Warfare 2 - Deuteronomy 20

When Israel is going to go to battle, first they are commanded not to be afraid because “the Lord thy God is with thee… For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for your against your enemies, to save you.” Then priest will come out and pray over the people. The order on these instructions might be a little confused, because I would imagine that the priest would pray over the army right before they attack, but here Moses is giving the options for people to leave the army is they meet a specific criteria. The first out option is if a man had recently built a house but had not dedicated it yet. TB notes that there is no other reference or command for the people to dedicate their houses, so this is an odd one to note. But the thought process might be that if a house has been built but not yet inhabited and that man dies in war, then that house could go to another family and out of his family’s control.

Another out option is if a man planted a vineyard “and hath not yet eaten of it.” TB gives some notes on this, specifically that it’s going to only apply when Israel starts settling Canaan because they currently don’t have any vineyards. Also TB pointed out that by Mosaic law, the first 3 years of a vineyard’s life, it is not to be harvested or the fruit used for anything other than to grow strong, I don’t know, must be some sort of agriculture thing that I’m not familiar with. Then the 4th year of that vineyard, the fruit produced is to be offered to God as a sacrifice, so specifically this only applies to someone who is within the first 5 years of trying to cultivate a vineyard, presumably for the same ownership issues that could arise if it wasn’t established yet and the man dies in war.

The third out option is if a man “hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her,” then he could stay home and marry her and try to start a family. There are a couple more reasons for this one, first is because if he dies in war then she will marry someone else and the money that the man paid in dowry or whatever for her already would be lost. Secondly, if a woman was engaged to a man and he died in war, then any arrangements that were made for her would be voided, whereas if they were married and they had children together, then the ownership of the house and the responsibility of the family would go to the oldest son and everything could stay in the family that way. The fourth and final out reason is for “what man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.” I had heard this reason given when I was a kid and I thought “of course everyone should be afraid and leave a battle,” but even at the time I realized that yes, everyone is afraid, but there is more to standing in a place where you are afraid and doing it anyway, and look how that turned out for me.

More war instructions continue with Moses saying that when a city is to be attacked, the city must first be offered the option of peace, and depending on the city’s standing before God, that could look like them surrendering and becoming tributaries, or they could become part of Israel as servants, or they could surrender and just leave the city and head out into the desert. I would imagine that the 7 cities that were commanded to be completely destroyed weren’t to be given the option of surrender or leaving, and in fact later in verses 16-18 God tells them that the 7 cities specifically “thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.” That’s a tall order, I can understand engaging enemy combatants, but women and children, that’s going to be tough. If the cities won’t make peace with Israel, then they are to besiege it, and that’s where the cutting down of trees comes into play. Very specific information in this chapter, a lot that was covered in the last post. Next chapter looks interesting so we’ll see what I can figure out about that one for tomorrow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Moses to Joshua - Numbers 27, 28, 29 & 30

There are two main concepts in chapter 27, the first being a interestingly progressive inheritance policy. Some women came to Moses because their father had died and had no sons to inherit his land. They still aren’t in the land of Canaan so I don’t think that there’s any actual land to inherit at this point but there is the promise of land when they settle and the daughters want to make sure that they have a place when the time comes. They also specify that their father wasn’t involved in the rebellion of Korah, which must have been because of their heritage. I assume that this issue is brought to Moses because the policy at the time was that only male heirs could inherit the land and there were no male heirs of this man so the women asked why couldn’t the land go to them. Moses takes the issue to God who agrees with the women that they should be able to inherit the land owed to a man if he dies without any sons. I think that this is a pretty progressive policy at the time so it’s ano...
Read more

And Another One - Leviticus 20

Chapter 20 is another conglomerate of already discussed commands, but starts off with something a little unfamiliar which is giving of children “unto Molech.” We first heard about Molech just recently and It doesn’t say exactly what happens to these kids, like if they are given to serve Molech or if they are to be human sacrifices, which TB suggests that that is the case. Any one who gives their children to be given “unto Molech” or I would imagine any other type of god as well, are to be put to death, more specifically, “the people of the land shall stone him with stones.” It’s interesting that God prescribed the method of execution here and TB suggests that if it was like beheading or shot with an arrow or something like that, then it would only take one single skilled executioner to perform the task. But with stoning, it takes a whole group of people hurling stones at the person for a while before they actually die. The point, TB says, is to make sure that lots of people participat...
Read more

Consecration & Redemption - Leviticus 27

Chapter 27 is the last chapter in Leviticus and has to deal with one of the ways that the temple is funded, consecrating property and people to the Lord. It’s also important to note that at the time when this principle was first given, the Israelites were still wandering in the wilderness so they were using the tabernacle instead of the temple that would be built in Jerusalem under Solomon. I don’t really understand this concept that much, from what I gathered from TB this was a way that the temple made money to support itself and their priests but was also a way for the people to focus God and learn the principles of consecration and redemption. TB gave the example of consecration and why people would do it from the saying, “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Having operated out of foxholes myself, I don’t think that that statement is true, but I digress. He also referenced a Burt Reynolds movie where the actor swims out to sea to kill himself but when he gets to the point of no retu...
Read more