What does God think about war, conflict and self-defense?

OPINION:

War has existed since the beginning of time. As Christians, we can look no further than a few books in the Bible to see tribes and peoples warring against each other. While this was not God’s original intention and design for mankind, it is a normal part of our life on earth because of sin.

The first thing we need to grasp as believers is that war is normal. We don’t like it, just like we don’t like anything else brought on by sin, whether it’s sickness, addiction, poverty, or even death itself, but we do accept that it is an unfortunate part of our life on the earth.

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The next thing we need to realize is that God is sovereign. At the end of the day, what I think with my human brain from my human experience is not even comparable to God and His ways. The Bible says:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  – Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV

I, as a human, might have trouble grasping the reality of war, and to further understand that God even calls His people to war at times. The only way I can reconcile this is to realize that God’s ways are higher than mine, His perspective is greater than mine, He is all-knowing and I am not.

Conflicts in the Bible, like the battle of Jericho, depict entire city walls coming down without firing a shot. Then there was King Saul’s army who was told to wipe the Amalekites off the face of the earth. God’s words exactly: “utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:14 NKJV).

Why was God so harsh and why did God allow King Saul’s army to attack the Amalekites?

The Amalekites would not allow the Israelites to pass through their territory while they wandered the wilderness in search of the promised land (Exodus 17). Simply put: The Amalekites were standing in opposition to God’s plan. It is also worth noting that God never called His people to do anything heinous like rape or defile bodies. That is demonic behavior and only results from Satan’s influence.

Before we can even broach the subject of war in the present day, we have to have some context and foundation from the Bible to understand who God is, what He’s done before, and how He feels about conflict.

Shane Winnings hosts the “Pursuing Jesus” podcast where he talks about issues facing Christians and hopes to teach listeners to pursue Jesus in order to gain a revelation that will help you have faith that endures for a lifetime.

Now, I will say that the majority of war comes from greed or pride. A leader wants land or resources, or to overtake, overthrow, and even enslave a people group so that they can become more powerful as a leader.

That is NOT God. The wars we see in the Bible where God commanded His people to overthrow another nation or people were because of an offense towards God, or some act of direct disobedience. Whenever I see a leader taunting war, I look at the motive.

In the particular case of Hamas and the brutal attack on Israel one year ago, I see nothing Godly whatsoever. This is a terrorist organization that seeks to force its way of life on the rest of the world and sees Israel as a nation and a people to dominate and decimate. There is no respect, there is no love, there is no understanding or dialogue. There are only brutal acts of terror, and these are the work of the devil who comes to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10 NKJV).

In the case of Israel, the Bible also makes it clear that God’s people can rightfully defend themselves against attacks. Exodus 22 gives the following example:

“If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed.” – Exodus 22:2-3 NKJV

We see in verse 2 that self-defense is no cause for guilt, however, verse 3 shows that there is some nuance and that the circumstances matter. When a country is attacked, it has every right to defend itself, but how it defends itself matters greatly to God.

When I was a police officer working south of Seattle, Washington, I was allowed to defend myself if attacked, but that didn’t always mean that “anything goes.” If I was kicked in the leg, I had no right to shoot a person (nor should I even want to). However, if someone was swinging a machete at my head, deadly force would have been authorized. Just as we have to look at the motive of the attacker, the motive in the response is equally important in the eyes of God. This could be the issue some have with Israel on the other side, saying that the method in which they are responding is unjustified.

Ultimately, war results from sin in the world, and we will always deal with sin until Christ returns. War and physical conflict arouse the flesh in a way humanity is unfamiliar with unless they’ve personally encountered it. I’ve been to war when as an Army officer, and I’ve fought on the streets as a cop. I know one thing to be true: you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to keep your emotions in check so that you can do what NEEDS to be done, and nothing more. I also know this: Every nation that has turned its back on Israel has fallen.

Let us not join that group. Let us pray for the resolution of this conflict. Let us pray for those who attack Israel to stop. If Israel is not attacked, then there won’t be a need for a counter-attack. Let that sink in.

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Shane Winnings (550k social reach)  is a military veteran, a former law enforcement officer, and a Spirit-led evangelist. He serves as the CEO of well-known Christian men’s ministry, Promise Keepers, president of Overcomers Inc., a nonprofit geared towards equipping believers to endure through the trials of life. Shane is a social media influencer averaging 5 million views from students and believers on his YouTube channel, and hosts a popular podcast, Pursuing Jesus, ranked top 50 Christian podcasts.