Exodus 15:3 “The LORD [is] a man of war: the LORD [is] his name.”

One of the biggest problems with Christians is that they don’t think. Preachers says something and they accept it  blindly. They are warned to be careful about thinking things out you will lose your faith. You just have to believe everything by faith no matter how ridiculous it is.  Well that might have been fine a hundred years ago when most of the population had barely high school education.  But today with all the PhD’s and Master degrees floating around to believe something that makes no sense without really thinking or reasoning it out puts you in a bad way with people who really wish they could believe in a God of love but just cannot intellectual accept it.

I mean if God never intended for you to reason things out He would not have given you a brain to reason and think things through. When I was teaching in Bible College I told my students that they were not there to pick up a lot of information to preach from the pulpit.  If that was their plan they would run out of preaching material in the first six months.  The idea was to learn to think and reason so they could dig into the Word of God and share insights that members of their congregation either did not have the time to do or the motivation.

Ok, I want you to think about this.  Just from our definition of war is it possible for God to be a God of war? Webster defines war as a state of armed hostility and active military operations. In other words it is a sustain conflict.  Another definition is a contest carried on by force of arms.  When we hear the word war, at least I do, I think of an extended conflict using weapons to kill each other off until one realizes that he is the loser and surrenders.

Now apply these definitions to God.  They don’t fit.  For one thing we, at least I, do not serve a hostile God.  The other thing a war presupposes a conflict where the outcome is uncertain. I mean if you knew who the winner was going to be why fight?  God is the God of the universe, He created the universe.  You would have to be a nonthinker to think you could defeat God.  The war is over even before it begins. And even if God did engage in a conflict, it would be over in an instead. In the blink of an eye he would turn all the armies of the world into a grease spot.  All He has to do is pick up an asteroid and roll it through space like a bowling ball and bam, strike, no more armies, weapons, nuclear bombs.

Am I making my point?  God is totally outside our definition of war.  He does not have to carry on a conflict wondering if He is going to prevail or not.  So are we just to take this as a metaphor.  Perhaps, after all it is nice to know that when we are in conflict we just call on God and say: “Snap your fingers will you and get rid of this nasty irritant.” But that does not make Him a God of war, just a God who can wave His hand and say: ‘”Bye bye.”

So what is this word that we translate war?  The word in Hebrew is malechemah.  If you remove the preposition Mem from the front of the word and the feminine ending ah at the end (seriously the feminine ending in Hebrew is ah like in ooh la… I digress) and you have the root word lechem which many of you recognize is the word for bread or food.  Basically, the bottom line in all wars is to obtain a food supply.  I grew up in one of those “America is doomed” environment.  This country was collapsing our government was going to be overthrown by revolutionaries.  I heard that from my earliest childhood and lived in constant fear that soldiers were going to appear at our door and arrest us all for being Christians.

The reality is that I am now 65 years old and like the Energizing Bunny we just keep trucking along being the great democracy that we are. Fact is our government makes sure everyone is well fed. Our food assistance program is the best in the world. No one in the Country needs to go hungry. If hunger exist we just zero in on it and make little children get fed in schools, shelters churches and food trucks handing out sandwiches to the homeless.  We are nation of plenty and we do everything possible to make sure every one is fed. Ideologies, wage inequalities, race inequalities, not getting a new car every year can cause disruption, but so long as there is enough food to go around, it will not bring a government down.  But if a majority of the population starts to starve, watch how quickly a government will collapse.

So at the very center of the word for war in the Hebrew is the word bread.  This is preceded with a preposition and ends with a feminine ending.  The word could read, To bring bread for one’s loved ones.

So when I read that God is a God of war, I am not reading that God is a God who is armed with the latest weapons, helmet, bullet proof vest, ready to take on the enemy in an extends conflict.  I read a God who brings food to the ones He loves.