God’s people are part of His army.  The tribes—including all of their men, women, and children—were called armies and camped as such.  Second, this army is inherently expeditionary—they were meant to move and conquer rather than defend.  Third, this army subdues the enemy without compromise: enemies who would not submit and become slaves of righteousness were to be killed.  This highlights that there can be no compromise between the righteousness God commands of His people and the wickedness of the world.  This brings up a fourth point: there is no neutrality. 

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

-2 Corinthians 10:3-6, ESV

Most Christians are familiar with how the Church is referred to in Scripture as a body and temple but overlook the fact that Scripture also likens the Church to an army.  This is not surprising when we consider that the American Church often commits idolatry by downplaying the kingly and terrifying traits of Jesus Christ while overemphasizing—and misunderstanding—His gentleness, love, kindness, and grace.  When they do acknowledge this army analogy, they limit it to spiritual warfare and personal holiness.  Yet God’s people have always been characterized by war, so this analogy has implications far beyond personal holiness and spiritual warfare.

God’s People Always an Army

War always has been central to God’s plan.  The Cultural Mandate is about being fruitful and multiplying for the purpose of subduing and exercising dominion over the earth—which after the Fall requires warfare.  Adam failed when he refused to wage war against the serpent and therefore became subdued by him.  While war likely existed before the Flood, its first mention in Scripture is Abraham rescuing Lot (Genesis 14).  This establishes the pattern of God’s people arming themselves for war, taking the fight to the enemy, rescuing the righteous, obliterating the wicked, and taking plunder.  In Exodus, God brought His people out of Egypt with much plunder and victory. In Leviticus, God set His people apart as holy, establishing the manner in which He was to be worshipped and defined what it meant for His people to live holy lives.

In Numbers, He made His holy people into His army and sent them to war.  This begins with a census of all the men of fighting age (Numbers 1), excluding the Levites since they had responsibilities regarding worship.  Then, God directed how His army was to be organized—the Tabernacle in the center, the Levites surrounding it, and the twelve tribes as armies surrounding them (Numbers 2).  Since the army would be touching dead bodies, God then gives laws regarding purification from such defilement then warns of the insider threat through a test for adultery that is quite similar to the penalty for the golden calf incident (Numbers 5).  This should have reminded the Israelites that their vigilance for war must also include a zealous protection of holiness in their own camp.  The heads of the tribes, as commanders of their armies, then offered gifts to God (Numbers 7), and the Levites were prepared for the service of God on behalf of the army (Numbers 8) before the army celebrated the Passover (Numbers 9) just as they would right before the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 5).

The army then set out to march (Numbers 10), but the troops complained about the hardships of deployment, resulting in God’s judgment on them (Numbers 11).  Moses’s own siblings then opposed him, so God declared his support for Moses while also establishing the righteousness of interracial marriage (Numbers 12).  Any military campaign requires reconnaissance, so the army sent spies to Canaan, but other than Joshua and Caleb they lost faith in God and therefore gave a terrifying report of their enemy’s strength (Numbers 13).  That led the army to rebel against Moses, so God declared that the entire generation—all the previously-counted fighting men—would die in the wilderness except for Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14).  The insubordination continued with Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16) and more grumbling which God answered by affirming Aaron’s priesthood (Numbers 17).  In another rebellion, even Moses disobeyed God, so he was prevented from entering the Promised Land (Numbers 20).  The army then obliterated some Canaanites who had attacked them, but the people again grumbled, resulting in a plague of poisonous serpents.  God always brings salvation to His people amidst judgment, so He had Moses create a bronze serpent for the people to look to and be saved.  The conquest truly began with the annihilation of the Amorites (Numbers 21).  This struck fear into nearby Moab, so their king summoned Midianite sorcerer Balaam to curse Israel, but God turned his cursing into blessing (Numbers 22-24).

Armies can be destroyed from within and many mighty warriors has been defeated by sexual temptation, so Balaam incited women to infiltrate the camp and draw Israel away from God to idolatry.  Even as the guilty were being killed, a prominent Israelite brazenly brought a Midianite woman into his tent.  Appalled by this, Aaron’s grandson Phinehas took a spear and skewered them both, drawing praise from God (Numbers 25).  Attention then turns to the upcoming conquest, with a census of the new generation’s army (Numbers 26), inheritance laws, and Moses’s successor (Numbers 27).  Then God commanded vengeance against Midian, so Israel killed the Midianite men but not having learned their lesson they spared the women—the same women who had previously infiltrated the camp (Numbers 31)!  The tribes of Rueben, Gad, and Manasseh then settled in the conquered land east of the Jordan under the condition that they marched with the rest of the army until all of the Promised Land was conquered (Numbers 32).  Numbers is clearly about God’s people as an army marching to war.

Deuteronomy is the final preparation of God’s army for war, reminding the new generation the stipulations, blessings, and curses of the covenant that set this army apart as holy.  In addition to commands to completely annihilate the Canaanites in the near-term conquest, God gave laws about how His army was to wage war in the future: they should boldly go to battle trusting in God, enslave the enemy if they sued for peace or destroy them if they didn’t, avoid unnecessary destruction of the environment, and treat captives with dignity (Deuteronomy 20-21).  As they spiraled into sin, they lost sight of God’s vision for His army until Israel was annihilated and Judah was exiled.  After the exile, the Jews focused solely on survival as vassals of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans.

The Characteristics of God’s Army

From this, we can deduce the characteristics of God’s army.  First, all of God’s people are part of His army.  The tribes—including all of their men, women, and children—were called armies and camped as such.  Second, this army is inherently expeditionary—they were meant to move and conquer rather than defend.  Third, this army subdues the enemy without compromise: enemies who would not submit and become slaves of righteousness were to be killed.  This highlights that there can be no compromise between the righteousness God commands of His people and the wickedness of the world.  This brings up a fourth point: there is no neutrality.  God’s army is either advancing His Kingdom or losing ground because those who would not submit to God’s righteousness are His enemies.  Fifth, defeat often comes from insider threats.  Satan prefers to use deceit and temptation to stir up division and lure God’s soldiers away from their purpose and into idolatry because a distracted and divided army cannot win.  Sixth, the army’s different treatment of enemy men and women displays their inherent difference in spiritual influence.  As goes the man so goes the family, and as goes the family so goes the nation.

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