Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Tree of Life
Weekly Review
Week Ending 042218
In our study of the dispensation of the Mosaic Law we have begun our next commandment, commandment #6 in EXO 20:13, “You shall not murder.”
One of the great objectives of the Mosaic Law is to provide a strong military made up of young men and women who are willing to defend not only themselves but also their nation as well as their families.
It is a “strong military” which is absolutely essential for the protection of the freedom of a nation. It is a “strong military” that listens and responds to the legitimate authority before them in DEU 31:19-22, “Now therefore, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it on their lips, in order that this song may be a witness for Me against the sons of Israel.
For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and are satisfied and become prosperous, then they will turn to other gods and serve them,
and spurn Me and break My covenant. Then it shall come about, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify before them as a witness (for it shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants); for I know their intent which they are developing today, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.” So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the sons of Israel.
And that is what genuine music does, magnify the words of the song.
Therefore, the Ten Commandments provide a phenomenal basis for establishing a stabilized military made up of men and women who have an understanding of the basic concepts of authority especially nationalism.
We all should be thankful for the freedom that you have. And for the fact that we can gather together and learn God’s word in a nation that allows you to have the freedom that you have.
As the apostle Paul says in EPH 3:18-19 that we “may be able to comprehend in the presence of all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.”
Do not take the word of God for granted.
AMO 8:11-12, “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. And people will stagger from sea to sea, And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.”
We can see that this is what makes military teamwork a success – individuals who have the moral courage to go out and vigorously defeat and neutralize the enemy to the point of unconditional surrender, annihilation, or both.
Man will not accomplish in the dispensation of the Church, nor in the Tribulation Period and to follow, what only Jesus Christ can accomplish in the Millennium, world peace.
Therefore, the Bible says warfare is a bona fide part of history.
NUM 21:14, Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord.”
There are also some misnomers or misunderstanding of warfare. For example, MAT 26:52 our Lord said, “All who draw the sword shall perish by the sword.” This means to draw the sword in crime, and they shall perish by the sword or capital punishment.
As we have seen in our exegetical study of the sixth commandment, the word for “kill” should be translated “murder”; therefore, it has NOTHING to do with military life.
The word kill in this passage is the Hebrew word ratsach which refers to murder whereas the Hebrew word harag means to kill legitimately.
Killing or capturing the enemy is condoned by the Lord as ECC 3:3 tells us about the divine timing of the Lord that when it says there’s: A time to kill, and a time to heal; This is a high honor in life and it is the basis for our freedom. All of us are free today because men killed and have been killed for our freedom.
All of us are free today because men and women were willing to fight for the freedom of their nation and also be killed for freedom.
So, in reality then, the sixth commandment, as a part of divine establishment is a command for capital punishment and the way that crime is controlled.
In fact, as a result of following this principle, the Jews didn’t even need prisons or jails, they feared the laws of divine establishment. And you are not a murderer, it is honorable to kill in war, not dishonorable. So there is a time to kill and a time to heal!
If you kill when it’s time to heal then you’re a murderer. To kill the enemy as a military representative of your country is not only compatible with the plan of GOD, but is commanded and should be done “as unto the LORD.” In other words, we are willing to fight for HIM.
Also note that there is no biblical support for the position of a “conscientious objector” which refers to individuals who are NOT WILLING to fight for their country because they say it is against their beliefs.
Normally, they are just cowards running away even when no one is chasing after them.
PRO 28:1, The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
You cannot solve your problems by running away from them or ignoring the problems and the pressures of life. There is no Biblical support for the born-again believer to stay out of military service when in reality, they are simply quitters looking for excuses to justify their negative volition toward the plan of GOD.
It is true that our military services are under severe attack today, and they are not what they used to be. However, do you remember what our Lord said about virtue-love?
JOH 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
JOH 15:14-17, “You are My friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.”
This negative situation could be drastically changed if the military were made up of a mature believers with Bible doctrine or even unbelievers with the principles of the divine establishment in their right lobes.
It is the mature believer who can say in JOB 5:17, “Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For He inflicts pain, and gives relief; He wounds, and His hands also heal.
From six troubles He will deliver you, Even in seven evil will not touch you. In famine He will redeem you from death, And in war from the power of the sword.
You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, Neither will you be afraid of violence when it comes. You will laugh at violence and famine, Neither will you be afraid of wild beasts. For you will be in league with the stones of the field; And the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.
And you will know that your tent is secure, For you will visit your abode and fear no loss. You will know also that your descendants will be many, And your offspring as the grass of the earth.
You will come to the grave in full vigor, Like the stacking of grain in its season. Behold this, we have investigated it, thus it is; Hear it, and know for yourself.”
Now, this passage teaches that there are seven major disasters in life, which can be resolved by GOD’s plan for the believer. For example, in verses 20, even though you may be in economic disaster, you are alive due to logistical grace. And in the same verse, warfare is the second disaster.
However, God preserves you alive in battle, if it is not your time to die. Verse 21 says that though you will be maligned and judged and criticized, which is social disaster, you will be protected.
JOB 5:21 “You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, Neither will you be afraid of violence when it comes.
And then death is the fourth disaster.
So Notice in JOB 5:22, “You will laugh at violence and famine…
“To laugh at violence” is not a hysterical laughter, but refers to a relaxed mental attitude. It’s humorous because you are NOT afraid of violence and death as most people are. However, for the believer in the Church-age, this is perfect happiness at work in your soul.
JOB 5:22, “You will laugh at violence and famine, neither will you be afraid of wild beasts.”
At the time of writing, wild beasts represented instruments of violent death, and so represent murder, accidents, and warfare etc.
You fear none of these things, because you know that nothing will take you out of this life until the sovereignty of God wills it.
PSA 68:20, God is to us a God of deliverances; And to God the Lord belong escapes from death.
And once the sovereignty of God calls you home, nothing can keep you here. Therefore, the believer with Bible doctrine in his soul can laugh at death because doctrine provides a sense of humor even in disaster. And this laughing at death is perfect happiness in the soul, the ultimate function in spiritual adulthood.
JOB 5:23, “For you will be in a covenant with the stones of the field; and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.”
The stones of the field were weapons in the ancient world that were used to kill the enemy on the battlefield. Therefore, this means that no instrument of death can remove the believer from life until God permits it.
And whatever the instruments of death, they cannot harm the believer with doctrine in spiritual adulthood unless the sovereignty of God permits it to happen.
Principle: No believer in the LORD Jesus Christ, winner or loser believer, can be removed through death until the lord is ready to take him home. But once the Lord calls you home, there is nothing YOU can do but to accept it.
Neither historical nor natural disaster, neither any instrument of death nor any dangerous environment can remove the believer from this life apart from divine consent.
We who remain therefore have no right to question the wisdom of God when our loved ones depart from us; neither the manner in which it happens, nor the time.
JOB 5:24, “And you will know that your tent is secure, [in prosperity] for you will visit your abode or permanent home and fear no loss.”
Who knows that his tent, the human body, is in prosperity or secure? The mature believer. Death means leaving your tent, a temporary shelter, and going to heaven, a permanent shelter, a “place of many mansions” or castle for the mature believer.
And it is the mature believer with perfect happiness who knows, before and during his death, that he is going to a state of prosperity IF HE OR SHE DIES.
JOB 5:24, “And you will know that your tent is secure, [in prosperity] for you will visit your abode or permanent home and fear no loss.”
You will know while you’re living as a spiritual adult, that you have blessing by association, national impact, and international impact before you die.
JOB 5:25, “You will know also that your descendants will be many or prosperous, and your offspring as the grass of the earth.
Your seed being numerous or prosperous does not refer to your progeny, but it refers to the function of the mature believer in the client nation to GOD. He knows, even while living, that he has historical impact once he attains spiritual maturity.
Your “offspring” refers to the human race, as numerous as the grass of the earth. In other words, you can be sure that after you die the human race will continue and no system devised by man can destroy the world and mankind.
The human race will continue until the last day of the Millennium.
JOB 5:26, “You will come to the grave in full vigor, like the stacking of grain in its season.”
In all matters of life and death, timing is extremely important. GOD is perfect; therefore, his timing is perfect.
GOD’s timing for the death of any believer is perfect.
Therefore, in dying we accept the wisdom of GOD as mature believers just as we did while living in spiritual adulthood.
So, no matter how he dies, how prolonged, or how painful, the mature believer accepts the wisdom of GOD concerning his death.
JOB 5:26, “You will come to the grave in full vigor, like the stacking of grain in its season.”
The illustration of dying in verse 26 is taken from the agriculture of the ancient world.