The gods were responsible for the victory, and on the other hand, if they did not run them in the place, time and quantity (of the sacrifices) and "angered" them, the result was "clear" and "certain" - a clear loss in the war, a bad year, a poor harvest, diseases and other shameful things * According to the Tanakh, he personally intervened in Israel's wars
The connection between wars and religion and worship in ancient times is not an innovative finding worthy of proof and confirmation. As a matter of fact, almost the entire daily routine of our ancestors was involved in one way or another in religion, faith, and basically - worship. The gods were responsible for the victory, and on the other hand, if they did not run them in the place, time and quantity (of the sacrifices) and "angered" them, the result was "clear" and "certain" - a clear loss in the war, a bad year, a poor harvest, diseases and other shameful things. In any case, the results of a battle or war were more significant, both due to their frequency and due to the many sacrifices they took, and therefore the relationship between wars and religion and worship became stronger and stronger.
It is not for nothing that the army is sometimes called "the army of God", or "the armies of Jehovah" (Exodus 41:6); It was not for nothing that the warriors were asked to purify themselves before the battle, to sanctify themselves, and sometimes even to abstain from contact with a woman on the eve of the battle (28 Samuel XNUMX:XNUMX); It was not for nothing that the wars were called "Yahweh's wars" (XNUMX Samuel XNUMX:XNUMX), and it was not for nothing that the enemies of the people were named "Yahweh's enemies". The motive for these phenomena, and certainly for their wording in the ancient literature, was clear: on the one hand to draw courage and encouragement and at the same time cast a kind of voodoo curse on the enemies, and on the other hand - to justify, subconsciously and subconsciously, the loss, considering it a psychological problem.
One of the visual expressions of the connection between the people, God and the war, was the Ark of the Covenant, which was transported from war to war, from battle to battle, and around it developed a whole ritual of movements such as: processions, prayers, dances, battle cries and more. The importance of the presence of the Ark of the Covenant was so acute that the excuse for the nation's loss in war, such as in the Afek War against the Philistines, was the absence of the Ark from the battlefield. It is impossible, by the way, to rule out the motivational surge as a result of the warriors being exposed to the Ark of the Covenant (exactly similar to the presence of a fan crowd in the stands of the stadium or the modern sports hall), and the decrease in motivation as a result of its absence, which sometimes results in a loss in the battle.
At the successful end of the campaign it is written that God gave the warriors into the hands of their enemies", such as "And the Lord said to Joshua: Behold, I have given into your hand Jericho and the queen of the mighty men of the army" (Joshua 2:15). More than once it was emphasized that it was God who actually fought in the battle; Because he uses the forces of nature to cast terror and terror on his enemies, including because he places the "fear of God" on the "wicked" (XNUMX Samuel XNUMX:XNUMX).
Below are a handful of quotations to illustrate the relationship between God and war: "Jehovah will fight for you and you will be silenced" (Exodus 14:3); "Jehovah is a man of war, Jehovah is his name" (Bamadbar 30:4); "Jehovah your God who goes before you will fight for you" (Deuteronomy 8:14); "Jehovah of hosts is the commander of an army of war" (Isaiah XNUMX:XNUMX); "Jehovah is strong and mighty, Jehovah is mighty in battle" (Psalms XNUMX:XNUMX); "God will fight for us" (Nehemiah XNUMX:XNUMX) and more.
Moreover, at the end of the campaign, the enemy and his property are condemned to be confiscated to God, holy to God, and those who try to touch this property are severely punished (as in the case of Achan ben Karmi ben Zebedee).
As a researcher I was interested in knowing how the God of Israel is characterized and decorated in biblical sources. The image that immediately stands out and jumps out in front of the reader's eyes is the phrase "Jehovah of Armies". Several hundreds of times (!!!) this phrase appears in its various inflections in biblical literature, and this is enough to indicate the deep affinity between God and the qualities of war hidden in him, in other words: the nature and character of God, and his dominant goal. I examined, at the same time, the warlike, military characterization, attributed to the Egyptian gods on the one hand and the Mesopotamian gods on the other, and it became clear that Jehovah is second to none in his military power. And this is to know that in the absolute majority of mentions of the word "armies" in the Bible, there is a clear proximity between "Jehovah" and "armies".
The God of Israel is therefore a warrior god and a god who helps in fighting. The God of Israel is the essence of war, its causes and results. extreme? Yes indeed! Why? They agreed and read:
Forgive me all my critics, those who are "enthusiastic" about the fruits of my research and support my ideas with all their limbs and tendons, but in "my" Bible it is not written "In the beginning God created man", but "In the beginning man created God". That is, all religious and ritual existence, in every nation and civilization, were created to serve man's goals, which are powerful, political and economic. Man created God and from that built a system for himself based on giving legitimacy to every move he makes. Proof of this lies in the fact that the mechanisms of the sacred vessels, the servants of the cult, act in a self-fulfilling prophecy - a kind of dynamic mechanism that creates a "loop" of powerful empowerment: I was chosen by God, I serve him, I help you as a result, and you must help to me so that I can activate the help mechanism for your benefit. And what is that help? The consent to be controlled by me, to believe in me and shower me with many gifts.
What does this imply, and how does it relate to the purpose of the article?
The biblical style, and especially the one concerning the religious, religious and ritual aspect, was written in an informed and deliberate manner: to convey a clear message of the writers/editors/drafters to the public of believers.
And the message is: trust God because he is a war hero, a battle knight, an ultimate winner, strong, brave and with heavenly abilities.
What is the historical conclusion that emerges from the message? The message reflects the warlike nature of the people. It is true that ancient peoples were involved in many long and bloody wars, but the people of Israel were exceptional in their zeal, in the intensity of their participation in battles and in the amount of their participation. It is true that this nation had all the excuses in the world (see the article "Israel Today"): they attacked us first, threatened us, provoked us, formed an alliance against us, the whole world against us, and more, but beyond the many wars that were waged in the ancient era, they justified lame and childish arguments These, the brushing of the swords and going to war. And every war, let us remind you, is a holy war, and therefore it is obsessive, ultimate and cruel. During the settlement period, the invasion of the north and the south, the days of the judges and especially the kings, the people were more involved in wars than in "a man under our vine and under his fig tree", and not because they were constantly attacking him. It is valid and valid and the writers of the Bible found legitimacy for this (as will happen thousands of years later, in the previous century and in the current one, here in our region), that the Gentiles never left the people of Israel alone. The whole atmosphere of belligerence was covered with a kind of aura of holiness, and this aura was, so it seems, at the foundation of the characterization of the God of Israel as "Jehovah of Armies". It is possible that this connection is highlighted in some ancient book, which did not survive from biblical times and is entitled "The Book of Yahweh's War" (Bamadbar 14:XNUMX).
It is worth noting that in many biblical references the phrase "Jehovah of Armies" is specifically associated with war, a military conflict, which comes to teach us that the military crown was tied on God's head and became an integral part of his "personality". And the reason, as mentioned, is the multitude of wars and the exclusion of the legitimacy of divine holiness for each and every operation.
Moreover, the God of Israel stands out many times as a vengeful and vengeful God - "not jealous and vengeful" - as an angry and full-nosed figure. The scriptures reason this as God's wrath for not following his path, but it can be linked to the same military-warlike characteristic of God, who is depicted as an Assyrian warrior: strong, armed and cruel.
By the way, in the post-biblical Messianic concept, two Messiahs actually appear: one "Messiah ben Joseph" and the other "Messiah ben David". The former will fight Israel's wars and fall in the latter battle in the Gog-Vamgog system. In his death, the Messiah "Ben David", the hoped for, the expected, will emerge and come and redeem Israel. The military goal of the first Messiah, the sacrificer and the sacrificial one, is a normative continuation of the biblical concept of "Jehovah of Armies", considering that his posterity confirms his beginning. Also, this messianic concept was born against the background of attempts to justify Jewish rebellious moves in the early era of the Second Temple period, and perhaps it even drove quite a few rebels, such as Matthias or Judah the Maccabee and their successors, to rebel and bear the crown of messianic martyrdom on their heads, considering we lay on the fence in favor of coming The last Messiah, the Redeemer.
