God's Prerogative (KBS #6)

Dear DJAN Friends,

As you know, the drums of war are beating again in our era. With this in mind, let’s consider a passage, central to the story of Israel, that speaks of the relationship between God and warfare.

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: "I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and my might,

and he has become my salvation;

this is my God, and I will praise him,

my father's God, and I will exalt him.

The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name"

(Exodus 15:1-3).

Exodus 14 tells in prose form the story of the escape from Pharaoh's Egypt which Exodus 15 presents in poetic form. So hear, as well, these verses from chapter 14.

Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still”

(Exodus 14:13-14).

The poem in Exodus 15 is one of the oldest passages in the entire Bible, perhaps dating to the 12th century BCE. Some scholars think it was originally attributed to a woman, the prophet Miriam (see 15:21). In any case, it is a joyous song of deliverance, a deliverance that God has accomplished. Christians have, at times, justified going to war by citing Exodus 15:3–"The Lord is a warrior" (literally, "Yahweh is a man of war")–but doing so misses the point. Yahweh is a man of war so that we need not be. Just as God subdued the waters in creation, sang Miriam, so God has parted the waters for our redemption. "You have only to keep still.” We can hear the protests: The world is full of bad actors, and sometimes we have no choice but to go to war! Perhaps . . . but the Bible, taken as a whole, is clear: War is God's prerogative, not ours, because God's will for us is shalom. Whenever we go to war, God's purpose for humanity has already been distorted.

May God grant us understanding and commitment.

—Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon