Dt 2:1-3:29 "The Lord Fights for You"



Read 2:1-9

Summarize 2:10-23 (God has also given Esau and Lot a place)

Read 2:24-37

Summarize 3:1-17 (Same thing happens to Og, King of Bashan)

Read 3:18-29



What is a holy war?

The Islamic jihad has taught us a few things about it.

Various militia movements around the country have a similar mentality.

But there's a problem with all these folks,

well, maybe more than just one problem!

In an Islamic Jihad,

the faithful warrior fight for God.

In the militia movement,

the people are to fight to bring about a righteous nation.



That's not what holy war is about.

For modern folks, the people fight for God.

In a truly holy war, GOD fights for his people.



The basic point in these two chapters of Dt., is that Yahweh fights for you.

And as we'll see, this points us to Christ,

who has defeated all our enemies,

and who is the Divine Warrior who wins the final battle for us.



How does God fight for us?

Four points:

1) God doesn't fight against his own people

2) God utterly destroys his enemies

3) God requires all of his people to fight together

4) God himself chooses his general

So we're going to see how Deuteronomy tells us about Holy War,

how it points us to Christ's final victory,

and how it shows us how Christ fights for us today.





1) God doesn't fight against his own people (Esau and Lot)

Now, we're going to see later on,

that God will judge his people,

and wipe them out of the land.

But God never forsakes his people forever.

Esau and Lot were relatives of Abraham--and therefore blessed by God

2:1-23 Don't mess with the descendants of Esau and Lot

God is with them; he blessed them; JUST AS (v12)

v12--Esau and Israel compared; God brought judgment through Esau as well

God cares for all Abraham's descendents,

and indeed, all nations--not just Israel

But the point for Israel to notice,

is that if God cares for these nations,

how much more will he care for you

And the point for YOU to notice,

is that if God cares for a rebellious people with a failed covenant mediator,

HOW MUCH MORE will he care for you,

because of what Jesus Christ has done.

God doesn't fight against his own people.

He tests us.

He gives us trials and tribulations,

so that he might make us strong.

Just like he did for the Israelites.

Sihon was not a very powerful king.

So Yahweh sent the Israelites into battle against Sihon.

They won easily,

and gained confidence for the next battle.

Because the next battle was against Og.

And Og was a giant.

His people had 60 fortified cities.

Now, a fortified city in those days might not look like much today!

But to the nomadic Israelites,

who had been wandering in the desert all their lives,

the Bashanites looked like a powerful people.

And yet God fought for Israel,

and delivered Og into their hands.

These first battles were tests--trials and tribulations--

designed to show the Israelites that if they would trust in him,

he would deliver them.

This brings us to our second point:

2) God utterly destroys his enemies (Sihon and Og)

v25--This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations

v31--Begin to possess the land

v36--Yahweh our God delivered it all to us

3:3--Yahweh our God also delivered Og to us



We see here the destruction of cities and all the people;

only plunder and livestock remain.

In verse 30 we learn that God hardened King Sihon's heart for destruction.

Why kill everyone? (Dt 20:10-18)

I know that this sounds really harsh,

but let us try to understand what God is doing here.

herem-warfare (herem--to devote to destruction)

This is God's judgment against the wicked

Herem warfare, or holy war,

is actually spiritual warfare.

Note 20:18--the reason why you kill everyone,

is because they are idolaters,

and God is punishing them for their idolatry.

This, incidentally, is also a lesson to Israel:

God hates idolatry.

If you commit idolatry,

God will send some other nation to destroy you.

So please don't commit idolatry!

But while destroying idolaters,

there was nothing wrong with accepting converts.

Rahab is the best-known example,

but it is quite likely that many people abandoned their old gods,

and converted to the God of Israel.

Now, biblical scholars have noted a couple things:

1) Israel grows incredibly fast between Jacob's going to Egypt

and Joshua's entering the Promised Land.

2) The biblical text and the archeological record agree

that there was not widespread destruction of cities

in Canaan during the Conquest.

So it is quite possible that as people heard of the amazing power of Yahweh,

they abandoned Baal, and convert to the worship of Yahweh.

But here's the problem.

Many of those conversions were not genuine.

We here about this problem in the book of Judges.

The Israelites do not destroy all the peoples;

for that matter, they do not even require the conversion of all the people

And so Israel becomes corrupted by the idolatry of the Canaanites.

God had promised that he would destroy all their enemies.

They did not believe his promise.

They were satisfied with only a half-hearted victory.

They did not understand the purpose of holy war; of spiritual warfare.

You see, spiritual warfare:

included physical warfare in OT

excludes physical warfare in NT

When Christ returns, physical holy war comes back

But what does spiritual warfare look like?

Spiritual warfare is not particularly about fighting demons,

or casting demons out of people.

The Bible actually never commands the church to cast out demons.

So what is spiritual warfare?

In the OT, spiritual warfare consisted of destroying idolatry,

often by killing people.

How do we destroy idolatry?

1) in our own lives by consistently worshipping the true God

2) in the lives of others, by killing them.

Yes, it is your task to see to it that your idolatrous friends and neighbors die.

But you are not supposed to use physical force to accomplish this.

You are to use the sword of the Spirit--which is the Word of God.

Look over at Ephesians 6:10-20 (read)

Remember Colossians?

After Paul talks about family relations, how does he conclude?

With a discussion of prayer and evangelism.

How does Paul conclude Ephesians?

With a discussion of prayer and evangelism.

Prayer and evangelism are the essential components of holy war.

There is nothing you should want more,

than for your unbelieving, idolatrous,

friends and neighbors to die.

Spiritual warfare is not an individual, me against the devil, approach.

It is the church of Jesus Christ,

following her Lord into battle, but against who?

Against the idolatry and false worship of this age,

just like the Israelites.

Why is there no physical warfare now?

There are two reasons:

1) God is showing mercy

Because if Jesus Christ engaged in herem-warfare,

he would completely destroy all idolaters.

So God is being patient, and bringing many more to Christ.

which is related to the second reason:

2) the king isn't present

God only blesses herem-warfare/holy war,

if the right man leads you into battle (we'll come back to that)

But I want you to understand the implications of this:

If God destroys all his enemies,

then what did Christ do on the cross?

Remember Colossians 2:13-15? (read)

All of your sins,

All of the requirements which were against us,

were nailed to the cross.

And what was the second part?

All of the principalities and powers--

all of the things which controlled us--

He made a spectacle of them,

Laughing at them through the cross,

revealing them to be powerless and impotent.

What are your enemies?

Do have a Sihon in your closet?

an Og in your life?

Some giant which stands in your way?

Some struggle which keeps you from the blessings of peace in the Land?

You see,

we saw last week that the Israelites didn't enter the land,

because they were afraid that they'd fail.

and so they listened to the 10 fearful elders,

rather than to Moses, the covenant mediator, and the two faithful elders.

The fear of failure often keeps us from resisting idolatry in our own lives.

But how dare we fear our enemies,

when Christ has already gone before us, to defeat them?!!

Jesus Christ is the Divine Warrior,

when he was lifted up on the cross,

he engaged in herem warfare/holy war with all of our enemies.

He that knew no sin, became sin for us.

He who had life in himself, DIED on that cross, for us.

He who created all things, came under the power of the devil, for us.

And yet, sin, death and the devil could not overpower our Lord Jesus Christ.

No matter how much sin was layed upon our Savior,

it could not blacken His Righteous purity!

And no matter how hard death clutched at him,

it could not contain the power of an everlasting life!

And no matter how strong Satan forged those bonds,

they were chains forged by a creature,

and what creature can hold captive the eternal Son of God?

This is the glory of our Savior!

He who was God of God, light of light, very God of very God,

became a man, for us and for our salvation.

And he destroyed the power of sin, death, and the devil,

so that they might never again have a hold on his people.

Because you see,

you are now in Christ.

You are no longer who you used to be.

Just as Christ has taken upon himself all of your sin,

so also, ALL of Christ's righteousness has been placed upon you.

And so when your enemies come for you,

they have no more power over you,

than they have over Christ.

But as we've seen from the apostle Paul,

this is not an individualistic sort of thing.

Christ did not just die for a bunch of individuals,

Christ died for his church.

And this is where chapter three turns in verses 12ff



3) God requires all of his people to fight together (Reuben, Gad, 1/2 Manasseh)

In 3:12-17, God gives the land of Sihon and Og

to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

But Moses makes it clear in 3:18-22,

that their armies are required to fight with the rest of Israel.

They may not rest until God grants rest to all his people.

Partly this out of obvious fairness--they helped you, so you help them.

But there is a larger issue at stake: the corporate nature of the church

--of the people of God

For God to be with his people,

his people must fight together.

If Israel disbands,

they will start to squabble with each other.

We see this in Joshua 22.

When the 2 and 1/2 tribes return back over the Jordan,

they build an altar as a memorial of the unity between East and West.

The other tribes get upset, because they think

that the 2 1/2 tribes are abandoning the true worship of God.

They nearly wind up going to war against each other!

If the church does not fight together,

then we will wind up fighting each other!

Brothers and sisters,

we see this especially in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus will not rest until all his church is gathered.

Even now, he sits at the right hand of the Father,

interceding on our behalf,

calling upon the Father to remember what he has promised to do for his people

Even now, he has sent the Holy Spirit,

to wage war upon the nations.

How does the Holy Spirit wage war?

By creeping into the enemy's camp,

sneaking into the hearts of idolaters,

and killing them!

That's what the Holy Spirit does!

Why else does Paul say, "I have been crucified with Christ

and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me!"

In Romans 7 we are told that the Law produces death in us,

so that we might be made alive in Christ.

When we proclaim the Word of God,

we must pray that all idolaters will be slain by the Spirit.

Now, I know that charismatics have taken that phrase and abused it to death!

They think that Christians should be slain by the Spirit.

How ABSURD!

All Christians have already been slain by the Spirit:

that's how we became Christians!

The Holy Spirit has snipped off our old nature, through the circumcision of Christ,

so that we died with him.

And now we pray and evangelize because we are engaged in a holy war,

and Christ is leading us onward to victory.

And finally,

4) God himself chooses his general (Joshua NOT Moses)

v21-29 Instructions to Joshua: God will do for you what he did for me

FOR YAHWEH YOUR GOD HIMSELF FIGHTS FOR YOU

Moses cannot go--Joshua is the one

Moses is so excited by what God has done, that he pleads with God (v23-25)

And Yahweh gets angry with Moses!

Why?

Isn't this natural?

What have you learned about idolatry?

What is Moses doing?

Moses is not interested in what is good for Israel,

he is only interested in his own personal glory.

And God rebukes him.

Moses could not lead because of "their" account

he had failed as the covenant mediator: because the people had rebelled

therefore God could not reward him

But also: he was the man of the law,

the law can not bring you into the land.

Only by faith in God's promises

can God's people enter the Land promised to Abraham,

who is the man of faith.

There is a contrast here: Moses and Joshua (Yahweh saves--same as Jesus)

With the right leader, Israel can enter into battle

What would have happened if Moses had tried

to lead the people into the Promised Land?

Well, that's like asking, what would happen today

if R.C. Sproul or John McArthur tried to bring

the fulfillment of the kingdom

and led us to war against the pagans!

You only go into battle with the right leader!

During most of Israel's history herem warfare was not in effect.

Only with Moses and Joshua.

Afterwards, the Israelites fought like any other nation.



Now, there is a similarity between the Israelites and ourselves.

We stand in the wilderness after the Exodus but before the Conquest,

and God fights for us.



We are citizens of the Promised Land--of the New Creation--

but we live as aliens in this present age.

And our spiritual warfare today is all-out war!

when I witness to an unbeliever I want him to die!

I will whip out the sword of the spirit and attempt to slay the old man within him

And we will only win if the Lord fights for us,

but we must have the confidence that HE DOES!

You see, more than ever,

we are reliant upon the grace of God.

The Israelites were not a strong people,

they did not have superior numbers or technology.

All they had was a God who could womp the nations pretty good!



And that is exactly what we are like!

How often are we too weak and feeble in our battle?

We are weak and feeble, you know.

Our enemies are stronger and bigger and better equipped.

But we've got a God who's a whole lot bigger than their gods!

And he fights for us.

How often do we allow ourselves to be beaten down by the foe?

Should we not instead have courage,

return to the fray,

and no matter how long the enemy resists,

let us not give up the fight until his sinful nature is utterly destroyed!

Let us not be timid in our evangelism or our prayers,

but let us recognize that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords fights for us,

and we shall not be defeated by any power of world or air.

This doesn't mean that you should be obnoxious.

That's not what I'm saying.

The Israelites used some pretty intelligent military strategy

when they invaded the Promised Land.

They divided their enemies with a quick blow to the very center of the land;

then they turned south and went after the key cities near the Dead Sea.

Even so,

we should use all of our wisdom, kindness, patience and humility in our evangelism.

But learn from the Israelites, that only God can bring success.

because it is God who fights for you.





Benediction: Jude 24-25 "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.