As I was reading Numbers chapter 31 this morning, I was thinking about the first two verses where it was the Lord who commanded them to “Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites.”
I tried to picture this in our day. Would God ever command a people to go to war today? Certainly the Lord has made it clear that there are instances where war may be justified.
Now we all know there is a war going on today. President Bush has declared war on terrorists. Would God have us as a nation avenge ourselves of the deaths that occurred on September 11th, 2001? Would God not have us seek out and destroy those whose desire is to destroy us as a nation? Images of Captain Moroni come to mind. Images of the Lamanites seeking out the Gandianton robbers come to mind.
What are your thoughts?
My thoughts are this:
God would absolutely have use defend ourselves. No question. If the foreign powers are invading our territory, and attacking and killing us, then we should defend our families.
That was why I supported the war in Afghanistan. It was clear that those responsible for 9/11 were being harbored by the Taliban, and they refused to turn them over.
However, I would not expect God to support our war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein had NOTHING to do with 9/11. The terrorists weren’t there, and they were no threat to us. Now people can argue (as we all know they do) that we did at the time think they were a threat, but clearly now they weren’t. If we are going to invade another country, we had better be dang sure that they are a threat to us, and I personally don’t believe we met that criteria.
So personally?? I think God would be ok with our action in Afghanistan, and not so much with our action in Iraq.