Sermon Tone Analysis

Over the past few weeks we’ve been preaching through the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy is presented as Moses’ words to the People of Israel on the doorstep of the promised land – 1500 years before the time of Jesus.

As we’ve been preaching through it over the past few weeks, we’ve been asking what it has to teach us about living as the People of God.

And there have been lots of encouraging things we’ve learnt: we’ve used words like celebrating, just, generous, moral and devoted, to speak about the way we should live.

But if you’re astute, you may have noticed that there has been a tricky issue lurking in the background that we haven’t yet addressed.

An issue that nearly every reader of Deuteronomy, and nearly every reader of the OT has to wrestle with sooner or later.

The issue of war, and attitude of the Old Testament to it.

I say the attitude of the */Old Testament/* to it, because Jesus and the writers of the New Testament have a very extreme attitude to violence.

It’s called non-violence.

Complete non-violence.

We heard read Matthew’s account of Jesus being arrested by a mob the night before he was crucified.

Jesus has been praying in a garden called Gethsemane, and suddenly Judas Iscariot turns up with a gang sent by the chief priests.

And when one of Jesus’ companions drew a sword, and struck one of the mob, what did Jesus say/: “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”/

(Matt 26:52) In response to Jesus’ ethic, many Christians have become pacifists, conscientious objectors in wartime.

And I have to say I have a lot of sympathy with that view myself.

So why then are we preaching on Deuteronomy 20? Which is all about the Israelites going to war.

If a command to take up swords doesn’t seem to fit with Jesus’ attitude why are we bothering?

Well firstly I want to say that I don’t find it an easy passage to read or preach on.

But then I have heard the criticism often leveled at preachers ”You only preach on the bits of the bible you like”.

If we do that then a sort of unreality can creep into our preaching – people start to wonder if we are really preaching the God of the Bible at all, or just our own pet theories.

The last month I’ve been claiming that the book of Deuteronomy is inspired by God and speaks to us today.

So if I decide to skip over a bit I find difficult, can you see how that might be a bit dishonest?

But it’s a bigger than that.

The issue of war is not simply one chapter in the book that we can skip over, it is part of the whole book’s context.

We can’t just take a surgeon’s knife and cut it out.

Remember where this story comes in the whole Bible: the people of Israel are standing on the doorstep to the Land God Promised Them, and they are being told to go into the whole land, conquer it, drive out the current inhabitants and settle there.

No if we’re preaching through Deuteronomy, we must at some stage address this issue.

But the second reason why we are preaching on Deuteronomy 20, is that when we *do* read it in context, as a document of it’s time, it has a lot to say about God’s character and his vision for how his people should live.

Remember one of the biggest mistakes people make when reading the Bible is to rip verses out of their context.

We must always remember that the words of the Bible (OT or NT) were first addressed to people back then, before we can discern God’s word to us today.

We must therefore do some detective work, thinking ourselves into their situation before we rush to conclusions.

One of the biggest differences between The People of God in the Old Testament and the New Testament is that in the OT, God’s People form are a nation state.

Israel.

In the NT, The people of God are nothing of the sort – they are an underground movement.

They transcend every cultural and ethnic barrier.

And we’re the continuation of that movement today -  The followers of Jesus.

One of the tragic realities of Christian history is that commands to take up arms in God’s name from the OT have sometimes been totally misappropriated to contemporary ethnic or national conflicts.

And so as we approach this chapter from Deuteronomy, we need to imagine ourselves into a totally different period of history.

God’s people are a young nation, in a world where tribal conflicts were a day to day reality.

There were no UN peacekeeping envoys of declaration of human rights.

Once they were living in the land God had given them, Israel would inevitably face attack and be required to defend itself.

The question is, as we approach these laws in Deuteronomy: What sort of nation is being described here?

*(1) A NATION THAT CELEBRATES ORDINARY LIFE*

*/Read v 5-7/*

/“The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in it?

Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may begin to live in it.

6 Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it?

Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it.

7 Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her?

Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.”/

Aren’t these verses interesting?

Imagine a nation that lived this out.

The soldiers have just had a pep talk before they go into battle, but then some of the ranks are given permission to leave.

The man who has just built his house, the farmer who has just planted a vineyard, the fiancé not yet married is bride to be.

Deuteronomy is saying something which is very rare in rhetoric about war  -that ordinary life is worth celebrating – and that not even a war should prevent us from doing so .

Moving into a new home, harvesting a first crop, getting married.

I know it is a totally different context, but maybe as Christians we do well to remember this.

That God cares deeply about our lives and our families lives: the ordinary humdrum details and the big occasions we celebrate.

Sometimes churches, Christian organizations, or our sense of drivenness can mean that the latest crusade can crowd out the very life that God wants us to celebrate.

It won’t be war, but it might be a particular ministry, an issue we are campaigning on, an overseas mission trip… No doubt good things in themselves, but if they crowd out the ordinary gifts of life God wants us to celebrate and thank him for– then we will end up impoverished.

One of the terrible things about warfare is that it does just that – the war becomes so important that it pushes aside the importance of ordinary life.

Armies start to treat their soldiers as dispensable resources rather than individual lives because of some supposed higher purpose.

But look with me now at *v8*. and compare it with what we know about World War I

/8 Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted?

Let him go home so that the others will not become disheartened too.”/

You may know that during World War One many soldiers were executed.

The armies wanted to set examples to the troops.

/Do not walk away from our war - we shoot you if you do/.

The men were shot for desertion, mutiny, cowardice (even if it was caused by shell shock or other mental illness).

In total British court martials had 306 soldiers /shot at dawn/.

Among them were 5 New-Zealanders.

It’s very hard to imagine ourselves into the nation of Israel 3500 years ago.

But when we see laid out here laws which celebrate ordinary life.

Which give a dignified way out to soldiers unable to fight.

And then when we turn from a war from a century ago practices which are a long way from these ideals, does it get to start you to wonder.

Maybe there’s something in this chapter from Deuteronomy after all?

*(2) NATION THAT CARES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT*

*/Read v19-20/*

/19 When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit.

Do not cut them down.

Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?

20 However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls./

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t expect to find these verses in Deuteronomy chapter 20.

Concern for the environment, and deforestation in particular, is a massive issue in the 21st Century.

But it’s not something that we expect a small nation state 3500 years ago to be concerned with.

Now I know these verses don’t go into all the consequences of deforestation: increased soil erosion, danger of flash floods, loss of habitat.

Rather they concentrate on a more immediate concern – that the trees are a valuable source of fruit - for this and future generations.

But nevertheless the central words “Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?” have strong emotional appeal to preserve God’s good creation.

Now let’s go back to thinking about our day for a moment.

Environmental concern is a big discussion topic among national leaders.

But can you imagine a modern nation engaged in war restricting its operation because of environmental concerns?

The military authorities wouldn’t stand for it – “We’re involved in a war here – we need to throw everything at it!”

Do you remember what happened in 1985 in Auckland Harbour?

French military authorities were testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific.

When Greenpeace activists were about to set sail to protest against the devastating environmental consequences of these weapons, french spies were sent to sink their ship, the Rainbow Warrior.

And this from a western nation that wasn’t even at war – simply testing weapons.

Now when we read these words from 3500 years ago about preserving trees that could be used to build siege ramps, doesn’t it make you wonder “Maybe there’s something in this chapter from Deuteronomy after all?”

*(3) A NATION WHOSE FIRST INSTINCT IS PEACE*

We’re coming now towards a more challenging part of the passage, about how the Israelites will treat those who they are fighting against.

We’ll look first at the general rules for war, before looking at a much more tricky specific case.