Deuteronomy 20--Laws Concerning Warfare

Deuteronomy 20
English Standard Version

Laws Concerning Warfare
20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ 5 Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6 And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. 7 And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ 8 And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ 9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.

10 “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11 And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12 But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, 14 but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God.

​19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

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This passage is one of the ones that is taken out of context to try and say things that it doesn't say, so let's be careful to evaluate the context here and see what it does say, as we have now switched topics from talking about the leadership of the elders, judges, and priests to now talking about how the people should conduct themselves in war and how they should be different than their pagan neighbors who were known for being ruthless (like the Assyrians).  The people are not to fear these large, ruthless armies they are going up against because the LORD has promised them victory--He would fight for them.  All they needed to do was remember who He is and what He has already done to bring them out of Egypt and overthrow what was the mightiest empire of that time to know that He can do anything and they need only trust in Him--even bring the nation of Israel through the Red Sea while using the same Red Sea to drown the armies of the Egyptians.

The Israelites were not to go to battle like other nations did--it was to be an act of worship for them.  As we'll see later in the book of Joshua, the priests and Levites were out front with the Ark of the Covenant and they were blowing the ram's horn trumpets and singing praises to the LORD.  What army in its right mind would send the band and the choir out front as the tip of the spear?  But the enemy was to hear the armies of Israel coming praising the LORD and it was to be a testimony of the who the LORD is and what He has done and it would encourage the Israelites and put fear into the fear of the LORD into the hearts of their enemies--maybe even changing the hearts of some of their enemies.

The message from the priests sounds very similar to the charge that the Commander of the LORD's Army (we think this was a preincarnate appearance of Jesus) gave Joshua in chapter one.  "Be strong and very courageous" was told to Joshua a few times in that message, but Joshua 1:9 comes to mind, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”  Jesus was acting as The Great High Priest that He is here, not just as the Captain of the LORD's Army and encouraging His soldier Joshua (who would in turn encourage the rest of the people) to keep their focus on the LORD that had led them and provided for them every step of the way and would continue to do so.

​There was opportunity given during the priests message for those who were faint of heart or had other cares and concerns and had a divided mind to turn back.  The LORD did not want them in battle.  Some specific cases were given such as those who had built new houses they would not get to live in, or planted new vineyards they would never get to taste of the harvest for, or were betrothed (a little stronger than "engaged to be married," but that's the closest we can come to it) and were concerned they would not get to their wedding day and be able to consummate their marriage with their bride.  Also if there was any other reason that any of the men were cowardly or faint of heart after remembering who the LORD is and what He had done and they had eliminated all those who were concerned that another would reap the benefits of their labors, then those that were cowardly were to go back home as well so that their cowardice did not infect the hearts of those that they were supposed to be fighting alongside.  God only wanted those fighting who would encourage each other that the LORD was with them and that with God all things are possible--especially the things that look impossible to us.  It was to be a time of worship.  Only after this point were the commanders of the armies chosen so that there would never be a commander who was afraid to be in battle.

Now, as I said there were a few options on how the "enemy" could respond when they heard the armies of the LORD coming with their music and songs ready for battle.  The first option that they would hope for is that the people would open up the gates of city and welcome the Israelites in and surrender not only to the armies of Israel, but to the LORD.  The LORD said that in such cases, the lives of these men, women and children will be preserved, but they will be made to do forced labor and shall serve the LORD and His people--in this way their "change of heart" will be put to the test to see if it is genuine or if they are simply trying to save themselves.

If they will not give themselves up peacefully, then they are to besiege the city.  When the city falls (and it would fall), all the adult males would be put to death and all the women and children and livestock and other items would be spoils of war that the Israelites could plunder and take as their own.

This is not the case though for the cities that the LORD was giving to Israel as an inheritance.  God said he wanted those people dead and didn't want any of them to remain alive--not even their women and children, and that all the items in those cities were to be destroyed with fire to show what the coming  judgment would be like for these godless people and those who followed in their footsteps.  There would be no escape from the coming judgment of God's wrath on them and God had established that another would take what belonged to them and they would never have claim to it again because they would no longer exist.  If Israel had followed through on that there would be none of these silly debates about who had rights to the Promised Land because all the peoples who may have lived there in the past would be dead and unable to contest Israel's claim to ownership.  God knew what He was doing when He ordered the complete destruction of all the peoples from all the Land that was promised to be inhabited by His people.  There would be no "coexist" ideology here.  God did not want the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites to teach the Israelites their abominable practices and bring judgment upon the LORD's people and cut them off from the blessing the LORD had intended for them.

Last, but not least, the LORD commanded that the people should not have a "scorched earth" policy whereby the destroyed all the surrounding trees so that the people had no source of food.  The trees were to be left alone.  The Israelites could eat from their fruit but they were not to cut those trees that would be able to produce food--only the trees that they knew did not produce food could be cut down and used to make the siegeworks to help them put the city under siege.

Now, we go to war in very different ways today with our nation, but perhaps there is still something that we could learn from these tactics.  I'll be honest that it's hard for me to imaging how to apply everything from this passage to our world and our nation today, and I know that our nation is not the nation of Israel, and there is a not a direct correspondence to the Church because we don't go to war against nations of this world since our kingdom is not of this world.  How people fight in battle though does tell you a lot about them and the LORD that they claim to believe in.  It's clear in this passage and others we'll study that even going to battle was an act of worship because they could praise the LORD for the victory they knew He had already won for them.  They just needed to trust and obey.