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Turning Tables series, Part 5
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Recently, I was asked to speak at a church in Blackpool. While walking the rain-soaked promenade, I found myself thinking about turning tables—the series Renewal has been exploring when it comes to anger, conflict, violence, and even war. I remembered Churchill's famous words: "We will fight them on the beaches. We will never surrender." It gave me a small insight into what that kind of conflict might feel like.
Many of us have visited places marked by deep conflict. We've traveled to Vietnam, where 3 million people were killed—2 million of them civilians. We've stood in Berlin and visited Holocaust museums. These experiences move us and show us the devastating human cost when nations go to war with one another.
Today, I want us to step back and ask: What does the Bible have to say about war, particularly war in God's name?
As a pastor, I've heard many people say, "God has told me to do this." How can I disagree if God has already spoken to them? Here's the truth: most people don't want your opinion—they want your agreement. We must be careful about over-spiritualizing things we want to do and using God's name to back our own desires.
It's appropriate to wrestle with the Bible together. We should read it not for what we can accept, but asking: What would God accept? Then we might need to change our attitudes, mindsets, prejudices, and desires accordingly.
The Bible never revels in or glorifies war. It describes it honestly—as brutal, tragic, and a result of human evil and human sin. Importantly, the Bible never once uses the term "holy war." It gives us descriptions of what happened, not prescriptions for future wars.
As human anger and violence escalate toward war, the Bible de-escalates from violence and conflict down to personal anger. Then Jesus arrives and shows us how to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, be a peacemaker, and put away the sword. His final words were: "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." Jesus practiced what he preached—and as Christians, we're trying to emulate and model Jesus, not just agree with an ideological position.
Let's turn to 2 Chronicles 20, where King Jehoshaphat faces armies from Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir. When Jehoshaphat hears the news, he is terrified. He orders everyone in Judah to fast and seek the Lord's help.
Jehoshaphat stands before the Lord and prays:
O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are ruler of the kingdoms of the earth... We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.
Then the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Jehaziel, a Levite, who declares:
This is what the Lord says: do not be afraid. Don't be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours. The battle belongs to the Lord.
The Lord tells them to march out tomorrow but they will not need to fight. They should take their positions, stand still, and watch God's victory.
Jesus stood before that same temple and told his disciples:
In the future, you are going to hear rumors of wars and different things that are going on to bring the nations into conflict, but keep your head. Do not panic. Don't be afraid. This is all routine history.
Jesus was describing the last days—the entire period from his resurrection and ascension until his return. There will be cycles of history and routine signs throughout each age until Jesus returns. Nations, empires, governments, and powers will declare war on one another, all thinking they are right.
Every terrorist thinks they're standing up for something righteous. But how do we know who is right and who is wrong? We cannot cherry-pick a Bible reference or image and stamp it on a present-day situation to justify our actions.
Today's message is called Not in My Name. How many people have used God's name to justify war, conflict, or their own behavior?
Exodus 20:7 says:
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold one guiltless whoever takes the name of God in vain.
Taking the Lord's name in vain means using it in an empty way, without substance. There are three serious ways we do this:
We must not use God's name lightly or as a joke. If we see God's name as representing his character, his holiness, and his authority, we cannot throw it about carelessly. Using it as a curse word or empty expression—"Oh God!"—is taking his name in vain.
Many use God's name to manipulate a person or situation. In Jesus's time, people swore oaths by God's name to end discussion: "I'm swearing by God, so this must be right." But you cannot make false promises in God's name. You cannot deceive others or give authority to something untrue, nor can you pretend that God approves of something when he does not.
This is the most serious form. It includes calling yourself a Christian but living in hypocrisy—in complete contrast to the way of Jesus. For those in authority, using God and his name to control others or to do evil while claiming God endorses it is a serious form of taking God's name in vain.
Throughout history, people have picked out a verse, invoked God's name, and justified evil actions. That is taking God's name in vain.
When we come to the Old Testament, it's important to read the Bible in a circle—from Genesis to Revelation as one continuous narrative, not a collection of disconnected stories. When you read it this way, you see how God raises the standard progressively. Jesus is the ultimate—he has raised the bar so high that only his perfect life and death on the cross could bring us back to God.
In Psalms 20, we read:
Some trust in chariots and horses, which were the implements of war... But we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
People today claim to justify war using Old Testament passages. But what Jesus does is turn the tables on the strong. The Old Testament actually shows us that God has always been turning the tables on the strong—it's not that God was bloodthirsty and genocidal in the Old Testament and then changed with Jesus.
Rather, God has always worked with human people from where they are at. He worked with civilization from where it was, not necessarily from what he would have wanted in perfect conditions. God works us on a journey to show how to live like Jesus.
Biblical Israel was not building an empire or committing genocide. God was building his kingdom. He was trying to show the rest of the world who he is. The Old Testament never endorses fighting for God or going on a holy war against unbelievers. Instead, it always shows us that God is fighting for us. God fights to have a people who would show himself to the world.
Look at the battles throughout the Bible:
Throughout the Old Testament, God is the one doing the fighting. He never endorses anyone else doing the fighting.
You may ask: "What about when God commissions people to kill off certain peoples?" The passages in Joshua are difficult, but we must understand several things.
First, Jericho was a military outpost, not a city like we know today. People lived in villages. God was not wiping out innocent civilians. He was calling time on the strong oppressing the weak. Jericho was a military stronghold—a way that people would get oppressed.
Second, the language matters. When we read "utterly destroy them," the text is talking about warriors. When it mentions women and children, that was how ancient writers described totality in their rhetoric. But reading the rest of the Old Testament, it's obvious that women and children weren't actually touched and that entire populations weren't wiped out. What God commanded was an eviction.
Canaan was not idyllic or innocent. It was a violent collection of people opposed to what God wanted. The language describes a totality—like a landlord calling time on how tenants have been trashing his house and need to be evicted.
Deuteronomy 11:23 tells us:
Then the Lord will drive out all the nations ahead of you. Though they are much greater and stronger than you, you will take over their land.
And Exodus 23:30:
Little by little, I will drive them out before you until you possess the land.
If God did not show up, Israel would have been obliterated. The language is important because even ancient writers used hyperbole and phrases to show the total victory that was needed.
Consider this: Imagine if Aston Villa beat Everton in a football match, and I said, "Aston Villa have murdered Everton. They slaughtered them!" You wouldn't think there were 11 dead bodies on the pitch. You'd understand it's a phrase describing total defeat. That's what the Old Testament is doing.
Finally, understand God's patience. God waited hundreds and hundreds of years before he acted. The prophets repeatedly asked: "How long, Lord? How long will you let injustice happen? How long will you let war go on? How long will you let the oppressed suffer?" We want God to act now, but God is patient. He is always looking to win any person back to him. Sometimes he has been patient for a very long time before he acts.
When we read the Old Testament through these lenses, we suddenly see a God far less brutal, far less maniacal, far less harsh than the projected image would have us believe.
In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat resolves to inquire of God. He brings everyone together to seek God's help and pray. He says: "We don't know what to do, but God, our eyes are upon you." The Spirit of the Lord speaks through Jehaziel to give everyone the encouragement they need: "For the battle is not yours, the battle is the Lord's." They hold faith, pray, and praise God—and through those spiritual weapons, they bring defeat even over physical enemies.
I hope we see the Old Testament in a different way. Think biblically, not just critically. Engage with the Bible. Use the whole story of the Bible. Understand the context and how things were written in their time and day. Do not cherry-pick certain verses and use them to back somebody's actions or to support an ideological or political position. That is not what the Bible is for.
The Bible is there to read us, not for us just to read the Bible.
God has an alternative plan. God does not want war—he wants peace. God does not want empire—he wants a kingdom. God doesn't want anybody under judgment. He brought the cross through Jesus Christ.
None of us are responsible for making the decisions that bring a nation or state to war. We seem to be at the mercy of those global forces. But here's what we can do:
Remember, we don't trust in chariots and horses, or drones, or missile systems, or war fleets or ships. We trust in the name of God. Trust that God has a plan. Even when we see nations at war, he will bring his purpose through.
Pray for your Prime Minister and political leaders. They're influential in making decisions and at the mercy of other nations and governments that affect the globe. In your time and under your government, you can pray. Pray for those in authority.
Wherever we need to protect and defend those who are defenseless, we should do so. And lift up the name of Jesus through praise. God works through the praising of God. God is active even when we cannot see it.
The more we praise God, the more the kingdom of God is built on this earth as it is in heaven.
I hope this helps you not just understand present conflict, but see war in a completely different way. God bless you and take care.
