VETERAN’S DAY AND THE BIBLE
One might ask; “How does Veteran’s Day relate with the Bible?” I would say, it has a lot to do with God’s Word.
It was Adonai himself who formed the tribes of Israel into “armies”. We saw a hodge-podge of Hebrew slaves coming out of Egypt, disorganized ex-slaves of Pharaoh, made into a nation at Sinai.
Adonai wanted to see his prophecy to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob come true. The land of Canaan would be the inheritance of Israel, yet the Israelites would have to fight for these lands. Once the 12 tribes were organized and trained into fighting tribes, with the exception of the Tribe of Levi, that tribe would be the “chaplaincy”. Just as the armies today have chaplains, so did the armies of Israel, they had the Levite priests that would go ahead of the troops into battle.
Today, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) are not in the “attack mode” but in the “defense mode”. The IDF is in Israel to defend the borders against enemies that want to come in and invade, attack, take over, etc.…We do not see Israel going forth as to conquer other lands. The land has been given to Israel as a promise to Abraham and his descendants.
Every country in the world has defense forces, some small, some large. It is said that in it “necessary to show strength in order to maintain peace”. Just picture a poster with a giant, ten-feet tall strong-man in uniform with a pistol belt with ammo pouches, an M-16 on his back and he’s holding an M-60 machine gun. Then there’s the caption that reads; “Let’s have peace neighbor!”
At times, it takes strength and intimidation to maintain “peace” especially when one’s “neighbor” is a war-faring country that perhaps has dreams of conquests. One only has to think back to WWII, with Adolf Hitler and Hirohito having dreams of world domination, in the end, they were defeated.
November 11th is a day that we remember all veterans who served in the armed forces, both in peacetime and in wartime. This is a special day in the United States, but I think that every country in the world should put aside a special date to remember their “veterans” who fought and served in their nations to protect their nations’ borders.
We see throughout the pages of the Bible many, many wars in which Israel was involved. While the curse of sin is in this world, there will always be wars, and there will always be armies to fight against enemies. As born-again believers, we are members of a special, called-out army, the Army of the LORD. Yet we do not fight with M-16s, nor with M-60s, nor with RPGs, landmines, nerve gas, etc. We fight against an invisible enemy, an enemy who has many soldiers in the ranks.
This is the army of Satan, and his soldiers are all the fallen angels that are now called “demons”. The battle is in the process as I write this article. If our eyes could be open to the spirit world, we would probably freak out, seeing demonic beings clashing with angelic beings all around us. Our main arms of defense are the Word of God and prayer.
We have angels at our disposition, all we need to do is call upon them and they will raise their swords against the soldiers of Satan.
God showed strength in order to have peace at Calvary’s Cross. He became a human being, yet still was God, God in human form, to bring “Salvation” (Yeshuah) to this lost and dying world. He conquered the curse of sin and death when He was nailed to the cross and shed his blood for us all. At that point, the war was won! Yet the enemy doesn’t realize it, (or perhaps...yes...he DOES realize it) but doesn’t want to admit it.
With His physical death, “Spiritual” peace was brought into being. Here is where “strength brings about peace”
World, spiritual, and physical peace will only come about when our Messiah returns to this earth and sets up his kingdom. In the meanwhile, we need to be conformed with spiritual peace. We ought to know that when we breathe our last on this earth, we will continue to breathe in the “World to Come” in the “New Jerusalem”.
There should not be any “veterans” in the LORD’s army, only “active service members”. Veteran status comes after death when we have finished fighting the enemy on this side of eternity. So, take time to salute the veterans you know, and continue the fight against the principalities and entities of darkness, but we already know the outcome.
Rabbi Ben Avraham
US Army Veteran
1972-1984
IDF support volunteer, Summer of 2015
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