Old Testament Warfare

It is important to understand general principles of Old
Testament warfare because they are also applicable to spiritual warfare in today's world.

1. In a properly conducted war authorized by God, He promised protection to the warriors in Deuteronomy 20:1-4.

2. Israel's enemies were God's enemies. The people were to trust in Him for victory rather than their own strength according to Judges 5:31 and Exodus 17:16. When they did this, God fought with them.

3. The ark of the covenant served as the symbol of God's presence with the Israelites during battle. The ark went before the armies of Israel to symbolize God's active
presence with His people. It had no power in itself, but was only a symbol of God's presence with His people according to 1 Samuel 4:1-11. In the New Testament, Jesus said in John 14:16, 17 that the Holy Spirit was to dwell in believers and was God's actual, active presence within them.

4. Deuteronomy 23:9-14 reminds us if God was to fight for His people, they had to be holy. They were to
separate themselves from anything sinful.

5. Judges 7:1-6) says the fearful were exempted from war because cowards will turn and run in the middle of the battle.

6. People engaged in the affairs of life were exempted from war. Deuteronomy 20:5-8 records that a recently married man did not go to war for one year. This was because he was primarily concerned with his wife, setting up a household, getting established, etc. He was too busy with these affairs of life to be effective in warfare. This is why Paul warns Timothy "No man that
warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of life" in 2 Timothy 2:4. Jesus also warned us about being overcome with the cares of the world. In the prophecy of Daniel, we learn that one of the main end time strategies of the antichrist is to "wear away the saints of God" by the affairs of this life.

7. Numbers 31:10, 11 says God's people were to fight until the enemy was completely destroyed.

8. The walls surrounding Israeli cities were important to their defense. These walls were approximately 10 feet in width and as high as 30 feet. Watchmen watched from the top of the walls for enemy activity. The New Testament compares the believer to a "city set on a hill". You have spiritual walls of defense against the enemy.

9. Judges 7:18 declares a trumpet signal by the commander in chief opened each battle and, when it was
over, the trumpet called the soldiers away from the fight as explained in 2 Samuel 2:28 and 18:16. Jesus sounded
the trumpet in the spirit world when He commissioned us to go into all the world with the Gospel and gave us power over the enemy in Matthew 28:18-20. Someday in the future a trumpet will call us away from the fight as Paul decreed in 2 Thessalonians 4:16-18.