Turn in your Bibles to Joshua 1. Next week we're going to be seeing that the New Testament, Hebrews, and other passages applies this typologically to Christ and His conquest of the gospel, not with a physical sword, but with the sword of the Bible, the sword of the Word. And there's a lot of other applications in there as well. But Romans 13, Christ, and other passages indicate there's a literal application of this as well to civil government. Civil government is a legitimate institution, and so that's what we're going to look at today. Joshua 1, beginning at verse 10. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying, pass through the camp and command the people saying, prepare provisions for yourselves for within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua spoke saying, remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you saying, The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan, but you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them. of the Lord has given your brethren rest as he gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise. So they answered Moses saying, all that you command us, we will do. And wherever you send us, we will go. Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words and all that you command him shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage. Father, we thank you for your word. And I pray that You would help me to faithfully proclaim it this week, next week, as long as it takes, as we draw principles from the Bible. And I pray that You would open up the Scriptures to us and help us to respond appropriately to them. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, as I mentioned, we're going to take at least two weeks, possibly longer, to go through all of the lessons of verses 10 through 18. And next week we're going to be applying non-military aspects to that. And, you know, As I go through this book, I'm not going to usually be applying the military and the civic principles that could be applied from the book. If I was teaching military class, we'd be digging into it a whole lot differently than we are here. But the principles in this chapter, I think, are so important in our day and age that I just could not skip over these things. Let me give you just three examples of why you should not turn off your minds and say, OK, this is only for our military guys. No, this is relevant to every one of us. For example, last July, the Senate passed a bill that would force all women 18 years old and older to sign up for a selective service in the event that there was a draft, which would force them into the army. Yes, it would force them into the army. So thankfully, there was an outcry from the public. So the congressional version of the bill removed that language, but it was not by a big margin. And so this year, next year, there could be another bill that comes up that makes it mandatory for all girls 18 or over to sign up. Anyway, the summary of the Senate bill said, this amends the Military Selective Service Act to require the registration of women for selective service. And then you start reading the fine print and you realize it would be a felony for any one of your daughters to not sign up for selective service, a felony. So suddenly, this passage becomes very, very relevant because this is one of many passages that gives you the basis, a legal basis, for a religious objection. And our denomination anticipated this some years ago and already wrote right into our Constitution the following words to help protect our young girls. It is not lawful for women to serve in military service except for voluntary acts of mercy. It is not lawful for the civil government to draft women into the military or to require them to register for potential draft into civil or military service. And then it gives a bunch of scriptures as the basis for that. So that's one reason why this sermon is relevant, and you all need to be listening. Another reason was also given by our denomination, and it's a point we're going to be looking at in a little bit. It seeks to protect the men in our denomination with these words. It is allowed for Christian men to refuse to serve in the military when, in the judgment of the General Assembly, the military's actions, including, but not limited to, wars declared and undeclared, police actions, any international peacekeeping missions, or sustained military engagements, is deemed to be unjust. And it gives a bunch of scriptures to preserve that. Let me give you a third reason why this sermon is very relevant to each one of you young men. if all men, 20 and above, are declared by the Scripture to be in the militia, and that's what our Constitution, actually, Selective Service is 18 and above. But if that's the case, and they already need to be prepared to know how to use those weapons before they get into the military, then there's huge implications for that fact. The Bible expects each one of you young men to own one or more weapons, to know how to use them, and to be willing to defend your family or your country should we come under attack. And if you hate guns, well, you have to have some kind of a weapon, a club, a sword, or something, and be proficient at using it. So don't use that as an excuse. I don't like guns, I got a different weapon. Are you proficient at using that weapon? This is not just a theoretical question, okay? It's a biblical issue. So those are three of several reasons why these military principles are not just for our military folks, they are for every one of us. Now, before we dive into the passage, let me give you some absolutely essential background material. If you look at verse 10 of our passage, it mentions officers, and then the following verses mention a structure of the army and divisions, and assumes that those officers and that military structure already existed. Where did it exist? Where did that start? Well, it started in the book of Numbers, and Joshua was written assuming that its readers already had read the Pentateuch, already knew what Numbers said. And I'm not going to cover all of the military principles, But if you turn to Numbers chapter 1, I'm going to point out just a small handful that directly relate to Joshua 1 and directly relate to our freedoms and our liberties. Joshua, I mean not Joshua, Numbers chapter 1. And verse two says, take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel by their families, by their father's houses, according to the number of names, every male individually. Now in this verse, we see that God never authorized a census of females or of children, never. And you keep reading in numbers, and you discover the reason rather hastily. It's that the army was an all-male army. And the census, the only reason for it was to try to figure out how many male fighters do we have available for the impending war. Second, we see that even though there was a connectionalism in the country, the census always took into account the tribal distinctions, and within those tribal distinctions, the authority of clans. The army did not mix up people and try to, you know, make a big melting pot out of everybody. They sustained their regional differences. We'll look at the implications of that in a bit. So, there's two principles already in verse 2. Verse 3 says, from 20 years old and above, all who are able to go to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies. First of all, notice the minimum age is not 18, as in our selective service, it is 20. 20 was the age over and over, New Testament, Old Testament, was the age of adulthood. And sometimes people go into the military too young. Now that didn't mean that younger people couldn't own guns, couldn't learn how to fight, couldn't defend their family, but they were not treated as adults until the age of 20. Second, the word able indicates that not all adult males went to war. If you look in Deuteronomy, there were exceptions. For example, if you'd just been married in the previous year, you were expected to stay home, cheer up your wife. You were not supposed to go into war. If you were part of the clergy, you were exempt. If you had responsibilities that you absolutely could not relinquish, If you were fearful, I mean, it was really easy to get out of the draft in the Old Testament. In stark contrast, if you read the Selective Service literature, which I have, it makes it a felony to not sign up at the age of 18. And that needs to be changed. We need to pressure our congressmen and senators to change that. God only wanted in the military people who would not turn their backs in the battle. You know, people who really were committed and motivated to fight. Third, notice the plural word armies. Each state or tribe had its own army that could be contributed to the overall mustard army of the nation. And that is hugely significant in terms of protecting against tyranny. If a tyrant like Saul or like Ahab were to get into power, The regional armies and the local militias were able to just decide, well, we're not going to serve in the army. Now, America used to be structured that way with soldiers serving under regional standards, sometimes even wearing regional uniforms. And it's not that way any longer. Tyrants don't like checks and balances, but the Bible does. And we need to get back to at least the constitutional limits to our military, or better yet, the biblical limits. I believe our military is way too centralized. Verse 4 says, and with you there shall be a man from every tribe, each one the head of his father's house. So Moses' war council and Joshua's war council included the head of state from each state of Israel, tribe of Israel. State is equivalent. And they were part of the council whether Moses or whether Joshua liked those people or not, okay? The war council was not just the king's chosen men. He had to take into consideration states' rights. And if he didn't like the leader from that tribe, well, maybe he wouldn't get the militia from that tribe, okay? So those tribal leaders were the buffer between federal government and the regional government. And he lists the names in the next verses. And let's skip down to verse 20. This is when the army actually gathered. It says, now the children of Reuben, Israel's oldest son, their genealogies by their families, by their father's house, according to the number of names, every male individually from 20 years old and above, all who were able to go to war. And he continues with the other tribes. But notice that they were not just organized by tribe, they were organized by clans. And America had something similar in its organization by counties. And it was a huge check and balance against the imperialistic tendencies of the executive office. Usually, in most countries, the executive office wanted loyalty exclusively to him, not to the regents. And so that's why they have tended to make armies be a big melting pot. One more verse, chapter 2, verse 2. Every one of the children of Israel shall camp by his own standard beside the emblems of his father's house. So there was a far greater degree of regional loyalty than of federal loyalty that God was ensuring. Each state and clan had its own flag, and the soldiers followed that flag. If the tribal leadership felt that a given war was not in the best interests of the tribe or of the clan, or that the federal government was usurping its power or engaging in tyranny, this loyalty to region became a deterrent. So many times the tribes, states, equivalent, interposed themselves in order to protect their citizens. And actually the same was true in early America. I'll just give you one illustration. There was nothing that George Washington could do about the fact that when he commanded the Vermont militia to invade Canada and to try to conquer it, they disobeyed his orders. They said, no, that's imperialism. We don't have a war with Canada. We're not going to invade. There was nothing that Washington could do about it. And there are many other ingenious checks and balances found in the book of Numbers, some of which found their way into early American civics. Now, if you keep reading in Numbers, you will discover that the purpose for the census was not to forecast economic growth or to collect taxes or to control the people. In fact, the Bible highly values the privacy of the people and resisted the intrusion of the civil government to family affairs. That's why David was judged so heavily by God when he did a census, not during a time of war. Huge judgment. Now his census was almost nothing compared to the massive, all-intrusive census that we fill out that wants to know how many toilets you have and when you're going to work and not. It's terrible. Our census is tyrannical by biblical standards. It is intrusive. It is ungodly. It also happens to be unconstitutional. But be that as may, this census was strictly for a military semi-voluntary draft during a time of war. Now, that is a background. Let's go back to Judges 1 and quickly go through 11 principles that I believe every Christian needs to be aware of. Verse 10 says, Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, The first principle was that there was always a standing officer structure. Now that may not seem particularly significant until you realize that numbers in Deuteronomy absolutely forbade a standing army. And verse 15 of Joshua 1 indicates there wasn't a standing army. As soon as the war was over, they went back to their fields, they went back to their families. Notice that he doesn't say that Joshua commands the officers of the army. No, he commands the officers of the people. There was no army until the regional militias were mobilized. And so if there was no standing army, why were there standing officers, a standing officer structure? Because, as we'll see in a moment, it enabled the army to be mustered within three days by organizing the militias. You didn't need a standing army to defend the country. And in order to organize the people quickly there had to be standing officers. There could be no quick mobilization by Joshua or any future king without a standing officer structure. And America adopted that in the early years. By the way a lot of American civics, I can show you several books that show American civics borrowed most of their principles directly from the Bible, directly from the Bible. And it was in complete contradiction of European civics. Did you know that the right to appoint officers in the military in the Constitution is reserved to the states, just like in Israel? Let me read a portion from Article 1, Section 8 of our Constitution. It says, "...reserving to the states respectively the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress." That's in Clause 16. So appointing the officers and training of the militia was left to the states. Now, states' rights with regard to the militias was hugely eroded in 1918, and much more eroded subsequently. According to Edwin Meese, you can read his commentary on the Constitution. A lot of checks and balances have been evaporated. Did you realize that our Constitution does not allow for a standing army except during time of war? That was the same as in Israel. Now America's gotten around that by creating constant conflicts around the world or having a constant state of Cold War in the Soviet Union era. meddling in other countries' affairs, or just by ignoring the literal meaning of the Constitution. But the comments of our founding fathers made it absolutely crystal clear that the Constitution was trying to prevent the use of a standing army, and all of them hated a standing army without exception. And I can prove that. They feared that unlike the Navy, And by implication, you know, the Air Force, unlike the Navy, which was used to defend against foreign invasion. that a standing army could be used against the citizens and actually has been used against citizens in our history. By the way, if you want to find out what the Founding Fathers meant in our Constitution, get the multi-volume set called the Founders' Constitution. It goes through phrase by phrase in the Constitution, and it just gives a bazillion quotes of what the Founding Fathers said. This is exactly what we meant by it. There is no question whatsoever. There was a restriction in Article I, Section 8 to the time an army could be employed. Section 8 says, to raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years. So notice the use of the term armies plural. and the restriction to two years. It's been a long time since our militaries had armies, plural, and since we have obeyed that restriction of two years. And why did they want the army disbanded after that time? It's because they greatly feared a standing army. James Madison, who was called the chief architect of the Constitution, who was America's fourth president, said this, a standing army is one of the greatest mischiefs that can possibly happen. So our fourth president said, the state of our current army is one of the greatest mischiefs that could ever happen. Mr. Mason at the same assembly said, but when once a standing army is established in any country, the people lose their liberty. In the debates, Governor Randolph agreed, saying, with respect to a standing army, I believe, and get this, he said it's universal, I believe there was not a member in the federal convention who did not feel indignation at such an institution. He's saying, at the constitutional convention, this was the unanimous opinion of everyone He goes on, what remedy then could be provided? Leave the country defenseless? In order to provide for our defense and exclude the dangers of a standing army, the general defense is left to those who are the objects of defense. It is left to the militia who will suffer if they become the instruments of tyranny. Now I'm quoting these founding fathers because modern propaganda machine absolutely insists there is no prohibition against a standing army. Alexander Hamilton said, standing armies are dangerous to liberty. And we could multiply hundreds of such quotes by our founding fathers who would describe our current state of the military as proof positive that we live in a period of extreme tyranny. Now, while I support our military men, I do not support the overgrown military that has emerged since World War I. Okay, it's an unconstitution military in many ways, certainly an unbiblical one. Anyway, by the time we get done with this sermon, I hope you have an appreciation for how our founding fathers actually quoted the scriptures and wanted to have checks and balances in place. And you'll be mad that most of those checks and balances have been completely evaporated from our nation, at least you should be mad. Now, the Bible calls for even more restriction than what the Constitution gives, but it's clear that our nation has come a long ways from our early somewhat biblical roots into a much more centralized and much less accountable to local government military. Now, we can look at these things and shake our head and get frustrated, but there's no point in getting frustrated. We live with what we have, right? But if you want to change things, yes, we can work at the national level. There's things that can be done there. But my suggestion is, to push back, is to do so at the local level. If you want to influence your government in a godly direction, start emphasizing relationships and influence at the local level. I think there is coming a time when county and state officials are going to be much more important to your liberty than federal officials ever will be. And that's true, not just if there was an EMP or something like that. It could be true in terms of any disaster. Now, verse 15 speaks of the disbanding of the armies after war was finished. Again, these principles apply to the army, not to the Navy or the Air Force. That's different. But it says, "'Until the Lord has given your brethren rest as He gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them, then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it which Moses the Lord's servant gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise.'" Notice that word, until. Once the war was over, I should say, they went back to their farms, to their families, to their work. God did not want the civil government to be a perpetual war machine, which is what America has become. Okay, I'll get off that rant. Another hint at how ungodly our military has become can be seen in verses 10 through 12. Verse 10 makes clear that all of the words of these verses were given to the officers of the people. Joshua did not directly command the people. He worked through a chain of command, and the first level of that chain was regional officers. Verse 11 shows that these regional officers were asked to mobilize these militias, pass through the camp, command the people saying, prepare provisions for yourselves for within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. Then in verse 12 he makes mention of three regional divisions. And in verse 14 in the middle it says, So they were to pass before them, help them, implying that they fought as separate units. Now, that principle of maintaining regional units within the military distresses those who want a strong central government, because when militias keep regional differences and ideological differences afire, they don't provide a melting pot. Sadly, you no longer find our national military grouping its units by regions at all. By the way, the Anti-Federalists, who I side with, I love the Anti-Federalists, they, Patrick Henry and others like them said, it really actually needs to be a control at the very local level. But they made a compromise. They said, OK, we'll give Congress some authority, not very much, but they did in the Constitution give some authority to the Congress. But in the Militia Act of 1792, Congress unconstitutionally authorized the president to federalize the militia to some degree. And there's many actions later. But even with that federalization, they still fought in their regional units all the way up through and to the end of the war between the states. Now, as another historical side note of interest, This principle of maintaining regional structure within the military has informed the balance of powers of every Calvinistic country, Switzerland, Scotland, you name it, every Calvinistic country in history. And you might ask, why the Calvinistic countries and not the others? Because Calvinists believed in total depravity. They believed in the sin of man. They didn't trust the citizens with too much power. They didn't trust the civil officers with too much power. And so they put these checks and balances in place. And you find even in Switzerland the vestiges of these checks and balances still in place. In that nation every male is armed, trained, ready to go to battle. They have their military weapons right in their homes. Militias are local. There's this balance of power between the cantons and the central government. It's still quite good there. Not as good as it used to be, but it's still quite good. Now, I've already introduced the next point. We already saw in Numbers that only adult males were enlisted. But let's read verse 14 to see how that is worded here. Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan, but you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them. Now many people think there's nothing in the scripture that commands an all-male army. They say, well, sure, the Bible commands the men to go, but just because it commands the men to go doesn't mean it prohibits the women from going into the military. And they'll use jail in Judges 4, and they say, see, here's a woman who killed an officer. Women can be involved in the army. But that's using a historical example to overturn many biblical commands. That's bad exegesis. And this verse shows a command of God that women were not to be involved in the military. Now he's not saying women can't serve on the front lines of the battlefield. You know, that's what some pastors say, okay, just so long as they're not serving in the front lines of the battlefield. No, they cannot be in the military at all. They had to stay home. Let me read that. Your wives and your little ones shall remain in the land. That's not a suggestion, that's a command based on Deuteronomy 20 and other passages that you'll find in our Denominations Constitution. So what difference should this make? Well, if you've got a relative, You know, a female who wants to serve in the military, strongly try to give every reason to discourage her from doing so. It's not a healthy environment to be in. For sure, write to your senators and your congressmen before any draft or any selective service bill comes in that might force them. Tell them, look, we're very opposed to this, don't even think about it. you know, approving a selective service bill for women. Imagine what would happen if both the father and the mother were drafted into the military. Okay, it'd be a difficult thing. Imagine the difficulty that men would have when they are used to protecting women. Now they're fighting side by side with women and fighting against women in other militaries. Okay, it destroys that protective impulse. Think of how this affects the respect historically offered to women. It destroys that respect. And it's lessening the military's readiness because they've lowered the standards in order to allow the women to be able to get in. Immorality is high. Abortion is high. I talked with a chaplain who told me that he was forced to tent with women. I mean, right there, they're undressing right there. And he complained to his commander, and his commander basically told him, Be quiet. Put them down on this. And now, with the introduction of the LGBTQ plus nonsense, it's going to be increasingly difficult to serve. What's God's mandate for the army? It's repeatedly stated to be mighty men of valor, men whose roar makes the enemy tremble, men whose authority carries weight, men whose strength is expended to the nth degree. Next week I'll make some broader applications of that verse, but let's go on to the fourth principle. Verse 14 reinforces that men, all men, were supposed to already be equipped with fighting tools before they even came to serve in the army. Federal government did not supply those tools. States did not supply those tools. Now, it doesn't mean that they couldn't supply those weapons, they could. But the biblical mandate was for private ownership of fighting tools. Not just hunting tools, but weapons, okay? Now, people think that it's different in America, but actually the original intent of the Second Amendment indicates otherwise, and we should always interpret the Constitution in light of original intent. I listened to a talk show host that was saying, the experts agree that the Second Amendment does not protect the right of citizens to own arms. He never explained who the experts were, and here's what he said. It's talking about the military and the National Guard having that right. I'm thinking, wait a minute, our founding fathers, they were concerned that the military might get disarmed? I don't think so. The whole Bill of Rights was to protect citizens, not to protect the army. It's just a ridiculous argument, but that's standard modern anti-gun line. If the words militia and people meant military, then America would have been no different than the totalitarian states that it was opposing. And you read the discussions, you realize they recognized this was a biblical concept. They also recognized they were unique, and other nations did not have militia like we do. Eidsmo and others have shown the founding fathers referred to the scriptures over and over on these and other issues, and they made clear that unlike non-Calvinistic nations, the militia was every adult male. George Mason said, I ask you, sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people. Patrick Henry said, the great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who was able might have a gun. Richard Henry Lee, who helped frame the Second Amendment, said, a militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. To preserve the liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike to use them. Do you males have arms? Do you know how to use them? It's a biblical call. It really is. You cannot read the Old Testament and realize it's not a biblical call. And by the way, though men are mandated to have weapons, we can't go to the opposite extreme that some people have gone and say that women may not have weapons to defend themselves. That is not anywhere found in the scripture. In fact, God praises jail for killing that officer who entered into her tent. You know, guns are the great equalizer. There's no reason why women cannot be trained how to use guns to defend themselves. The only nations who made all men part of the militia were the growing Calvinistic countries who took this principle straight from the Bible. For example, even to this day, Switzerland does not require a license to own a gun. To purchase one, yes. They've begun, unfortunately, requiring a permit. But there is a shell issue permit can be gotten for just about any weapon, including fully automatic weapons with very little restriction. Most men are trained how to use those guns in the military so that they can be just like with militias in the Bible. I was reading one anti-gun journalist who complained, quote, Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership, unquote. He's really troubled by that. Yes, they have a stunningly high rate of ownership. And let me tell you something, in the last 21 years, they have not had one single incident of mass shooting. They have almost the lowest rate of crime in the entire world. So much for, you know, the gun grabbers who say that if we confiscate all guns, crime will decrease. No, the Bible actually guarantees the exact opposite. Judges 5 is one example. The Philistines had disarmed all of the people, and it said, as a result of that, bandits and thieves, robbers flourished, and the roads were not safe to travel. Okay? So because of no guns in the hands of private citizens, it caused crime to flourish. Weapon control always makes crime prosper because weapon control only disarms the honest citizens, never the criminals. The only kings who disarmed citizens of the Bible were tyrants. They wanted a standing army that got paid and therefore could be controlled. In contrast, the kings and the judges who were said to bring Israel liberty always, without exception, had an armed citizenry composed of many militias. Let me give you more quotes. At the first Congress under the Constitution, Representative Eldridge Gerry said, what, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. He said, that's what the Constitution means. George Mason, a framer of the Second Amendment, said, to disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them. We have become a nation of slaves, in my opinion, because we are trusting a police state to protect us instead of taking the risks of protecting ourselves. James Mason said, The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed, which means Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. Thomas Jefferson said, no free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. And this is not just American conservativism. This is biblical. This is what the Bible calls for. How many of you men are armed that know how to use your arms? In Luke 22, Christ commanded his disciples to purchase a sword. And if they could not, they did not have one, they couldn't afford one, they were to sell their shirt to get one. That's how much of a priority it was to Jesus, okay? And by the way, that was during a time, and I've got numerous quotes to prove this, that was during a time when Rome had confiscated private weapons and did not, they had outlawed the use of weapons. So when Jesus commands them to get swords, and he's okay with them carrying the swords that they had with them, He was saying that this is such a fundamental right that it trumps all statutes. That's exactly what he was saying. Just read it. Luke 22, verse 36. It comes straight out of the Bible. So we need an informed citizenry to push back against gun control. We need to communicate our opinions to our representatives. That's what the anti-gun advocates are doing, but we tend to be passive on these issues. Verse 11 reminds us of the requirement in the book of Numbers that though there was no standing army, an army needed to be able to be mobilized very quickly. How quickly was Joshua able to mobilize this army? Verse 11 says, within three days. That's actually remarkable, to have a national army mobilize that quickly. And it was only able to be mobilized that quickly because of the previous principles. Officers down to the county level were already existing, so there was a chain of command in place. Second, that meant that when Joshua gave the command, it could go down to the local level very quickly. The regional armies were able to mobilize the militias. And third, every man was already part of the militia, had weapons, knew how to use them, could be ready at a moment's notice. So the three days basically gave them time to pack, say goodbye to their loved ones, and, you know, deal with any last minute issues. We have stories from the First War of Independence, before an adequate chain of command was in place, that shows how long it takes to mobilize one or the other. The militias mobilized way, way more quickly than Washington's army ever could. So one story is that Washington had to mobilize his army to a given area, but before he even got there, the local militias had already captured all of the enemy. Okay? So with a malicious structure, actions immediate, and since they're defending their own homes and farms, they're very motivated. You're going to get much more motivated to fight to the death to save your loved ones than you will to fight to the death to save a tyrant. Another principle is that preparation precedes battle. But what kind of preparation? Verse 11 says, That may seem very inefficient. Why not have the federal government buy all of the food and other supplies that are needed? But God doesn't care about efficiency. He wants to have decentralization, but a very motivated military. You may remember the story of David bringing food supplies to his brothers who were fighting on the field. I mean, that's the principle. This gives more loyalty to the family than it does to the federal government. Your loyalty shifts when somebody else is paying you and somebody else is feeding you. So I think you can see why these kinds of things have been evaporated as our government became more statist. Again, Navy is different, Air Force would be different by implication, but these principles do relate to the Army. Seventh principle seen in verse 15. Until the Lord has given your brother in rest, as He has given you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them, then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses the Lord's servant gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise. Now, we've already dealt with the disbanding of the army, but there's another principle embedded here. And that principle is that providing for your family does not exempt you from your responsibility to take dominion in culture. Both are necessary for the long-term safety of future generations. And it's always very, very difficult for people to have balance in different areas of their lives. And so what you see is people hear, OK, it's very important that we regain our culture, that we be involved in culture. And so they get so involved in the culture that they neglect their families and they lose their families. And then other people see people losing their families due to that reason. They say the family is most important to me and they don't get involved in culture at all. But what happens in the process is they're modeling to their children no service outside of their family. It becomes self-absorbed. The kids never see a person who's willing to die for principle, willing to shed his blood for the nation. And so it actually evaporates the desire and the impulse for dominion. So either extreme is not good. It can rob your family of dominion. And I think this is why it's so imperative to have division of labor between husband and wife. and why it's so important for the older children to learn responsibilities of raising younger children and domestic duties. It frees the men to have greater impact. It frees the men to be role models in the family of self-sacrificing manhoods. So don't go to either extreme. There are books out there actually advocating that the men have to spend as much time at home as the wives do. I'm thinking, when are they going to earn any money? That does not make any sense to me, and it's not biblical. Now keep in mind, this is a command of God. The women stayed home, the men went out. Ministry to family and ministry to culture, both important. And just to give a balance here, I should say that Numbers 32 came before Judges chapter 1. And in Numbers 32, he commanded the men to make sure that they got provisions. They made fortresses for their families to protect them. They had pens for their animals. They provided houses for their wives and their families. In other words, they're providing for the emotional and all of the needs of their family before they went out into the battle. So there's a balance here. But they did leave. Don't feel guilty if you don't spend as much time with the children as mom does. The eighth principle is that for an army to be sustained there must be trust, verse 16, but this should not be a blind trust but a trust that flows out of God's endorsement, verse 17. And so let me trace that through. Verse 16 says, they answered Joshua saying, all that you command us we will do and wherever you send us we will go. Now, though Deuteronomy indicated a semi-voluntary draft, once the soldiers were in, they needed to obey orders unless those orders clearly made them sin. Verse 17 says, Commentators point out that they gave a caveat that their obedience would be obedience in the Lord. Verse 17 ends with, the Lord your God be with you as He was with Moses. And the Hebrew word for only, rak, It's not as clear when it's translated only, but it's a conditional that modifies the previous statement. If God is with you, yeah, we're going to give you our undivided obedience, but the clear implication is if God is not with you, in other words, if He disagrees with your commands, then no, we're not going to obey. All submission must be submission in the Lord, and for people to require our military people to go against their conscience is not right. There are politicians who want to force military doctors to perform abortions, and they will be punished if they do not perform abortions. That's wrong. Military people are being forced to violate their consciences in other areas, like COVID vaccines. As Martin Luther said at his trial, it is not safe for a Christian to act against his conscience. And that includes military men. They do not lose their Bill of Rights. At the Nuremberg trials, as hypocritical as facets of those trials were, soldiers did not get off the hook pleading, hey, we were just following orders. Soldiers are supposed to follow orders. They did not get off the hook. You cannot follow orders in the military if you're commanded to sin. Better to suffer the consequences with man than the consequences with God. And the Nuremberg trials recognized that right and that responsibility. The ninth principle is that armies have stiffer penalties for disobedience during time of war. Verse 18 says, Why such a tough penalty? Because the lives of the whole army cannot be jeopardized by the disobedience or betrayal of one person. Now, it's during a situation of war that makes such insubordination a capital crime, with that being maximum, not mandated, but a maximum. This is not something military officers could do when there was no war. Now, it could be argued that these aren't the words of God, it's just the opinion of the people, but many commentators say, no, this is based straight on Deuteronomy 17, verse 12, which calls for death penalty for deliberate rebellion against a lawful order. They say, well, where does lawful order come up in here? Well, it's the contingency I mentioned with Rock. Let me quote from one commentator. He says, This word, rock, inserts a subtle note of contingency into their pledge of allegiance. And if you have net study Bible notes, you'll notice that it says, that word qualifies what precedes. And so this issue of death penalty was only related to disobedience to lawful orders during time of conflict, not at any other time. Now this point could be debated, and probably will be debated. But the logic is, without such a provision, the entire army's safety is jeopardized. God doesn't ask every soldier to second guess what would be the best tactic to use. And if you've got an army of men who all want to pretend to be officers and strategists, you're going to have a pretty useless army. Armies must have stiff military discipline for the survival of all. The tenth principle is that armies need men with strength and courage. Verse 18 concludes, only be strong and of good courage. Of course, that's exactly what God commanded Joshua in verse 9, commanded the men in verse 14. It really doesn't do any good to have a universal draft if that draft dilutes the courage, because you got all kinds of people who are not competent for battle. Gideon discovered that It's much better to have 300 courageous men than to have 32,000 undisciplined soldiers. Wars, many times, are won not because they have overwhelming numbers, but because of their courage and their dedication. There are a number of historians, and this has been recently debated, but a number of historians say only 4% of the population actually fought in the War for Independence. And whether that 4% figure is true or not, it was definitely a tiny minority. In the Second War for Independence, the South won many, many battles against all odds because of the ferocious courage that those men had. And even far superior weaponry does not make a huge difference. When you look at the Soviet Union's war many years ago with Afghanistan, They had vastly superior weapons. I mean, the Afghans had World War One weapons, you know, and they had tanks and helicopters and missiles and all kinds of stuff. But because of the plodding, courageous dedication of the of the ground troops, they finally gave up. They I guess they wore the the Russians out. But I want to end with the observation that even the military must put its trust in God since God alone gives the outcome of battles, all battles. And this is repeatedly stated in the book of Joshua. It's stated three times in this small passage. When God withdrew His blessing, battles were lost even when the odds should have been in Israel's favor. But when God blessed them, battles were won even when the odds were against them. And there are many passages that say that this principle is true of even pagan nations. Deuteronomy 2, verse 12 says, the descendants of Esau dispossessed the Helrites by God's design. And you read the minor and the major prophets, wow. God is the one who in pagan nations raises up armies, cast down armies. And I'll just give you one example. Daniel 8 prophesied that God would enable a future king, Alexander the Great, to achieve remarkable victories against all odds. It says God would enable those remarkable victories. And battle after battle, I've studied the battles of Alexander the Great. It's astonishing that he won many of those battles. So God is using one pagan nation to decimate an even more corrupt pagan nation. It's one of his judgments. So Daniel 8 had to be fulfilled against all odds, and it was. If you look in your outlines, there's two pictures, two paintings of the Battle of Granicus where the Greeks fought against the Persians. Now, from a human perspective, Alexander should have lost. Alexander only had 35,000 troops and a handful of cavalry against 100,000 Persian soldiers and another 10,000 Persian cavalry. So you got 35,000 against 110,000. He was just vastly outnumbered. And furthermore, Alexander was going on to Persian soil after he crossed the Hellespont River and then the Granicus River. And not only that, they were exhausted. They were coming uphill out of that river It was just a bad, bad position. They were definitely at a disadvantage, yet only 100 Greeks were killed and 20,000 Persians were killed. You cannot help but see God's providence fighting against the Persians. It's nothing short of astonishing. Without God's promised aid, Alexander would have lost. And the book of Joshua will be demonstrating that when God is against Israel, there is absolutely nothing Israel can do to win. When God is for Israel, it wins amazing victories. Now, applied to today, it's not enough for America to have one of the strongest militaries in the world and some of the best military equipment in the world. Military history shows that superior forces and arms is not enough. Now, by simple laws, of course, America is in a good place to win. But if God becomes increasingly offended with America's arrogant rebellion, our military could lose disastrously. Keep in mind that God holds former Christian nations, we used to be a Christian nation, God holds former Christian nations much more accountable than he does pagan nations who don't know better. And it wouldn't have to be an EMP scenario. God alone gives the outcomes of wars and it's to him alone that we should look. As our money states, in God we trust. That's a fact of history, but it's no longer true of America. And apart from national repentance for abortion, perversity, statism, socialism, a host of other sins, I fear that the Lord will not continue to prosper us. Pray diligently, not only for a downsizing of D.C., but also a reformation in D.C. and every state and county. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Father, even though this is not dealing with some of the issues that we on a day-by-day face as we look at next week, I pray that we would grow to appreciate that your Scriptures apply to everything in life, to mathematics, to logic, to militaries. It applies to every area of life. And we shouldn't be surprised with this since Jesus is Lord of all. And so, Father, I pray that we would have more and more confidence in Your Word that it does answer the problems that we face in every area of life. And I do pray against the tyranny that we are increasingly seeing in our nation, especially in the military. And I pray that you would purge the military of the LGBTQ movement that is decimating its ranks and that you would help our military to more and more go back to its constitutional and biblical roots. But I pray as well that we as citizens would take our responsibilities more seriously. Many times, Father, our country just reflects the bad attitudes and the apathy of the citizens. And so Father, may we fill, not allow statism to fill a void of our inaction, but may we be a very active people bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to every area of life, but also bringing your law, bringing your word, your blueprints to every area of life. help us as a church to maintain balance of ministering to our families and caring for them, but also seeking to be salt and light in our community so that we don't have to be cast out and trodden underfoot of men. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.