“So Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war” (Josh 11:23).
“But that rest did not come quickly, nor was it realized until war had achieved the high purposes of God…” Furthermore this “does not mean that there was to be no more war, for in the settlement of the land the separate cities were involved in war. It rather declares that rest was reached through war. It has often been so in the history of man. Through blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the signs and symbols of conflict, God cleanses the land, and the heart of man, from those evil things which produce human feverishness and restlessness; and thus, through the terrible ordeal, leads men to quietness and rest. When passions are purified, and evil thoughts are no more, war will cease… Till then God makes it the awful instrument of cleansing and renewal” (Campbell Morgan).
In his second Inaugural Address in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln surveyed the devastation of almost four years of all-out civil war upon his country, and spoke these words:
“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said the ‘judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether’ [Psa 19:9].”
The melancholy fact is that, by God’s will, war must continue until the world is prepared to accept Christ’s Kingdom of peace and righteousness. Mankind might find it easy to accept peace, that is, the cessation of war by itself, but it will not be so easy to accept the righteousness that must accompany it. Isaiah wrote,
“When your judgments [O LORD] come upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa 26:9).
God’s judgments, of which war ranks high on the list, with revolution, famine, earthquake, and pestilence just behind it (Matt 24:6,7; Mark 13:7,8; Luke 21:9 11), are the means of cleansing the world, and renewing it, by leading men to righteousness. It is a fierce and frightening prospect, at which we shudder and from which we recoil. It is the great wind and fire that sends us scurrying into the cave for shelter, as it did the prophet Elijah. Nevertheless it is the Hand of God, and we must acknowledge it. Furthermore, it is the necessary prelude to the gentle whisper, or the still, small voice, that calls us into the presence of our Lord (1Ki 19:11,12).
And so again, as the prophet says, when…
“the law will go out from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem”… then, and only then will the LORD, through His Son Jesus Christ…
“judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (Isa 2:3,4).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One