Related articles and links |  1 of 7

"Listen … the Lord of hosts is mustering an army for battle. … Wail, for the day of the Lord is near. … See, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger" (Isa. 13:4-9, NRSV).

Isaiah won't let us escape the fact that our God is violent. In fact, Scripture often describes him as a warrior, a warring king who obliterates his enemies. That leaves thoughtful Christians wondering how we deal with this biblical motif. Does the Bible endorse violence? Is violence one of the ways we can fight the Lord's battles?

This biblical language of violence is especially unsettling in this closing decade of the twentieth century, which is clouded with bloodshed—much of it religiously tinged. Christians who aspire to love their enemies have rightly been shocked by public and domestic acts of violence inspired or justified by misreading a "Christian" ideology of the biblical "Wars of the Lord."

Still, moments arise when our thoughts echo those of the disciples when they said (after being snubbed by Samaritan villagers), "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Luke 9:54; all references are from the nrsv). Rightly sensing that Jesus was on a mission of divine warfare, they wrongly perceived his strategy. They—and we—are rebuked by Jesus.

What then is Jesus' warfare, and how should we tell the ancient story of the wars of the Lord? Those who stand firmly in the biblical tradition know they cannot refashion the language of Scripture to suit their tastes. "Wrath of God" passages remain part of the authoritative Word. Few would want to follow Marcion, the ancient church heretic who edited out offensive portions of Scripture, including the Old Testament God who was "lustful for war."

What remained for Marcion was a climax with a truncated plot, with the main character split in two: A God of creation and wrath was pitted against a God of salvation and love at the Cross. The church's response to Marcion was the faithful course of submitting to the authority of all Scripture. They believed that whatever offense the "wrath" passages might elicit would be resolved in the unfolding "plot" of God's saving activity, ultimately overflowing in his grace and righteousness.

The conflict and plot development of the saving activity of the warrior God can be understood as an unfolding drama in the biblical narrative: God the divine warrior delivers Israel from her enemies, and Israel is God's warrior people; God also fights against Israel in judgment; these two currents meet in Jesus, who delivers Israel from her darkest enemy, Satan, and takes the divine wrath against Israel upon himself in his death.

Act one:
Israel's deliverer
We don't have to read far in the Old Testament before we come across the opening scenes of this salvific plot. God is a warrior for Israel's deliverance.

The exodus of Israel from bondage in Egypt marks the first time God mounts the stage in warrior dress. Pharaoh, the king of the superpower Egypt, is overthrown by the little-known God of a nobody people. Moses, Miriam, and the people recount the divine victory: "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. … The LORDis a warrior; the LORD is his name" (Exod. 15:1, 3).

This "Song of Moses" rehearses the march of God as he leads Israel into the Promised Land, striking fear into its inhabitants and leaving them dead as a stone. The warrior and his followers march to the mountain of God, his holy sanctuary, where his eternal reign is established. All of this is celebrated by Israel on the safe bank of the sea: "You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession, the place, O LORD, that you made your abode" (Exod. 15:17).

next page... |  1 of 7

October 28 1996, Vol. 40, No. 12