Divine Warfare

There is a reason for my lack of posts lately. The excuse, this time, is that I've had too much homework. But, after thinking about it for a few seconds I decided that my excuse isn't a very good one. This is me killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Here are some thoughts from my study on the theme of Divine Warfare in the Bible, focusing on its culmination in the New Testament. Instead of putting all the documentation in for the quotes--from what was originally in footnotes--I will just tell you that most of the quotes will be from "Warfare" by Tremper Longman on page 835 of the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology and from An Old Testament Theology by Bruce Waltke. If you would like to know exactly where any of these quotes are taken, please let me know. It shouldn't be too academic, I found it to be very edifying.

DIVINE WARFARE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus is the ultimate divine warrior who, “won the greatest battle of all, not by killing but by dying.” What we find in the New Testament is a warfare that, as predicted by God’s prophets, moves its focus from political power and victory to warfare that is spiritual in nature and accomplishment. Jesus intensifies the divine battle, focusing his attention, “not on mere human evil, but on the spiritual powers and principalities.”

Jesus Christ as the Divine Warrior

The anticipation expressed in the Exilic and Postexilic prophets is picked up by Matthew quoting John the Baptist who speaks of the one he later recognizes to be Jesus saying:
"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:11-12).
But, to John’s surprise, Jesus wages war with spiritual weapons; healing the sick, casting out demons, and preaching the Gospel. The divine warrior’s victory work was taking upon himself the violence of the cross, which Paul understands “in terms of warfare; he describes the death of Christ as disarming the powers and authorities (Col. 2:15), and the ascension of Christ as a victory parade with the prisoners of war in the victor’s train (Eph. 4:7-8, with a quotation from Ps. 68, a divine warrior hymn).” Again, in Waltke’s word’s, “Jesus does not aim to overthrow Rome but through his humiliation and death achieves a greater victory—he vanquishes sin and death.” Jesus’ work on the cross was an accomplishment in receiving the wrath of God in place of those who put their faith in Him. It was also an example for those he would gather into his Church, of what kind of warfare lay ahead of them, and how they should engage in it.

The Church in Present Spiritual Warfare

The advance of God’s kingdom through his church is not accomplished in the violent acts of its people. Instead, it progresses as it’s members, like Christ, “suffer for righteousness, and even though wronged, turn the other cheek to the oppressor’s blows (Matt. 5:3-10, 38-42).” This is demonstrated by the early persecuted church described by Luke in Acts. The war for the believer is also fought, “not with sword, spear and shield, but with spiritual weapons like faith, righteousness and the word of God (Eph. 6:10-18). indeed, the battle is not only outward; it is also in the heart, as indicated by a number of passages which describe believers’ struggles against evil remaining within (Rom. 7:7-25; 2 Cor. 10:1-6).”

Jesus as the Future Warrior

According to passages like Mark 13:26—which says, “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory”—there is still anticipation in this age for more divine warfare to come. Even Jesus was looking forward to a certain future day when he would come in power. As Longman points out, “A second coming of Christ is anticipated and is most fully described in the book of Revelation, in which divine warrior language abounds.” Though the anticipation for a messiah who would be “smitten by God, and afflicted” and wounded for the transgressions of his people (Isaiah 53:4-5) was realized in Christ’s life death and resurrection, there is still the expectation of the Christ who will come with the fire, a winnowing fork in his hand, clearing the threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:11-12). This moment of his return is described for us in Revelation 19:11-16, which, “describes the coming of Christ on a white horse with a sword coming from his mouth. He is followed by the armies of heaven as he ‘judges and makes war’ (v. 11).”

Jesus Is Really God

One thing that I often thought about and was told throughout my Bible Institute education was how much things would change if we “really believed these things!” that we were being taught. This has had a dual effect of making me on the one hand, really inspired to believe the truth of scripture and live accordingly. But on the other hand, it has made me doubt its possibility. Seriously, sitting in Bible classes every day and reading a bunch of books about the Bible leads to me knowing a lot of Bible stuff that I am supposed to “really believe.” There can’t be any way for me to implement 100% of what I know about God in true belief every moment as I am meant to, can there?

With that in mind, I still want to bring out that classic youth group hypothetical challenge, “what if everyone in hear truly believed the truth that they are taught from scripture!” Lets just start with one truth that lays at the cornerstone of our Christian world view, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This clause is most significant in light of John’s opening words in the book, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The word becoming flesh is referring to the man Jesus who lived and died in the near east early in the first century AD. Look at the this whole verse, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This truth is the truth about who Jesus was (or is). Jesus was a man. He is also God.

My challenge, as a person who calls himself Christian, is to be completely convinced of and compelled by this truth. If God really did take on a human body and was with us in this way in order to “bear witness to the truth,” to live the perfect life of obedience to God that we were supposed to live, to die the death that we were supposed to die, to rise again and sit at the right hand of God until he finally comes to earth again in all His glory and power to judge the earth revealing Gods wrath against all sin and making a new heaven and a new earth… If we believe all of this, and trust in it as that which brings us hope, then because of the substance of this truth, the Gospel, it will take precedence over everything else that we live for.

This means that the way I love my friend Mark, is by doing whatever is within my capacity to help him become a man who glorifies God, because according to our worldview that is defined by the Gospel, the thing that will make Mark eternally joyful is making much of God. That is what he was created for. The problem is that often I do not love Mark as I should, really because I fail to believe the Gospel as I should.

Lord we believe, but help our unbelief. You alone can lead us to life giving, hope breathing faith. We are dangerously forgetful, would you remind us of your truth and help us to trust and believe it.