V. 1. ff. When you go to war against your enemies 2c.
Moses still remains with the matter of the death stroke up to the 23rd chapter. Therefore, so that everything in this people would be guided by a certain word, he also gives them a law for war, which is truly very beautiful and would have always given them the most glorious victory (victoriosissimam), if they had kept it. For as often as the Jews have been defeated, they have suffered this because they did not keep this law, since it was impossible that they could have been defeated if they made war according to this law. First, he takes away their confidence in their weapons and power, lest they should think that it was they who were victorious and triumphant, and lays an insurmountable foundation and constant strength of victory, namely, a word of glorious promise and faith, saying, "Fear them not, for the LORD your GOD is with you." He then commands that this word be preached and inculcated by the priest before the battle, saying, "Israel, listen. You are going to battle today against your enemies; do not let your hearts be troubled, do not be afraid, do not be terrified, and do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is going with you to fight for you with your enemies to help you." Dear one, what wonder is it if a people armed with such promises, even without weapons, defeated and beat not only their enemies, but even the whole world? What walls, what weapons, what power, what multitude could resist those for whom the Lord contends? Are not the Egyptians in the
The people of the Red Sea realized this when they said [Ex. 14:25], "Let us flee from Israel; the Lord is fighting against us on their behalf"?
From this came the defiant boast [Ps. 44, 7.]: "I do not rely on my bow, and my sword cannot help me", and again [Ps. 147, 10.]: "The LORD does not delight in a man's legs, nor in the strength of his steed", and [Ps. 33, 17. 16.], "Horses do not help, and a mighty man is not saved by his great strength," and [Ps. 144, 1. 10.], "Blessed be the LORD, who teaches my hands to fight, and my fists to war, for he gives victory to kings." So says Jonathan the son of Saul [1 Sam. 14, 6.], "It is not hard for the LORD to help by much or little." Hence it is taught that the wars of this people should be waged by faith in the word of GOD. For by faith David slew Goliath, and obtained all his victories. But as often as they have made war without faith alone, with their great numbers and power, they have been defeated.
Secondly. He clothed those who were thus armed with the word of God also with the armor of the flesh, and put the army in battle order, and called the newcomers and the timid to go home, and appointed a chosen crew, and arranged everything not differently, as if they were to wage war in confidence in their power and weapons, after the manner of the other nations. He does this in order to hide himself under the outward mask, and secretly, through faith in his word, to prepare the victory, so that it would not seem as if Israel was tempting God by fighting bare and unarmed. Now
But he teaches them to use weapons and armor, but not to trust in them. For He does not want them to be victorious by arms or by armor, but under arms and armor, so that faith may have a place, which has to do with that which is not seen [Heb. 11:1], and a temptation of God may be avoided, which leaves in place what God has outwardly given for use in war. That God hides Himself in this way (de hac larva) is also what we said above. For David did not say: I will wage war without a sword, and without my bow I will be helped, but: I will indeed make war with sword and bow, but I will not put my hope in it. I will not live without bread and wine, but I will not set the hope of life on the bread and wine. So it is in all other things.
Thirdly, lest the Jews should think that they were born only to kill men, and not rather to preserve the godly and quiet, and to chasten the ungodly and turbulent, he prescribes a law that they should first offer peace to their enemies, which also some Gentiles have kept, as the poet 1) says of the Romans:
Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.
[The subjugated spare, the proud you must fight].
And Augustus always preferred peace to war, and said that one should only wage war out of urgent necessity, since war, he said, is like a golden fishhook, where the cost is greater than the gain, and yet, if it is lost, cannot be compensated by a catch. And we see almost in all wars, by the outcome they have, that God is present as judge, so that those who leave peace and first start war are always defeated. Thus also the king Josiah fell [2 Chron. 35, 22. f.], because he despised the peace that was offered to him, and began war against the king of Egypt. Thus are
1) VirZil, lik. VI, v. 853.
the world empires, which were brought about by war, perished by war, and even the last empire of the Romans, which forced everything under itself, became a robbery of all nations.
Fourth. This law of war is given against the foreign nations, that when those who resist are subdued, they shall slay all that is male, but spare the women, the children, and the cattle, and all the spoil of the city, and divide it among themselves. But the Cananites and Amorites themselves, in whose land they would dwell, the LORD commands to be utterly banished, that nothing may remain from which they may learn ungodliness and abomination.
According to the secret meaning, the wars to be waged in the cause of faith are meant here. Here it is above all necessary that we know that God is among us and fights for us; in this knowledge we can safely and courageously wage the wars of the Lord. But after that [it is necessary to know] that our powers, that is, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, then also our weapons, that is, the sword of the spirit and the Scriptures, are only an outward effort (operam), under which God is powerful in us, and fights and conquers, as Paul says [2 Cor. 10, 4.], "Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty in the sight of GOD," so that we do not boast as if it were we who have won the victory, but GOD alone helps us to victory everywhere, who works all things in us all.
We have three kinds of enemies: first, those who accept the peace offered and submit to us; second, those who resist. Moses refers to these two as foreign peoples who are far from the land of promise. The third kind is inward and in the homeland, as there are the Cananites, Amorites 2c. These mean three kinds of heretics. The first are not stubborn, give way to admonition with ease, and as subjects make peace and serve in love. The second are those who resist and defend themselves with the weapons of Scripture. Of these, those who are male are to be killed; the rest are to be taken as a prey, that is, by the word of the Spirit, the chief and mightiest among them are to be
If they are obstinate, they are to be abandoned forever as if they were dead and considered heathens and tax collectors; but the rest of them are to be accepted and distributed so that our love may work on them (distribuendi in opera caritatis). But the native and near ones shall be utterly destroyed with all. These are the ones who are completely hardened and obdurate, incorrigible people. These are to be put under ban by the word and separated from us.
For here it is not an outward sword that strikes the bodies, but the word of God that strikes the consciences. But when the consciences are overcome, then enough is overcome, because the arrogant mind is destroyed, which rose up against the knowledge of God [2 Cor. 10:5]. The rest, which still lives in the flesh, must be carried, even though it is weak. For after the ungodliness of the heart is killed, the weakness of the flesh does no harm, since sin in the members is now no longer imputed, after the head of the serpent is cut off, that is, the sense and delusion of ungodliness. But where the head and the delusion do not depart, that which is best lived in the flesh must also be killed at the same time as the ungodliness of the heart, that is, banished, because there is no forgiveness, no mercy, no grace left for the sin that is still left in the flesh, since they hold on to the ungodliness of the heart. These are the Cananites and the nearby Amorites.
Offering peace means offering the gospel of peace and the teaching of a calm and cheerful conscience, that is, of pure faith, to the godless and restless teachers and tormentors of consciences who struggle with works.
That one should not cut down the trees that bear fruit means that if they have true sayings of Scripture, one should not deny them. For there has never been any heresy that has not also said something true. Therefore, one must not deny the true for the sake of the false. The trees that do not bear fruit are to be cut down and used as bulwarks, which means that the scriptural passages which they misrepresent and hold against us are to be driven back on those who use them in this way, and they are to be refuted by their own useless lies.
That a new spouse, and one who builds a house, and one who plants a vineyard, should not be sent out to war, means that a newcomer should not be put into the ministry of the word (as Paul teaches [1 Tim. 3, 6. f.]), "lest he puff himself up, and fall into the snare of the blasphemer." So also not a fearful man, that is, one who is weak in faith, but, as he exhorts Titus [Cap. 1:9], one who holds fast the word of pure doctrine, and is mighty in the word to exhort and overcome the gainsayers, lest he either perish or flee in the war, that is, either be overcome by ungodliness or yield to ungodly teachers. For what he says here about dedicating the house and making common the vineyard and bringing home the wife means that a fighter of the Word must be trained by application (usu), so that he knows the teaching not only by hearing but also by experience. For according to the Hebrew way, a house is dedicated when it is taken possession of by being used and inhabited, and the vineyard is made common when someone takes possession of it by using it and benefiting from it. The bride is taken home when one lives together with her.