If someone were to record all Scriptural references to war, he or she would end up with a collection of quite some pages. We can read about armed conflict throughout the Bible, mainly in the Old Testament. And as for relevance for us today, we live in a time of political unrest in various places, our military are and have been active in a number of these, and a seemingly ever increasing number of refugees are knocking on the doors of other nations including Australia. Less important yet also influential is the fact we become aware of such conflicts virtually on the day they happen.

But there's more. Although our country has not been seriously threatened with an invasion for seventy years, efforts to achieve lasting peace somewhere else on the globe have our politicians constantly busy with alliances, treaties and detente, as well as the capabili­ties of our own military. Then, besides the possibility of 'normal' warfare, involving bombs, rockets and an assemblage of other weaponry there is the possibility that someone someday will order the firing of a nuclear device, someone like Kim Jong-un, that loose cannon in North Korea.

While those seventy years of freedom from serious threats may provide our island nation with a sense of national security, we have sufficient insight in the goings-on in this world to realise that we live in a vale of tears. Warfare results in so much misery, be it by one nation fighting another or by guerrilla campaigns by extremists such as ISIS. One result of such hostilities in our nation is the myriad of books and film documentaries about all sorts of wars. But no matter how many of these we read or watch they will never convey a true sense of what people are capable of inflicting on one another.

Being mentally absorbed with this world and all its anguish might tempt us to point to Scripture passages dealing with love for the neighbour and ask if the whole idea of armament — never mind actual wars — does not clash with God's commandments regarding love for our fellow human beings. Pope Francis certainly considered this to be the case when he recently stated that "arms manufacturers who call themselves Christians are hypocrites".¹Peace activists and pacifists would certainly agree with him.

Yet much in armed conflict is not immediately obvious; behind all ancient and modern battles there is a spiritual war (singular) going on. We can learn about this throughout the Bible but recognising it requires more than an unvaried reading of a chapter at meal times to appease a spiritual obligation. It involves viewing and reflecting on God's Word as unity. Meditating on Scripture this way will greatly help us make sense of prophesies such as those in Daniel and Revelation. Similar can be said of Church History; we're inclined to note names, dates and other data to consider those as a record of events without due consideration of God as King of kings and Lord of lords who rules over all.

Reading while reflecting on the whole narrative rather than just its parts may not provide answers to all questions about warfare, yet in what follows an attempt will be made to show that in spite of all the misery caused by armed conflict, the Lord controls everything, even the most evil dictator and even the most ruthless of military forces.

Soon after Adam and Eve's fall into sin, already when Cain slew Abel, we can recognise Satan's unrelenting determination to undo God's preservation of the human race and the coming of His Kingdom. At the Tower of Babel God observed people's arrogant pride and their goal to rival Him, He divided the human race into tribes and nations, making a beginning of political history as we know it: "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings" (Acts 17:26). Via national governments it pleased the Lord to limit communal wickedness so civilisations could continue and become exposed to the proclamation of His Word. Although quite limited in some instances, a measure of justice and recognition of right and wrong has continued, even among those without direct knowledge of Scripture.

The Lord controls everything, even the most evil dictator and even the most ruthless of military forces.

All the same, some pagans were sinful to the point where God wanted them removed permanently, think of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Lord's promises to Abraham in Genesis 15 that his offspring would come back to the land of his sojourn, the Promised Land "...in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." (vs 16). In Exodus 23 we read about the reali­sation of this promise: "For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off" (vs 23). In other words those battles Israel was to fight were not a selfish appropriation of other people's property — i.e. communal theft — they were the Lord's wars.

Via the Old Testament, especially in Joshua, Judges and the books of Samuel and Kings, we learn about many encounters between Israel and its neighbours. From 2 Samuel 11:1 we even know that there was a season for war, i.e. spring, "when kings go out to battle." And based on whatever records exist regarding other nations we can safely assume that conflicts and wars were global for thousands of years.

Regarding Israel, the Old Testament has narrated some amazing feats of war by those faithful to the Lord's instructions such as Gideon's defeat of the Midianites. With 300 men he routed an army of 135,000; or Samson who killed 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, and the exploits of David's mighty men recorded in 2 Samuel 23.

We can safely assume that most if not all of Israel's Old Testament wars are recorded in Scripture. Regarding the warfare of other nations worldwide, Dr S Franklin Logsdon, in Profiles of Prophecy, wrote:

A former president of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, helped by historians from Britain, Egypt, Germany and India, and using electronic computer, has found that since 3600 BC the world has known only 292 years of peace. In this period of more than 55 centuries there have been 14,531 wars, large and small, in which more than 3.6 billion people were killed. Since 650 BC there have been 1,656 arms races, all except 16 ending in war, and those 16 ended in economic collapse for the countries concerned.²

I don't know how these data were gathered and how exact these figures are but documented history alone would contain many, many wars, and there would be all those known only from oral accounts and folklore. Regardless of exactness these are staggering figures clearly demon­strating the lack of intrinsic love people have for one another.

The prophet Daniel in his days was exposed to several wars, but as God's prophet he foretold kings and kingdoms of the future, summarised in chapter 2 of the Bible book by his name concerning that statue made of gold, silver, bronze, iron as well as iron mixed with clay. We can readily imagine that e.g. the golden kingdom would not be passed on to that of silver with no more than a friendly handshake. Wars would have been involved. Thousands will have been killed; people of that time were not in the habit of caring for wounded or prisoners of war. But the long-term or real significance regarding that statue was Christ's coming as the "Stone cut out without hands". It crushed that great sculpture to become a vast mountain which filled the whole earth. In the days of those kings almighty God would begin to set up a Kingdom which will remain forever.

In the fullness of time Christ did come, dwelling on earth during the Roman Empire. He acknowledged Rome as world power and the Emperor as its ruler, declaring that the things belonging to Caesar should be given to Caesar (Matt 22:21). All the same, Jesus told Pilate that he would have no power over Him unless it was given from above. Although we regard him as a corrupt judge who condemned an innocent Man, he had a pivotal role in the coming Kingdom. God so directed world history that it included the Roman Empire and even those soldiers who nailed His Son to the cross.

Christ willed and used this world's powers knowing that He would crush them all by His Word because they all formed part of that great plan that will climax when He comes again in glory, when the number of His elect will be full. Then all will be judged according to His law, even Gentiles who do not have the law yet who by nature obey it because it is written on their hearts (see Romans 2:12-16). They will be judged differently to those who knew God's Word yet intentionally transgressed His law, nations such as some in our time.

It is Christ who rules world politics. The world belongs to Him (Psalm 110). "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases." The Lord has maintained history in spite of widespread injustice and violence; He caused ancient people including the Roman Empire to uphold a measure of international justice whereas the sinful human indi­viduals within it were wholly incapable of any righteousness.

Observing history some theorists will claim that it is no more than a succession of causes and effects, of causality that elevates futility and reduces human responsibility. Others attribute aspects of international justice to ancient Greece and Rome. Again others state that all nations other than Israel originate from Satan. These theories all clash with Scripture, ignoring God's dictates and attributing events to chance, karma or human discretion. But it is even worse to pay tribute to Satan; he can only ruin, not build.

There is much in world history that we fail to understand, yet we know that Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, Ruler of all the world's governments. Almighty God, in spite of man's conceit and evil, has maintained a measure of justice between nations. Without His activity life on earth would be a chaotic nightmare everywhere.

A clear example of God's governing can be observed in the lives of kings Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus and Ahasuerus. In Jeremiah 25:9 and 27:6 the Lord refers to Nebuchadnezzar as "My servant". While in Ezekiel 29:18-20 the Lord spoke to the prophet saying:

Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labour strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labour which they expended on it. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Surely I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage; and that will be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour, because they worked for Me,' says the Lord GOD.

Regarding King Cyrus, he is referred to as God's "shepherd" in Isaiah 44:28, and as His "anointed", in 45:1. Ahasuerus was somewhat different but the book Esther clearly shows him also as an instrument in God's hand for the preservation of His chosen nation, the Old Testament church.

God sovereignly rules and overrules all human activity, no matter how cruel and appalling, including that of kings, princes, dictators, Führers, imams, chairmen, presidents and prime ministers. Yet, and this is beyond our comprehension, He is never the originator of sin. He has conferred responsibility on people for all their action and inaction. Psalm 93 for instance teaches that God's supreme ruling guarantees world stability against the forces of chaos while it confirms His trustworthiness.

We may safely entrust ourselves to Him even knowing that we are in the last days and that Satan will do his worst to lure or force God's children into everlasting perdition. We have the comfort of Scripture in for instance Psalm 46, or as Martin Luther rhymed this:

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.