Deuteronomy 20

Today’s Passage: Deuteronomy 20

Moses turns to the day Israel will go out to war. Before a single sword is drawn, he sets rules around the fighting. The priest tells the army not to be afraid, because the LORD their God goes with them. The officers send whole groups of men back home: the one with a new house, the one with a new vineyard, the one newly pledged to marry, and the one whose heart is afraid. When they come to a city far away, they must first offer it terms of peace. For the nations already living in the land, whose gods would pull Israel’s heart away, a harder word is given. And even in a long siege, the fruit trees are not to be cut down, because a tree is not a man that you should war against it.

As you read, hold this: The LORD Himself goes out with His people, and even their warfare is fenced about with mercy.

Deuteronomy 20:1–4 (BSB)

¹ When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you are about to go into battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army, ³ saying to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be alarmed or terrified because of them. ⁴ For the LORD your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

Notice who speaks first when Israel goes out to war. Not a general counting soldiers, but a priest, and his whole word is a word against fear (יָרֵא) yare, pronounced yah-RAY. Strong's H3372, to fear, revere, stand in awe. The word covers the whole range of fear, from ordinary dread to the trembling that unstrings a man before a battle. Here it is set under a negation and pinned to a reason. Do not fear, for the LORD your God is with you. The command is not that the danger is small. Horses and chariots are real, and the enemy line is longer. The command rests on His presence, not on their odds. Where He goes with His people, the ground of fear is taken away. . The army looks up and sees horses and chariots and a line longer than their own, and the answer is not a better strategy but a Person. The LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, is with you. The same God who split the sea now walks into the field. The soldier is not told he is strong. He is told Whose he is, and that the One who goes with him is the One who fights.

Deuteronomy 20:5–9 (BSB)

⁵ Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶ Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit. ⁷ Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.” ⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.” ⁹ When the officers have finished addressing the army, they are to appoint commanders to lead it.

Here is mercy woven straight into the muster. Before the army marches, the officers begin sending men home. The one who has built a house but never slept a night under its roof, go home and live in it. The one who has planted a vineyard but never tasted its wine, go home and drink it. The one pledged to a bride he has not yet married, go home to her. God will not have a man cut down on the edge of the joys He gave him to enjoy. And then the tenderest release of all: the man who is simply afraid may go home, and no shame is heaped on him, for his fear could spread. A kingdom that fought by numbers would never release its soldiers. Israel does not fight by numbers. The LORD fights, so the frightened man is free to leave, and the joys of ordinary life are guarded even on the way to war.

Deuteronomy 20:10–15 (BSB)

¹⁰ When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace. ¹¹ If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you. ¹² But if they refuse to make peace with you and wage war against you, lay siege to that city. ¹³ When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword. ¹⁴ But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you. ¹⁵ This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

The first move against a distant city is not a sword but an offer. You are to make an offer of peace. War is never the opening word. Only if the city refuses peace and takes up arms does the siege begin, and even then the women and children and livestock are spared. These verses are sober, and we should not dress them as gentle. Men fell. But set them beside the wars of the ancient world, where cities were emptied of every living thing as a matter of course, and you can see a fence God has driven into the ground. Peace offered first. Life spared where it can be spared. Verse 15 draws the line clearly: this measured pattern is for the cities far away. Something different is said next, and only about the nations already in the land.

Deuteronomy 20:16–18 (BSB)

¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ For you must devote them to complete destruction—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.

Here is the hardest command in the chapter, and it should be named plainly and not lingered over. For the nations already settled in the land, Israel is told to devote them to complete destruction. This is the command faithful readers wrestle with, and it is right to feel its weight. Three things must be held together as we read it. First, it is spoken at God’s explicit command, not out of Israel’s greed or hatred, and verse 18 gives the reason: the deep, settled idolatry of these particular nations would teach Israel their detestable practices and pull the whole people away from the LORD. Second, it is a specific, once-for-all judgment on those particular nations at that particular moment, the long-delayed reckoning on an idolatry Scripture elsewhere says had been ripening for generations. It is not a pattern to be copied and never a warrant for war or violence in any later age. Third, the New Testament turns God’s people outward toward the nations in love, and the only warfare it hands us is fought with the word and prayer against sin, not against people. We can teach this verse honestly, feel its severity, and still refuse to make it a weapon. It belongs to that hour and to the God who alone had the right to give it.

Deuteronomy 20:19–20 (BSB)

¹⁹ When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them? ²⁰ But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

After the hardest words comes a gentle one, and its placement is not an accident. Even in a long siege, when armies strip the land bare to break a city, Israel is told to leave the fruit trees standing. You can eat their fruit, so you must not put an axe to them. Then a question that has stayed tender across the centuries: are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them? The tree is not your enemy. It bears bread for whoever will live here after the war. Only the barren trees may be taken for the works of the siege. It is remarkable that in a chapter about war, God bends down to protect an orchard, because the God who gives the land intends life to go on growing in it long after the fighting ends.