The Everlasting Covenant

Physical Force Always Fails

Their victory was to be had only by faith, and, as we have already seen, if they had been truly faithful, there would have been no more need of their using the sword to drive out the Canaanites than there was to use it for the overthrow of Pharaoh and his hosts. Indeed, the reason why they did not gain full possession of the land was because of that unbelief which made the sword necessary; for it is absolutely impossible that the heavenly country which God promised Abraham can ever be gained by men with swords or guns in their hands. The first experience of Moses demonstrated this. There was no more need for Israel to fight in the days of old than there is for us; for “when a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” ¹ and we are absolutely forbidden to fight. The possessions that men gain by fighting are not the possessions that God gives. Indeed, they are really not possessions at all, since they cannot possibly be held, as the history of the world proves. Alexander and Napoleon long since lost all that they seemed to have gained by war. The latter, like many others, lost his seeming possessions even before he died. EVCO 420.1