is a tendency to interpret Biblical references to warfare and killing as mere history. Given the gaps in time and space between us and ancient Israel, it is hard to make any sense out of it. Historical information is useful, but teaching about history is not God’s purpose, and we underestimate him if we think that he cannot teach us from such stories. We must always remember that he gave us the whole Bible to train us in righteousness. But if our interpretation of the Bible does not instruct us in ways that can be applied to our personal lives, we have interpreted it wrongly. And if we interpret scripture wrongly, we miss opportunities to mature.