Warfare, nature of

Warfare is characteristic of a fallen world. Scripture describes how some wars are justified and others are not.

Warfare is characteristic of a fallen world

It is an aspect of life in a fallen world

Exodus 17:16; 2 Samuel 3:1; 1 Kings 14:30

It is caused by sin

James 4:1–2 See also Psalm 140:1–2; Proverbs 10:12, Proverbs 29:22; 1 Corinthians 3:3

What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask.

It is horrific in nature

Nahum 3:3 See also 2 Chronicles 25:12; Zechariah 14:2

Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over their dead—

Warfare as a sign of the end times

Matthew 24:6–7 parallels Mark 13:7–8, Luke 21:9–10

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Sometimes God forbids war

Deuteronomy 1:41–42 See also 1 Kings 12:24; 1 Chronicles 22:8; Psalm 68:30, Psalm 120:7

“We have sinned against the LORD,” you replied. “We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God has commanded us.” Then each of you put on his weapons of war, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country. But the LORD said to me, “Tell them not to go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from defeat by your enemies.”

Sometimes God commands war

Joshua 8:1 See also Numbers 31:7; Deuteronomy 20:1–4; Joshua 10:40; Judges 6:16; Psalm 144:1; Isaiah 13:3–4

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. See, I have delivered into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

Warfare is sometimes a means of judgment

1 Samuel 15:2 See also 2 Kings 21:10–15, 2 Kings 24:2–4; Isaiah 10:12–19; Jeremiah 4:14–18

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they opposed them on their way up from Egypt.

God's will that warfare will finally cease

Psalm 46:9; Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3