Fight We Must
Revelation 12:7-17
Message:
It’s not easy to explain why we have war in our world or to explain what the Bible says about war. In my study of this issue I found this explanation helpful from “gotquestions.org.”
“Many people make the mistake of reading what the Bible says in Exodus 20:13, “You shall not kill,” and then seek to apply this command to war.
However, the Hebrew word literally means “the intentional, premeditated killing of another person with malice; murder.”
God often ordered the Israelites to go to war with other nations 1 Samuel 15:3 and Joshua 4:13.
God ordered the death penalty for numerous crimes (Exodus 21:12, 15; 22:19; Leviticus 20:11). So, God is not against killing in all circumstances, but only murder.
War is never a good thing, but sometimes it is a necessary thing. In a world filled with sinful people (Romans 3:10-18), war is inevitable. Sometimes the only way to keep sinful people from doing great harm to the innocent is by going to war.”
Source:
S. Michael Houdmann is the Founder, President, and CEO of Got Questions Ministries
I want you to know that God does not want war.
Ezekiel 33:11 NIV
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’
God brings wars to an end.
Psalms 46:9 NIV
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
Isaiah 2:2-4 KJV
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
War has its origins in sin.
James 4:1-2 NKJV
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
Sin has its origin in Lucifer/Devil and sin infected human beings when we of our own freewill disobeyed God and followed Lucifer.
Jesus came that we might be saved from our sins by His sacrifice on our behalf and by dying in our place Jesus paid our debt for sin and brought us back into a right relationship with God.
Lucifer/Devil has not repented of his sin but has chosen instead to infect God’s creation with his rebellion in an effort to dethrone God in order to put himself on Heaven's throne. This is an act of war by Lucifer and he lost his high place in Heaven and was cast to earth where he went about infecting it and us with sin. This battle of sin is an open warfare that has continued since the time of the “Garden of Eden” until now. It will not end until a final war takes place between God and Satan when Jesus returns to earth for a second time.
Revelation 19:11-16
Until that time we will have wars and rumors of war just as Jesus warned us when he was here on planet earth the first time.
War is something learned by men and driven by sin. For this reason those who have followed God have fought against those who have followed Satan in this eternal struggle for freedom and peace.
It is those men and women whom we honor and recognize today. Not all were in uniform and not all were on foreign fields. Some were missionaries and clergy and nurses and doctors and agents of peace but were still called to battle fields in the hope of saving human life from the ravages of war.
Sadly we must endure much more conflict in our world, much more death and suffering because of sin until our Lord and Savior arrives to end war once and for all when He takes prisoner the author of sin and war. So fight we must.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Let us comfort one another and be grateful that God has given us peace in our time through the sacrifice of our loved ones whom we honor here today. Let us strive for peace dressed in the Armor of God and engage the enemy with spiritual weapons until the day of Christ's return.
Amen.
