BF&Q pp 217-308
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WAR AND PEACE
Facts 3 Like the ancient Greeks, the Philistines sometimes decided the outcome of a war by choosing a champion from each army. The champions then fought each other on behalf of each army (See 1 Samuel 17:9). Gideon overheard a Midianite telling his friend his dream in which “a round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp” (Judges 7:13). God often revealed things in dreams in the Old Testament. The unusual feature here is that both the dreamer and the interpreter were not Israelites. The minor prophets reminded God’s people about the vital principle that God himself should be trusted and not any weapons of war. “I will save them–not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God” (Hosea 1:7). Hezekiah “blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David” (2 Chronicles 32:30). The Siloam Inscription still exists in the middle of the 600 yard long tunnel, describing in Hebrew how the work to build this tunnel began at opposite ends and met in the middle. After a battle the Israelites often observed a ban, called a herem. This meant that a whole city, including its people and possessions, were set apart for God. Israelites were not allowed to appropriate any spoils for themselves. God did not want the Israelites to think that their own righteousness enabled them to conquer the Promised Land. “No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations” (Deuteronomy 9:4). David, on the run from King Saul, had the opportunity to kill Saul, and was urged to do so by his men, but said that he would not lift his hand against the Lord’s anointed. David believed that Saul was king by the sanction of God and had been anointed for this purpose. In Hebrew poetry the shield is often used as a symbol of the power and security that a believer finds in God. The poet-warrior David wrote, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped” (Psalm 28:7).
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When the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem, God rescued the city in a remarkable way. “An angel of the Lord went out and put to death a 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp” (2 Kings 19:35).
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