King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 3 notes
Read Deuteronomy 20 in the app
1When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
I now see why the Lord would reference Egypt 🇪🇬 in this situation.
It was to remind them of the might with which he delivered them, so their faith rises in his ability to deliver them again in this case.
2And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,
3And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;
4For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
Again we see here the system of God, which system requires the collaboration of men to function.
God was going to battle out the enemy and bring victory ✌️.
Indeed, he gives Israel 🇮🇱 assurance of this. You would have expected that Israel can now relax, knowing the battle is the Lord's.
And indeed it is the Lord's, but the humans would be the ones fighting it.
And not only that, but they would have to be bold and courageous, as is required in war, for them to win.
They were to put in the preparations required for war, just like any army, and were to have the courage required for war, just like any army,
just that their courage and confidence was not in their numbers and weapons of war, but in the Lord their God.
Knowing this, that the Lord can save with few or with many, with advanced weapons or mundane, so long as the Lord was in the battle, victory ✌️ was assured...
1 Samuel 14:6–7 KJV
And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.
5And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.
6And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it.
7And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.
8And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.
9And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
10When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
11And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
12And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:
13And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
14But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
15Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Why not treat them like the other nations — at least their young ones? Maybe they had also, one way or the other, seen the abominations committed.
Or the demands of justice were such that their parents were to be cut off, so they themselves were not to be alive in the first place.
Only God, who is so merciful, will know the extent of the wickedness of these people to deserve such punishments without mercy.
17But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
18That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.
19When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down ( for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:
20Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.