Romans 13 in the context of Israel and YHWH.

Christians have approved of government waged war throughout the ages. Romans 13 contains the words Christians have traditionally used to warrant the idea of just war. It runs like this in verse four:

For it (the government) is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Here Paul urges Christian folks in Rome to be obedient to the Roman emperor, a man who was not friendly to the Christian cause.

Further Scriptural warrant for national violence can be obtained in Peters first epistle, chapter 2. Verses 13-14 run like this:

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

In the old Covenant the Scriptural warrant for war is even more plain within the Pentateuch. In Deuteronomy 20:10-18 we have the record of YHWH commanding Moses to destroy men in villages that would not agree to become slaves to the Hebrews; in the cities of Canaan YHWH commands Moses to kill man, woman, child and animal. Nothing living is to be spared. The reason given by YHWH is that Israel would learn the detestable practices of the Canaanite inhabitants if they were not completely destroyed.

Maybe this still is not enough scriptural warrant. We might think that this record of the invasion of the Holy Land is a special exemption to the way that YHWH acts; He is just making His Covenant clear to the world before revealing His heart of mercy to the world through the likes of David and his lineage. But, the man after YHWH's own heart, the man of mercy, was commanded by the God of justice to go slaughter a people. In second Samuel chapter five we have the record of God actually telling David to go to war:

Then David did so, just as the LORD had commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.

Mercy was no doubt revealed through David; he was a man in need of forgiveness and he found it in the sight of YHWH. Yet mercy was not borne out upon David's enemies. Observe Psalm 110:1;5-6:

The LORD says to my Lord:
Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.
The Lord is at Your right hand;
He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.
He will judge among the nations,
He will fill them with corpses,
He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.

Granted, this Psalm is about YHWH speaking to the Messiah and it is the Psalmists description of the Messianic rule over kings and nations. But it shows us David's understanding of YHWH's attitude toward warfare; it was not just he who was warring against the nations. The LORD was with him, helping him kill the enemy. David had a clear perspective of YHWH's wrath and impending judgment of the nations. Pacifism was not a virtue well esteemed by the man after YHWH's own heart.


Next blog...

a look at God's warriors as they are slaughtered by the nations. What does this mean for the idea of justification? Can a warring nation be justified in its violence? Or putting the question of justification more poignantly, can a warring nation be held innocent when it is violent?