Everyone claims that they long for peace
But then see how they crave contention with the “other side”
And even cheer for acts of violence against them.
They are not open about their lust for savagery
They are restrained only by the need to maintain appearances.
But one day, they will not feel that restraint any longer
And then the true terrors will begin.
Many have envisioned a utopia where there is no more war and strife. Many have proposed by what method we could achieve such universal peace, though every attempt has failed. It is a strange paradox. Whether we have peace or not is obviously in our own hands, and it is hard to think of a more common goal, so why does it continually evade us? Why can’t we just stop fighting?
Because we are not made for peace.
We are a people that are designed to do battle. It is simply in our nature to fight. It is in our nature to draw a line and make war with whatever is on the other side of it. Yes, there is a part of us that craves calm and rest, but that part will always be overrun by our stronger, warrior nature. Battle is inevitable, and all of us are called to it. The need for war isn’t lessened by previous victories or having a rich life. The previous fathers’ wars do not satiate the hot blood of the rising generation.
This principle was found to be true in the shocking Universe 25 experiment with rats. The rodents were given a perfect Rat Utopia, with all the food, space, and sociality that they needed to thrive. And in every case, the rats eventually turned to self-destruction and brought about their own extinction. We may not be rats, but we carry that same fire within us.
But just because we are made to battle, does not mean that we have to use it for evil. Indeed, our warrior heart was given to us for a good purpose, and it is only when we twist it or suppress it that it bursts out in violence and hate.
God gave us warrior hearts so that we would have the motivation to battle our own inner demons. God made us restless in times of peace, because there is no end to the onslaught of temptation. God made us itch for a fight so that we wouldn’t be complacent about our flaws.
All of our lives are meant to be a struggle, though in the afterlife it may very well be different. Perhaps the part of us that yearns for peace looks to the afterlife, while the part of us that yearns for a fight looks to this life.
But one has to choose to wage war with the inner man. One can, instead, run from that fight, surrender to his worst impulses, and then his warlike nature has nowhere to go but outward. Even worse, because he gave control of his spirit up to the author of evil, his noble warrior heart becomes corrupted to one of cruelty.
Trying to numb our desire to fight is misguided. That is trying to change our fundamental nature, which we cannot do.
Peace in this life will not be found by removing our desire to fight, but by each of us turning that fight inwards. Conflict never dies, but it can be transplanted. The global conflict can be internalized by the populace. We will only know peace in our society as we each accept that we will never know peace individually.
It may be a sobering reality: a lifetime of never-ending battle within the heart, but ironically, you can make peace with that war. You can accept it as a necessary component of life, something that you just have to do, and then it becomes easier. There are no easy answers, but there are at least answers.
27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
28 And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
God continues His promises, now detailing how He will fight Israel’s wars for them, breaking down their enemies before Israel even arrives. Verse 28 promises that the Lord will even send a plague of hornets to drive them out.
As it turns out, we do not hear of the fulfillment of that prophecy in the books of scripture. It may have very well occurred, just no record of it has survived to this day. Other scholars have suggested that “hornets” may not have been meant literally, that the Lord may have just been saying He would send all manner of afflictions and plagues to wear the enemies down and drive them from the land. If this interpretation is correct, then it may be primarily a reference to the Egyptians, who would, in fact, break many of these nations in the campaigns of Ramses III.
Yet in the midst of all this dramatic conquest the Lord also shows a well-thought-out strategy. If all the enemy is driven out in a single year, the land will be ravaged by the destruction and the Israelites would have more fields than they can handle. By driving them slowly, by degrees, there would be less sudden brutality upon the land and the Israelites would be able to gradually take over those places.
13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi:
16 For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
At the end of the day, Joshua and the Israelite army prevailed and the Amalekites suffered a loss. However this was only a setback for the Amalekites, not an utter defeat. Nevertheless, the Lord used this opportunity to vow that He would, ultimately, “utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek.”
It is worth considering, has this vow been fulfilled? Referring to the Biblical record, it was almost accomplished in Saul’s military campaign, but Saul stopped short of the Lord’s mandate, and was sharply reproved for that, allowing the Amalekites to limp on, eventually becoming a thorn in the side of Israel once more.
We have no record that states the Amalekites were ever, completely eradicated, at least not by the Israelites. Perhaps they were conquered by the Assyrians or the Babylonians, or perhaps they were assimilated into other cultures, and the people have been “put out of remembrance” that way. Or, perhaps the people are still present to this day, and the Lord is biding His time before fulfilling His declaration.
A prophecy that we do know was fulfilled was the one given in verse 16. The Lord assured the Israelites that they would war with the Amalekites for generations, and as discussed yesterday, that most certainly did occur. Depending on whatever became of the Amalekites, perhaps in some form the feud still goes on even today.
Recovery is a multi-stage journey. I, and many of the other addicts that I have known, experienced an initial battle with temptation and eventually a victory over it, only to feel new battles springing up around us some time later. After the initial success, we tend to experience setbacks, or new addictions forming off to the side, and it makes us doubt the control we thought we had gained. Most great battles in recovery seem to be followed by a sequel.
As I have reflected on this phenomenon, the thought has occurred to me that the more you press against your foe, delving further into the heart of enemy territory, the more unpredictable and treacherous the terrain becomes. The initial push and triumph in recovery feels fantastic, but that is nothing more than breaking through the front lines. Yes, it is a victory, but you have yet to capture the capitol. Or, to shift metaphors, perhaps you have chased the bear from your home, but in so doing you have followed it into its lair where greater challenges await.
Virtually every addict finds that his bad behavior comes about by the following sequence:
The first fight for recovery has to do with short-circuiting this pattern. The addict learns how to manage or mitigate his pain, removing unnecessary afflictions, ending negative relationships, and stopping behaviors that add stress. Less frustration means less dejection, and less dejection makes him stronger against temptation.
And this is all well and good, but the solution will last only as long as his management and mitigation efforts are effective. Sooner or later life will throw something new and unexpected, as it always does, and all his perceived progress will be undone. He will find out that his sobriety is dependent on life being easy, and no one’s life is always easy.
So the addict must go further into enemy territory, deeper into the heart of the problem. Sooner or later he has to learn to break the connection between the pain of life and becoming dejected. He has to learn how to be peaceful and content, no matter the simultaneous pain. This is a very difficult thing to do, of course, but if he can succeed in this critical battle, then the world will no longer have any power over him. He will have captured the heart of the enemy’s power, and the war will be over.
20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
21 And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
We have not heard of Miriam since she followed baby Moses floating down the river as a baby (the common assumption being that Miriam was the unnamed sister in that story). Now we hear that she had grown to be a prophetess in her own right, and apparently a leader of women. At her example, all of the women joined in music and song and dance. I would assume the song that they sang was the same one we were given over the last nineteen verses.
I find something very appropriate in it being the voices of women that sang praises for the miraculous avoidance of war. War is antithetical to the female instinct to put down roots and build a home. War undoes the miracle of life that emerges from the body of the woman. War and womanhood are completely at odds to one another, so it is very fitting that it was the voices of women praising that war, itself, had been defeated that day.
14 The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.
15 Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.
16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.
Sandwiched between two verses that speak of God’s salvation of Israel, we have the contrasting description of fear being invoked in the hearts of every pagan nation. This structure seems to convey a message that Israel would have peace, but it would come by the destruction of their enemies at the hand of the Lord. The dissolution of evil is the core of peace for the righteous.
Throughout these verses we hear that Palestine, Edom, Moab, and all the other inhabitants of Canaan would be made to feel afraid, sorrowful, amazed, trembling, and dread. In other words, every enemy of the Lord would be given to every negative emotion. Bold words from the Israelites, a people not known for any military prowess since Abraham rescued Lot hundreds of years earlier! But having a military mismatch and being outnumbered didn’t really matter. This song was not saying that these pagan nations would be put to fright by Israel, but “by the greatness of thine arm, O Lord.”
I wonder whether the Israelites understood yet that they would be the tool in the Lord’s hands for this particular work. They had just witnessed what things He could do by commanding the winds, the heavens, and the sea, but did they realize that He would be commanding them, too? It would, even as they say here in this song, be God’s work, and by His hand, but it would be done by His arm becoming flesh through them.
I’ve tried to focus this study on the words and example of Christ, using his behavior and attitudes as the model for his followers to emulate. By studying his example directly I have found two main takeaways. Let’s review each.
The first lesson that I learned was that the correct action for a disciple to take in response to evil is more nuanced and case-specific than I had expected. I learned that we cannot just apply a static rule to predetermine each behavior for all time, but rather that we must have a living connection with God to steer us rightly in each and every situation.
In every great war there are times of attack, times of defense, and even times of strategic sacrifice. God is actively waging war with evil, across a front that is constantly shifting and moving. We are but foot-soldiers, with only a narrow view of the field. If we find ourselves waiting for orders we must conduct ourselves according to what seems best from our perspective, but when the higher command is given, it trumps anything that we thought up to that point. Only the General has the perspective over the whole, and knows the greater movements that are at play.
Perhaps we do not feel it in our nature to go on the offensive, publicly declaring truth and renouncing sin, but if the General needs a victory in this sector it is our duty to give it to Him. Perhaps it feels wrong to us to silently suffer oppression and derision, but if the General is allowing the enemy to make camp in our valley, we must be willing to pull back, remembering that this is but one step in His long and intricate dance.
In short, it is up to God when we are to be bold and when we are to be meek. There are examples when Christ was fierce, and examples when he was mild, all according to the larger, broader plan. So, too, it must be for us.
Something else that I learned from my study is that there are limitations on the acts permitted for Christ’s disciples to take. We are at times called to act in many different ways, but that doesn’t mean we are going to be called to act in every way. Some tactics are outside of our Master’s strategy guide, and we cannot employ them as His servants.
Most particularly, it is not for man to condemn another. The Lord taught, “of you it is required to forgive all men,” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:10).” In none of the examples that I studied was there any reason to assume that we are ever called to permanently dye another’s soul black and call them a lost cause.
Firstly, we must not do that because we never know the full picture. Secondly, even if we did have the full picture of another person, their beginning and their ending, their inner thoughts and motivations, the state of their very heart, it would still not be right for us to pronounce final judgment upon them because it simply isn’t our place to do so. Even if we could judge them rightly, it just isn’t our job to do it. “The keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there,” (2 Nephi 9:41).
But that isn’t to say that the worldly cry of “don’t judge me!” is in harmony with Christ’s examples either. There are two salient points that need to be understood in combination with the fact that we have no right to condemn one another.
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It is a careful balance we are called to walk as disciples of Christ. How wisely he said that we were to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves,” (Matthew 10:16). We do not condemn our brothers, but we do condemn sin. We do not stand in final judgment, but we do forewarn what God has revealed for when that judgment comes. We are ready to fight and ready to endure, to reproach and to hold our peace, all at the direction of our Heavenly General. We are adaptable to the situation and the command, but consistent in God’s spirit through it all. He is our one constant in this intricate, dangerous dance.
The Old Testament gives accounts of the people of Israel being an extension of the Lord to bring judgment and condemnation upon the pagan nations of Canaan. It also gives accounts of them going to war when not as an extension of the Lord, and suffering disastrous results.
As an example of the first we have God instructing the Israelites to circle the city of Jericho, following a very precise ritual that resulted in the walls of the city collapsing to the ground. The Israelites charged in and won a tremendous victory that day. As an example of the second we have the Israelites going up to battle with the Philistines with the Ark of the Covenant in 1 Samuel 4. God had not commanded them to go up to this fight, and as a result Israel lost 30,000 footmen, were forced to retreat, and the Ark of the Covenant was lost to their enemies.
I think in these opposing examples there is a lesson for when we should battle with the enemies of the church, and when we should hold our peace. We must always remember that we are the foot-soldiers and God is the general. This is His fight to fight. It is up to Him to decide when the field is right for battle and when it isn’t. The choice is His, not ours. Our duty is simply to obey. In both of the stories, the Israelites were willing to fight the Lord’s enemies, the difference was that the time to do so was right in the first instance, and not in the second.
As you see the enemies of God’s kingdom throwing their insults and barbs at the walls of the church, claiming victories and taking souls as they go, you may feel a great desire to leap into the fray, tearing them down in similar manner. But it is imperative to ask yourself, has God actually called you to fight that fight? And has He called you to fight that fight right now?
Having the courage and the desire to fight for God’s kingdom is, in-and-of-itself, a good thing, but it must be bounded by God’s will for when and how. Wage the right war when the time is right to do so, and in the meantime hold the line and be faithful.
17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: 18 But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. 19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.
Today’s verses give a few tidbits of information about the manner in which Israel departed Egypt. Let’s take a look at each of them in order.
First of all, the Israelites already knew what their destination was, but there remained the question of which route to take get there. Verse 17 suggests that the most direct route would have been through the land of the Philistines, but God would not allow it. His people were fresh in this world, newly exposed to its dangers in a way that they had not been for centuries. Yes, servitude in Egypt had not been ideal, but at least it had come with the protection of the Egyptian armies. Traveling through hostile Philistia would introduce the people to war sooner than they were ready for it. Thus, God commanded that they take the longer but safer route through the wilderness.
While Israel might not have been deemed ready to face battle, verse 18 does say that they were “harnessed,” which means arrayed in military fashion. They did not wander forward as an unordered blob, but structured into proper rows and columns and companies, like soldiers marching to war. This might have been to improve order, and also to begin their training for the battles that they would eventually be required to face.
Finally, verse 19 makes the point that the Israelites took the bones of Joseph with them, fulfilling the prophecy that he had made many years prior. What a long sojourn from the Promised Land this had been for him. The last time that Canaan had been Joseph’s home was just before his brothers sold him into slavery. He was the original Egyptian-Hebrew, and his bones had rested among his people in that land for centuries. But, in spite of the years apart, he was still a son of a patriarch, and the Promised Land was his proper resting place. At long last, he was being brought back to where he belonged.
Spiritual Wanderings 