Jesus at War - Was Christ really at war ? Who was He really having a war with ? Was there a great blood shed as it happened to be like we see in history ?
Let us see Deuteronomy Chapter 20, here we see Moses giving the commandments to the people of Israel concerning about the war and its principles that have to be followed. The literal form of these commandments are to be received and followed by the people of Israel for their life time, but it didn't, by the time of King Saul. But as to King Jesus, these norms and conditions didn't apply. To learn it more clearly we should see Deuteronomy Chapter 20, Spiritually.
Moses starts his message of God with an assurance to the people of Israel (Deut.20:1), as like Prophet Isaiah speaks of an assurance from the Lord (Father) Himself regarding Jesus assuring that not to be afraid of satan, because I (Father) am sending forth my Son (Jesus) to break the yoke of his (man's) burden (Is.9:4), and God the Father speaking through the Prophet Micah that His Son (Jesus) as Ruler is going to establish an everlasting kingdom (Mic.5:2). This is a great assurance to the people of Israel from Moses not to be afraid of war because, "for the Lord thy God is with thee", (Deut.20:1) and in a spiritual sense, it is like sending an angel to Jesus who was not exactly afraid of war with satan but, He was definitely going through a great pain at garden of Gethsemane (Lk.22:43) assuring Jesus that He (Father) was with Him, at the time of war.
To make this learning simpler, let us make Father and Son as like One and the same, because in (Jn.14:8-10) Jesus, Himself confesses that He and Father are One and the same.
Now, further more in (Deut.20:2) priest should approach to the people at war, Priest, in spiritual sense is Jesus Himself, because (Heb.7:27,28) assures us this. Now the Priest is Jesus and as well as people at war in (Deut.20:1) is also in fact Jesus as we already read in (Lk.22:43). In (Deut.20:3,4) the priest is also assuring the people at war, not to be afraid of, so as we already read concerning this point of meditation. But to culminate this point at the end of v4 as we already saw the Father and Son as One, v4 "to save you" (the people at war) is co-related to (Jn.10:17,18) where we see Jesus as the one who lay his life as well as get back His life again.
Now, lets move a little further (Deut.20:5) we are introduced to a new person, Officer who is also giving some orders to his army, the word officer in hebrew mean an Overseer and also mean An Officer in the Military, which we are rendering it to Jesus who was at real war with satan. In (Rev.19:11-21), in v11 we see Jesus as the One who is seated on the white horse who was called Faithful and True, and in Righteousness He doth judge and make war, and in v14 we see Jesus was followed by the armies which were in heaven to make war with the beast and the false prophet. So, the Officer of (Deut.20:5) is equal to as our meditation is concerned to Jesus in (Rev:19:11-21).
Let us see the orders that are passed by the officer in (Deut.20:5-8), here we can see he is making a special order to those of the new house owners who have not dedicated it, to the farmers who planted a vineyard and not eaten of its fruit, to a man who is betrothed and not married and also to a coward in the army.
The house owner is Jesus where He has built His invisible house, the Kingdom of God as we can see this in Jesus having conversation with Pilate (Jn.18:36) and also that (Mk.1:15) says that Jesus was going to build a house i.e. the Kingdom of God. But in (Deut.20:5-8) there is an exception given to the people at war to go back and have their house dedicated i.e. to dwell in their house by not coming to war. Jesus having constructed His house i.e. the Kingdom of God here in our midst, He can only dwell in His house in the time to come which is not yet proper, cannot be exempted from war with satan, but He is the only one who can make war.
To the next one who is a farmer who has planted a vineyard and not yet tasted its fruit, Jesus is also a Farmer who has come here to sow the seed of Kingdom of God in our hearts, mind and soul (Matt.13:3-9 and 18-23) not just He is a Farmer but He is also the True Vine (Jn.15:1-6), He sowed Himself in us to produce fruit, but He ascended to heaven by not tasting the fruit that we produced. He ascended to make war with satan (continue reading till the explanation of two wars by Jesus) for our sake but the farmer in (Deut.20:6) was exempted from war.
To the next verse we see here all the men that were betrothed to a maid but have not married were excluded from war. We learn that the whole book of Song of Songs was written by the writer to explain the intense relationship between God and His Church. The Church is His Maid which was betrothed. It will be much more clear when we look (Lk.14:14,15), here we can see that there is a banquet that is going to take place in the course of time after "resurrection of the just" and who ever is present in that banquet (Lk.14:16-23) is blessed. From the above discussion we are clear that the "resurrection of the just" hasn't took place yet (Rapture), so the Church which is His maid was not married to Him. So, Jesus who is at war with satan is also a betrothed Man but not married. Even though Jesus was not a married man He was not exempted from going to war with satan.
Now to v8, fear, those who are afraid of war can also leave to their houses. But we already saw in (Lk.22:41-43) that Jesus as man was going through a great pain at garden of Gethsemane but in v42 He was not exempting Himself but was fully surrendered to His Father to make war with satan. Not just He but He is also making us ready that the world would treat us the way it treated Himself (Matt.10:16-42) so, do not be afraid.
From here on as we meditate we travel much more deeper into the revelation of God. Let us meditate on (Deut.20:10-18). In the above read verses we come to know that there are two specific laws given by Moses one war against far away territories and two against the territories that were promised to the people of Israel. We are going to have a look at both of these wars in a spiritual sense i.e. one, that Jesus fought against satan for us on the cross and two, that Jesus going to make a final war against satan.
If we see the v15, Jesus is making war with far of territories. Let us pause here and let us concentrate on satan, in (Ezek.28:12b-15), satan was an angel of the Lord who was given full of wisdom, perfect in beauty, freedom of will and independence in heaven, but it was his arrogance which rebelled against God, in (Is.14:12-14) we see how arrogant he is saying himself that he will ascend into heaven, exalt his throne above God, not just that, he is making himself parallel to God most High. It was this arrogance that made him steal the mankind by making him sin against God and His Government. We read in (Ex.22:1) and in (Prov.6:31) that as the law of God teaches us that if the thief was found who robbed our "life" will have to re - pay back seven times that was robbed. But to note the fact that in (Matt.8:12) and so on we come to know that there was wailing and gnashing of teeth in his kingdom, excluding these harsh and enviest things Jesus on cross in His first war with satan brought back our life and hope which were robbed by satan in the garden of Eden. Now coming back to (Deut.20:13,14), Jesus killing all the sin and curse and its effects (to assume like killing male in v13) and taking back seven fold (is to assume like taking the little ones, the cattle, the women (who can also be married (Deut.21:10-13) etc., in v14) on the cross is the first war. The importance of the blood of Jesus on cross and its victory can also be noted in (Rev.12:10,11).
Now we will focus bit further (Deut.20:16-18). Here we can see a second war that was going to take place after the resurrection of the just (Lk.14:14). In (Rev.20:4-10) we see of this war that is going to take place, when satan and all his followers from four corners of the earth will gather to make war against Jesus where all will be destroyed by the Holy Fire from heaven from Jesus (assume that in Deut.20:16,17, not leaving anything alive or breatheth as the followers of satan in Rev.20:8). This is how Jesus is going to claim victory by casting satan and his followers into the lake of fire and brimstone for ever and ever.
Now coming to the end of the chapter (Deut.20:20), Moses says to the people at war to use the trees that doesn't give fruit to make bulwarks (a person or thing that protects or defends something, a wall built as a defence - Oxford Dictionary and the meaning of the word in this context in hebrew is a methodical attack on people, city, or country in order to overcome and conquer it or to the period of time when it occur (Ezek.4:8), engines of siege in this context). Jesus is using His Cross on which He gave His Life for us, where Jesus is using the Cross as a Siege Tower and the Will to conquer the effects of sin and curse on man from the time of Adam and Eve as Battering Ram, broke the walls of the kingdom of satan and made us free from the bondage of satan.
That is why who ever believes in Jesus will have Life and Life in Abundance (Jn.10:10b). At the close I want to remind you of one verse from (Jn.6:40) to know the will of God the Father and our Faith in His Only Son Jesus to have Life in Eternal and to be the People who would be raised to Life on the last day to be like Priests in His Kingdom for ever and ever.
This is what God wants us to know, the plan for Eternity through Jesus, to get us back to our original nature and the likeness of God Himself so was a war with satan inevitable.
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