1 Samuel 11

Wow, now this chapter is pretty amazing! Some of the Israelites weren't sure that Saul was the right man to lead them - questioning God yet again - but when one of their towns is attacked and Saul finds out about it the Spirit comes on him again and he summons the Israelites to war. He is very persuasive, in that he threatens death to anyone (presumably any man fit for battle, at least) who doesn't come with him, and in turn 300,000 men report for duty. Saying they defeated the invaders would be an understatement: no two enemy survivors made it out together.

Some interesting things to take away from this chapter:

- Saul was working his fields when the news of the invasion came to him. Working... in his fields... despite being king. I guess the Israelites really didn't have the concept of what a king was like yet, or maybe things were just different back then.

- After the battle, many called for the execution of those who had spoken out against Saul's kingship. Saul prevented it, though... again showing that he at least started his reign with honor.

1 Samuel 4

This chapter doesn't deal with Samuel himself, though he is mentioned briefly in the first verse. Reading over chapter 3 again it actually seems like the first part of that verse belongs more in the context of the end of chapter 3... but that is a good reminder that these chapter and verse distinctions didn't exist in the original documents.

The bulk of this chapter deals with the Israelites going to war, and bringing the Ark of the Covenant with them thinking it would grant them victory. I find it javascript:void(0)interesting that they did that, but we aren't told that they asked God for success in battle. That *almost* makes this border on idolatry in my mind: they thought the presence of God's dwelling among them (the Ark) would ensure victory, when it is God Himself would could do that - whether or not the Ark itself was present.

When they are defeated, despite its presence, the Ark is taken by their enemy - the Philistines. Word of that reaches Eli, who collapses and dies. It is interesting that we are told he had been concerned for the Ark's safety, but no mention is made of his being worried about his sons who were there with it.

From a military perspective, the battle described in this chapter is a pretty serious blow to Israel. The loss of 30,000+ troops in a single engagement is tremendous; to put that in perspective, it is three times the number of casualties the Allies had in the combined D-Day landings - and more losses than either side sustained in the battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. I'm not sure what size the combined Israelite army was at the time, but from the description in the text it was a massive defeat.

Why would God have permitted such devastation to be visited upon His people? I can't answer that in full, but I can say that the coming chapters will see God turning a heavy hand upon the Philistines for taking the Ark, and I'm sure that the judgement prophesied against Eli's sons - who died in the battle - played a part.

Judges 20

I knew the events of the last chapter would not lead to anything good. The Israelites are rightly appalled at the behavior of those in the town of Gibeah, but their Benjamite brothers protect them rather than handing them over to be punished. Because of that, the whole country goes to war - and tens of thousands of soldiers are killed on both sides. Moreover, not only is Gibeah destroyed (a measure I can understand) but the whole Benjamite tribe is wiped out almost to a man. Even the women and children are erased, with only 600 men who escape the battles surviving. I'm pretty sure descendants of Benjamin still live today, though, so there should be some sort of resolution to this in the next and final chapter of Judges.

What surprises me here is the level of total warfare that is waged over this. In modern times we would call destruction of this degree 'genocide', and it was done by the Israelites against their own people. Why did all of them deserve to die? I understand killing the men responsible, and even the measure of destroying their city - and since the Benjamites sent soldiers to aid that city I understand defeating them too. However, it seems a bit much to go to the effort of them wiping out all the cities, towns, people and animals in that land; after all, what threat were they? Perhaps we should look back and shake our heads, or perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here about how war must sometimes be conducted. I just wish I knew which it was...

Judges 12

It looks like the loss of Jephthah's daughter was not the only negative result of his campaign - some of his fellow Israelites also took it badly, and there was a short but bloody civil war. After that was quelled he led Israel for six years before he died.

It seems, actually, that most of the judges listed in this chapter led short lives. None of them spent more than a decade leading the Israelites, so either they started their careers as old men they must have died at a rather young age. At least one had grandsons, though, so he was likely on the older side.

Judges 1

This opening chapter to the book of Judges seems to recap some of the end of the previous book, as it tells of the continued conquering of the promised land (some of which went well, and much of which seems to have gone amiss). We also get the story of Caleb retold, in almost identical wording to how it was presented before - which makes me wonder if that happened before or after Joshua died, since here is seems to have occurred after. Perhaps it was just being relayed along with the other successes his people had.

There is also a neat story of the defeat of Bethel, which is very reminiscent of Rahab and Jericho. Israelite spies convince a man to betray the city, but in turn spare him and his family. It almost seems odd to request and then reward what would normally be considered trickery and deceit, but perhaps to some degree the ends justify the means. It certainly turned out well for that man, who goes unnamed.

What worries me is that many of the tribes seem to have failed in their God-given orders to destroy the peoples living there before them. I wonder if this is going to come back to bite them.

Joshua 22

The account contained in this chapter is quite interesting. Now that the main work of conquering the promised land was done, and the Israelite tribes had all received their inheritance, those who settled beyond the Jordan were sent home. That left them somewhat removed from the main community, and far from the tabernacle and altar where offerings to the Lord were given. Because of this they built an altar of their own, and a misunderstanding over that nearly brought on a civil war.

The main body of Israelites west of the Jordan saw it as an evil departure from God's instructions, and for once in their history were so zealous about the Lord and His commandments that they prepared to go to war against their own brethren to stop it. Thankfully they had some among them with level heads who sent an envoy first, and the true meaning of the altar was found out. The distant tribes had created it not to offer sacrifices upon, which would have been against the Lord's will, but as a reminder to themselves and the rest of the Israelites that they too were part of the God's people. Disaster averted :)

Joshua 13

The reading today is split into two parts: a section covering God's instructions to Joshua in his old age, presumably well after the wars of the previous chapters, telling him that there was more land yet to be conquered. I had thought the earlier fighting was all, but apparently I was mistaken.

From there, the chapter takes an abrupt turn and goes over the geographical description of how the land east of the Jordan river was split up between the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. While I'm sure the specific boundaries were important at that time, they don't mean a whole lot to me - especially since I am blissfully unfamiliar with the layout of those lands.

Joshua 12

Not much to say about today's reading - it is just a recap of the kings that Israel defeated. It includes both those from the east side of the Jordan when Moses led the people, and the many more inside the promised land under Joshua's leadership. Quite a long list of kingdoms that fell to the Israelite war machine and God's divine power.

Joshua 11

Just as chapter ten described Israel's defeat of the nations in the southern portion of the promised land, so this section covers the northern half. With Joshua's leadership and more importantly his obedience to God and His might the whole land was subdued. Earlier I remember that God told Moses this would not all be done immediately, but that it would take time so that the people could spread and settle the area rather than have it become desolate and a wasteland - which makes me wonder what span of time the last two chapters cover. Perhaps that will be told later.

Joshua 10

This chapter was a little on the lengthy side, but it covered a lot of history. Under Joshua's command, and with God fighting for them, the Israelites conquered city after city in the promised land. This process, and the destruction left behind, underscore how smart the Gibeonites were to ally themselves with Israel - no matter the cost.

The reading today also included one of the most unique miracles recorded in the Bible, or indeed anywhere. At Joshua's request, God kept the sun and moon in the sky to light a battlefield and allow the Israelites to thoroughly destroy their enemy. Knowing what we now do about astronomy, it would have actually been God keeping the earth from rotating on its axis (or at least substantially slowing it), and holding the moon temporarily in a geosynchronous orbit. Most impressive, but I'm sure not even the least of what the Lord of all Creation is capable of :)

Joshua 8

The attempt to take a city that failed in the last chapter due to one Israelite's disobedience succeeds today. That is what happens when the Lord is on your side :) The tactics Joshua used in combat are also pretty cool - I'd like to convey my interpretation of them here, but I can't really draw it out and to describe it in correct strategic fashion would make for a long post (and rather off topic). It is cool that God let the Israelites plunder the city for themselves this time, though; if only the greedy guy from chapter seven had waited till the next battle...

Deuteronomy 20

As soon as I read the title of this chapter I knew I would enjoy reading it. War and combat happen to be specialties of mine: I have studied them most of my life, and I very nearly joined the Navy when I was in college.

You could almost look at this chapter as 'rules of engagement' for the Israelites. They were to offer terms to any city outside of the promised land that they might go to war against, and if it accepted peace then the inhabitants would survive (as slaves). If they did not, and fought against the Israelites, then all adult males would be executed upon taking the city. If that was well known, I imagine cities might tend to surrender rather than resist.

If the city was in the promised land, though - the land God sent them to take - then no terms were offered and every living thing inside would be killed. This is known as total war, and while looked down upon today one cannot deny its effectiveness. Since it was God who commanded it here, it had to be done.

The other interesting thing in this section is the exceptions from service in the army. If one had newly built a home, planted a vineyard, or gotten engaged then they were not to participate in combat. Furthermore, those who were weak of heart were not allowed since their fear and doubt could spread to other troops. I think those instructions make a lot of sense, and I must assume that enough men were still left to fight - but that would matter little anyways, as God himself would fight for the Israelites. How cool is that!

Numbers 31

This chapter chronicles a war that God commanded the Israelites to fight, against the Midianites who had tried to corrupt them in an earlier section of the book. There are many things here that stand out, and I may have missed some, but here are the ones that caught my attention most:

- Only 12,000 men were sent out to fight (verse 5) - not even a tenth of Israel's full military power at the time. In addition, all of them survived (verse 49)!

- When the soldiers returned with all the women and children of those they fought, Moses commanded that the male children and all women who were not virgins be killed. This sort of massacre seems shocking by our standards today, but what is key here - and I think will be repeated in the taking of the Holy Land - is that leaving these people alive meant a continued threat to Israel. When God truly is the one ordering these acts then they are acceptable; the risk is when people claim to be doing His will and are not.

- Even though there were only 12,000 soldiers involved in the war, they are given 16,000 young virgin women as part of the spoils. That seems odd, since it is more women than there were men and likely many of the men already had wives. I wonder if they used them as slaves, or if they perhaps gave them to sons for wives.

- Balaam was among the men killed in the fighting. I would have thought, based on his actions in blessing Israel, that he would not have been killed - but further reading in this chapter implicates him in the plot to tempt the Israelites away from God. Perhaps he had realized that although he could not curse them God Himself would turn on them if they strayed from Him.

Numbers 21

Ah, now this chapter is more to my liking! The middle half talks about the route the Israelites used in their journeys, and yet another minor rebellion on the way, but the beginning and end both cover battles in which they defeated other peoples and occupied their lands. What I found most interesting here was that they not only conquered people on their travels but they also occupied their enemies lands. I was under the impression that the time between the Israelites refusing to enter the Promised Land the first time and their eventual entrance was spent in constant wandering, but it seems I was wrong. I wonder how long they spent in each of the countries they took?

There were also two other interesting references in this section:

- Verses 24 and 25 contain an excerpt from "the Book of the Wars of the Lord"; I wonder if that is something that modern Jewish scholars have found, or if it has been lost to history. Sounds like it would have been an interesting read.

- The last verse, 35, notes that with at least one of the nations the Israelites conquered they left "no survivors" (NET). That level of total war is often looked down upon today, and considered barbaric, but I would argue that based on this and several other passages in the Bible it is sometimes appropriate. The trick is that in these wars the Israelites had God directing their actions, and telling them when and when not to spare their enemies - today we do not have the same level of divine guidance.

Genesis 14

Ah, the first account of war in the Bible! Those who know me well will remember that I am a student of the art of war, and though not many details are given here there are a couple of things I find interesting. The main observation, though, is that an army of four allied kings, which had just gone on quite a campaign of conquest throughout the region and defeated five kings arrayed against them at Siddim, was routed by Abram with his 318 trained men and a few allies. That seems quite a feat, though of course Abram had God on his side. I wonder what sort of troop numbers there were involved - and did Abram defeat the entire enemy army or was just a section of it guarding the captured people and goods?

The other neat thing in this section is the appearance of Melchizedek, who is described as the king of Salem and a priest of the Lord. Abram's gift of "a tenth of all" (NAS) to this priest-king is the first example of tithing I know of. He is made mention of again in the New Testament, when it is said that Jesus was "a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (NAS). What does that make Melchizedek? I seem to recall in high school Bible classes that he was a "type" of Christ - not an incarnation of Him, but an example of what Christ's leadership would be like. His place of kingship is also interesting, as Salem seems to be identified with the city we now know as Jerusalem! Even in the most ancient of times it seems that place was a center for worship, as it should still be today (and will be in the end times).

This chapter in:
New America Standard, New King James, New International