The NXR Podcast - DAILY TRUTH - Just War Theory & Biblical Genocide

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00:00:28.200 Matthew Henry, a late great Puritan and commentating on our text today, says the following,

00:00:33.120 nothing could justify this military execution, but that herein they did exactly as the Lord God

00:00:41.420 of Israel commanded. We see that in verse 40 of our text, which was sufficient not only to save

00:00:48.020 them, that is Israel, to save them from the imputation of guilt and cruelty, but also to

00:00:55.680 sanctify, not only to spare them to maintain a sense of moral innocence that they wouldn't be

00:01:01.200 guilty of cruelty, but also to sanctify what Israel did and make it an acceptable piece of

00:01:08.660 service to God's justice. So what Israel is doing, remember the text that I've just read,

00:01:14.440 what we're seeing, the whole text can be summed up in this. What we're seeing is Joshua is going

00:01:18.960 to city, to city, to city, town, to town, to town, king, to king, to king, and he's slaughtering

00:01:25.220 everyone. And the Lord loves it. It's good. It's just. It's right. Now, the point is, that's unique.

00:01:36.480 No country today has this kind of prescription or commandment from God today.

00:01:43.620 It would be incredibly wicked to go into another nation, as wicked as that nation might be,

00:01:51.200 and to offer no quarter to anyone, to slaughter not only the fighting men, but also the women

00:01:57.340 and the children. Today, in this gospel age, church age, New Testament age, we are to operate

00:02:04.540 underneath the principles of just war theory. And just war theory, well, there's multiple

00:02:11.920 different nuance factors going on, but a few of them is that the war, the cause of the war itself

00:02:16.760 must be just. It can't just be to go and pillage somebody else because they have a resource

00:02:23.140 that you want. There needs to be a just cause for the war. There need to be just fighting tactics

00:02:29.620 in the war. And there has to be a quarter provided for those who would seek to surrender.

00:02:36.740 There actually are. One of the seven different factors of just war theory coming from St.

00:02:42.640 Augustine and other guys who have refined it over the centuries, is that there has to first be

00:02:48.660 thorough diplomatic efforts that have been employed. That fighting, physical warfare,

00:02:55.140 is not the first effort. It's not your first resort. There's been diplomatic efforts

00:03:02.140 made. Now that said, hear me, that doesn't mean that God has changed. Behold, I am the Lord,

00:03:09.380 I change it not so that you, the sons of Jacob are not consumed. I am the same yesterday, today,

00:03:15.020 and forevermore. God is not a man that he should change his mind. God doesn't change. So God does

00:03:22.360 still wipe out entire nations, including women and children. The difference is that he doesn't

00:03:29.740 use another nation and their militia in order to do it while justifying that nation. God does this

00:03:38.020 providentially. So nations that are seeking to honor the Lord today, Joshua and Israel honored

00:03:43.760 the Lord when they put women and children to the sword. It's not only that God's commandment,

00:03:49.620 it was an express, explicit commandment from the Lord to put everyone to death. And that commandment

00:03:55.640 from the Lord, it didn't just absolve Joshua and Israel from guilt, but actually it's more than

00:04:01.040 just that. It didn't only absolve them from moral guilt, but it also sanctified what they were doing

00:04:07.640 as a pleasing service to the Lord.

00:04:10.800 So not only were they not doing bad,

00:04:13.120 they were doing good in the sight of God.

00:04:16.520 Not only being absolved from moral guilt,

00:04:19.500 but sanctifying their warfare as a service

00:04:22.560 that was pleasing to the Lord.

00:04:24.300 That's not going on anymore today.

00:04:26.780 However, God has not changed.

00:04:29.280 God does still decimate nations.

00:04:31.560 And at times, God does wipe out entire nations,

00:04:35.220 entire populations, including women and children.

00:04:37.340 but he does not do it through another nation's militia in such a way that that nation would be

00:04:44.120 justified and morally right. God does it providentially. He might do it through war,

00:04:51.100 but then in terms of wiping out not just the fighting men in war, but wiping out an entire

00:04:56.120 nation's population, he would do it through other providential means. He would do it through famine.

00:05:00.900 He would do it through plague, right?

00:05:03.900 Or he might use another nation that does put everyone to death,

00:05:07.380 not just the fighting men, but an entire population.

00:05:09.920 But that nation wouldn't be just.

00:05:11.740 God would providentially be using that nation.

00:05:14.200 That nation would bear its own guilt.

00:05:16.200 They wouldn't be righteous.

00:05:17.120 But God would maintain his righteousness in his sovereignty

00:05:20.560 using this nation and its own sin, its own sinful warlike practices.

00:05:27.220 God would still absolve his own righteousness

00:05:29.380 in doing what is good and what is just,

00:05:32.060 but this nation would not be absolved of moral guilt.

00:05:35.060 They would actually be going too far.

00:05:36.860 They would be doing something in the sight of God

00:05:39.000 that would be wicked.

00:05:40.120 And later on, God would probably use another nation

00:05:42.540 or some other providential means such as famine

00:05:44.940 or drought or plague to judge this nation.

00:05:47.680 And that's what you see in the Old Testament

00:05:49.340 again and again and again,

00:05:50.820 is that God will use, he'll raise up one nation,

00:05:53.960 often in order as a judgment to Israel

00:05:56.400 for their hardened hearts, for the rebellion against God.

00:05:59.560 He'll raise up one nation.

00:06:00.600 He'll use that nation as his rod and his sovereignty

00:06:04.320 to discipline Israel.

00:06:07.540 And then later on, the very nation that he used,

00:06:10.100 that he raised up and underneath his sovereignty,

00:06:12.520 he caused them to come against Israel.

00:06:14.580 He'll then use Israel going back or another nation

00:06:18.200 to judge this nation that he used to discipline Israel.

00:06:22.220 Meaning that God is sovereignty,

00:06:24.120 he's sovereignly working in such a way that he is not the author of evil. He is not the origin

00:06:30.420 of anything that is sinful. God is righteous. Let God be true and every man a liar is what the

00:06:36.620 scripture says. So God is working in such a way that all his ways are holy and he may use one

00:06:42.740 group of people to do one thing and his purposes in doing that are holy and good and just. But the

00:06:50.220 nation that he uses, their purposes, their intent, their moral fabric is wicked and wrong. And so he

00:06:57.460 uses them to bring judgment to these people over here. And then he uses someone else to bring

00:07:02.140 judgment to these people that he just used to bring judgment to the prior. I know it's a little

00:07:07.400 bit complicated, but that's, that's the point of what we see going on. Again, it's twofold

00:07:12.240 because, and the reason why I'm laboring this is because people, because I don't want our church to

00:07:17.500 unhitch from the Old Testament. That's why. People read the Old Testament, and they render it

00:07:24.300 impotent. They say, this is not who God is anymore. God has changed. God doesn't do this.

00:07:30.120 You know, we're not Israel, and that's true. We are Israel if we're speaking to the church. We're

00:07:34.840 not Israel if we're speaking of America, right? This is Old Covenant. Now we're under grace,

00:07:39.760 New Testament. And what you effectively do is you basically just make the entirety of the Old

00:07:45.640 Testament, a bunch of fables and myths and stories for kids. And that's not how we study the

00:07:51.600 scripture. That's not what the Bible is. This is the infallible word of God. So yes, there is not

00:07:57.140 a nation state like Israel was, not today, but under the old covenant that God has promised to

00:08:03.960 bring into a particular geographic region and give them that land as an inheritance. It's true that

00:08:11.540 that is over. No more of that. But that is not the only thing occurring in the book of Joshua.

00:08:17.520 So what I want to be on the forefront of your minds as we work through multiple texts today

00:08:22.620 is this. There are two things, not one, but two things happening throughout the entirety of the

00:08:27.500 book of Joshua. One, God is fulfilling his good promises to Israel. Two, God is fulfilling his

00:08:35.480 just judgments to non-Israel. And that second part, that is just as alive and well today

00:08:44.340 as it was 3,000 years ago. God still raises up nations and decimates nations.

The NXR Podcast - September 05, 2023

DAILY TRUTH - Just War Theory & Biblical Genocide

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