The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 322

away of vast populations by plague and famine, by fire, and by what we call the accident of sea or land, would not present a tithe of the difficulty that lies before our feet when the one element is produced .of the sword and weapon of warfare wielded consciously, deliberately, determinedly, by men on the battle-field for the destruction of fellow-men. Yet we must renounce the credibility of the Old Testament Scriptures or must acknowledge that th_e destruction of hu~an life was abundantly effected by war, undertaken and earned through to the bitter end by Divine sanction and ordinance. Nothing can be more natural than to ask how this is, and the facts beincr indisputable, what account can be given of them. It seems likely ~noucrh that w~ may not be able to feel that we have found under auy circumstances a compl~te solution of the problem before us. It may rest upon deeper reason than we can fathom, be part of a larger justice than we can mete, belong to a wider circle or range of analogy than all we have yet caught sight of. But there can be no question that it is as usual open to us to approach in the direction of the desired result, though we may stop short of the goal. .A.nd- I. OF THE DIVINELY COMMANDED WARS AND BATTLES OF ISRAEL. Herethesubject of war is relieved at once of one of its greatest difficulties. For in this case we need not stop to debate respecting the abstract possibilit,y of justification of war. Its justifi- cation in these cases is for us of the kind called positive. And of war thus conditioned we must remark: I. That its motive does not come into the question, and cannot be challenged. 2. That its object must be held to have been for the universal benefit. 3. That the fact of its being a method of chastisement and of destruction of human lire by the agency of human beings must be held to be the one difficult question at issue. Can there be found compensating and justifying considerations, and these not of such a nature as absolutely to refuse to be reconciled with our moral sense? The following considerations may, at all events, be helpful to those who would not impugn, nc,t eveu for a moment impugn, the right of God to take human lives, in whatever number, unquestioned, by some method. With others, as matter of course, they could have little weight. For the destruction of human life in battle, on the part of a people constituted and set apart like Israel, at the command of God was (1) equivalent to a consenting adoption by them of the sovereignty of God. Now, the unity, the absolute soleness, and the sovereignty were the three greatest and most fundamental attributes of Deity, which it was the special business of the Israelites to learn. 'l'hese their educa- tion was to master well. (2) It was a vital protection for them against both a super- stitious and a supine trust of the invisible, superior power. Had the invisible God always swept their enemies, for instance, from before them without their own instrumentality and co-operation, it is not difficult to calculate something of what sort of expectance and what sort of trust would have been engendered in them. But now, though the battle is of the Lord, and the strength is of him, and the victory Lie, with most strenuous effort must the people do the work, gird themselves for the fight, and suffer much while they win. (3) Next to those who suffered the infliction of the Divine purpose and justice, it was to those who executed them the most impressive possible manifestation of all that death and slaughter have it in them to brand upon human minds and fasten in human convictions and light up to human imagination. The terrible assertion of the final power to control, to punish, to avenge, was often needed, is often needed, to " sum up the whole matter,'' and to be the unchallengeable "conclu- liion of the whole matter." (4) It was the beginning and germ of that constitution of human society which now peremptorily devolves for a while upon men the entire actnal visible conduct of the affairs of men. 'fhe Ruler, the King, "the Lord of those men," is gone away awhile into a far distant country, and "the Word of the Lord is precious," and "then, is no vision nor dream." The day of reckoning and account is assuredly to come, and all are forewarned of it; but as assuredly it is not yet. And this one fact constitutes the most awful view of human responsibility, whether in war or in peace. II. OF WAR IN GENERAL, AND NOT THOSE CASES OF IT ALONE wmcn WERE OF DrvINE COMMAND. 1. War, horror and scourge that it is, yet snatches its occasion in one of the most necessary and ultimate forms of association of human kind, viz. the nation. Men are associated together in nations by necessity. They are brought together by geographical position. They are held togethe_r ~y community of race. The necessity ill e. natural one, the consequences are full of significance, the advantages OJI, XX, 1-8.] 'l'HE FHtST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 321