While their benefits have no doubt been many, church pageants have also had the unfortunate result of making us think that biblical characters did little more than stand around in their bathrobes. The first time someone graduates from such images to an “actual read” through the Old Testament, the effect can be more than a little disconcerting. Included in the number of surprises is the realization that Abraham was a soldier.
“Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit . . . he and his servants attacked them and pursued them . . . he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people” (Gen. 14:14-16). Not many Christians think of Abraham as a military figure — but he was. Not many think of him as a general — but he was.
It would be too much to try to gain a comprehensive view of warfare from the behavior of Abraham, but at least a couple of lessons can and should be gleaned from this account. All Scripture was written for our edification and profit, including those passages which have attracted little attention.
First, Abram was no pacifist. Many Christians of goodwill have been strongly attracted to the view that warfare is outlawed for Christians. The pull toward this position is a considerable one. C.S. Lewis noted that there have been two attempted Christian reactions to the problem of war — pacifism and chivalry. The allure of the first has been very great for many. For those who are familiar with the horrors of war, nothing seems more initially obvious than the fact that such carnage is prohibited to true Christians, to those who are true sons of . . . Abraham. As this shows, the initial plausibility wears thin once we turn from those things which seem generally “so obvious” in order to examine what the Bible actually teaches us on this subject. Abram’s military career is just one example among many. In both Old and New Testaments we find repeated references to the lawfulness of warfare.
But once this point is established, many Christians rush from this permission for war to an enthusiasm for war — equally unbiblical, and more atrocious. The evangelist Billy Sunday was not opposed to whipping up support for the First World War through jumping up on the pulpit after his sermon in order to wave an American flag. That war, incidentally, was going to end all wars. But Abram had no such messianic illusions about what he was doing. His military expedition was entirely defensive — it was a rescue mission. While he lived in the same region as some of the most abominable people who ever lived, he had not been active in organizing the Death to Chedorlaomer movement. Neither had he established the People’s Front for the Liberation of the Cities of the Plain (PFLCP). He was willing to take up arms against Chedorlaomer, but only when his kinsman Lot was captured. Abram was not like the man in Proverbs who took up a quarrel not his own, one who grabbed a passing dog by the ears. Abram was not Canaan’s policeman.
The lesson for us should be obvious. To reason from the lawfulness of war to the lawfulness of any given war is to be guilty of a non sequitur of the first rank. Unfortunately, Christians are usually among the first in the rush to support “our boys in uniform” in any military expedition, and this is usually done without even considering the question of whether we are doing the right thing. As many isolated and lonely Christians have found out, any reluctance to throw oneself into the cauldron of war fever is usually taken as some species of treachery. J. Gresham Machen’s response to the First War was in stark contrast to Sunday’s. His biographer Stonehouse says of him, “Machen’s general temper was also admirable because, in a time of giddy excitement, he displayed unusual restraint and objectivity concerning the underlying issues.” He was willing to serve, but not willing to rant.
Another important thing to note is Abram’s refusal to take any money from the king of Sodom — “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich'” (Gen. 14: 22b-23). His purpose in going to war was not economic. He had not entered the fight in order to obtain lower gas prices. His cause for entering the fight had been righteous, and he wanted to do nothing that would enable others to dismiss his integrity.
James tells us that a great deal of warfare comes about because we want and can’t have. This observation is not limited to toddlers grabbing things in the nursery; it includes kings and regiments, presidents and strike forces. And every Christian should know that when we come to the point where we are willing to add thousands to the ranks of the fatherless, we had better know that what we are doing accords with Scripture. And in searching this out, a good starting place is to meditate on the military work of Father Abraham.