INTERVENTION IN SYRIA AND MY PERSONAL HANDGUN

We all learn from recent history, especially when that history is our own experience. A recent lesson American foreign policy planners learned was that military power can sometimes be used to prevent atrocities, even genocide. There can be no doubt that the perceived current need to intervene somehow in Syria is powerfully supported by memories of the Rwanda genocide when the west had the means and the opportunity to intervene and did not.

Another lesson learned from the history of World War II is that appeasement of aggressors leads to more aggression; therefore, the United States must always be prepared to confront the bad guys militarily anywhere and anytime. If one needs a Biblical justification for this, this quotation from James 4:17 is perfect, “He who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.”

Question: Are these conclusions the right conclusions from the experience of the past century? I think not. In Judges 2, when aggressors were at the borders of Israel threatening its very existence, the Lord said, “From now on I will not defend Israel from its enemies. You are on your own.” The reason given was not that the national defense had been neglected, but that the Lord had been neglected. Upon hearing this message, the people gathered in repentance, and the rest of the book reveals the many ways in which God brought deliverance, non of which involved building the national defense in any way, shape, or form. Israel is God’s model for all nations. From learning about Israel, we come to understand God’s ways of dealing with nations. God’s choosing Israel was for the purpose that all nations would understand the kind of God that God is.

Should the west intervene in Syria? Should I carry a weapon for my own self-defense and that of my family? “ He who knows to do good, and does it not is guilty of sin.” This quotation must be taken into the context of faith in Jesus. What did Jesus actually teach and what did his behavior suggest? He claimed he was fulfilling the Law and the Prophets in what he did, and we will begin in the Old Testament to answer the question.

In Exodus 19 at Mt. Sinai, Moses declared that Israel would be a nation of priests, and the real king was to be God. God would manage the success of the economy and take care of national defense. The book of Judges covers a 400-year period during which this arrangement might be tested. God never failed the test, but Israel’s faith consistently and progressively came up short. Finally in the apparent absence of God’s active protection, Israel opted for a national defense and a king. A human king was not forbidden, but there were severe restrictions on his options, especially as regards foreign policy and national defense. Deuteronomy 17, Moses gave kingship regulations for the behavior of kings that involved national priorities.

The kings quite universally ignored God’s instructions given in Deuteronomy 17. A literal obedience to Deuteronomy 17 would have deprived the king of his power of taxation, the possibility of paying a standing army, or of purchasing horses and chariots from Egypt, Egypt being the primary arms supplier in the region at that time. The question then, is not whether one should use the military power one already has, but whether a godly nation would have such capability in the first place.

Last Sunday a person I met at lunch in the church basement after worship asked me some questions about this issue. At a personal level, wouldn’t it be good to have a weapon just in case someone did assault a weaker person or family member in my presence? My response is this. My faith is in God for protection and provision. Here national faith and personal faith are really in essence the same kind of practice. God provides all my needs, as Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19, “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” The one thing I do not need to provide for myself is a weapon, especially in the light of Jesus teaching and example, but also bolstered by Moses teaching in Deuteronomy. If there ever comes the time when I actually do need a weapon and God would actually have me use it, God will provide the weapon at that moment. In Judges on one occasion God provided Samson with a piece of bone laying on the ground that served him quite effectively as a weapon for that moment, and I expect God will do the same for me. This is a matter of faith.

A week ago I visited with one of my Ethiopian friends. He told me of an incident in St Paul, MN where in the late evening a small group of Ethiopian believers were confronted by an armed gang demanding their money. One of the believers told the gang that they had no right to do this and in the name of Jesus ordered them to cease and desist, which order they promptly obeyed. With this kind of precedent happening among us and bolstered by the Old Testament stories and the teaching of Christ, it is my conclusion that it would be an act of unbelief to carry a weapon for protection against bad guys.

The same lesson applies to a nation that truly trusts in God. There is no difference between public and private morality here, and Moses’ teaching for the nation of Israel is relevant. Jesus is the high king to whom all governments will ultimately bow.  God doesn’t need our military assistance to protect us from evil or to help bring about his justice and peace in the world; in fact, our attempts to help with violence are counterproductive and hinder his purpose.

Unilateral disarmament on either a personal or national level is suicide when based on false premises. Faith in the ultimate goodness of fallen humanity will surely fail. Faith in a national government or a United Nations force to control weapons is still a kind of faith in weapons. Only when God and God alone is trusted fully can God save completely.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (Psalm 20:7)