In 1970 Edwin Starr recorded a song titled “War.” He asks the question, “What is it good for?” His answer is, “Nothing, absolutely nothing.” To many of us, war seems to be a senseless waste of human lives. After all, we are civilized people who should be able to work things out without fighting.

When the Israelites failed to completely rid the land of their enemies, God allowed them to remain, “in order to put to the test all the people of Isra’el who had not known any of the wars with Kena’an [Canaan]. This was only so that the generations of Isra’el who had previously known nothing of war might learn about it.” (Judges 3:1-2) God wanted them to know war! Why?

War may never be God’s perfect choice but He will use it to draw our hearts to Him. Without war people become content and lazy, they turn to the gods of their neighbors: money, leisure, entertainment, drugs, alcohol–even jobs become gods. We forget that we, as Christians, “are not of the world.” (John 15:19) Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, the earth has been defiled and ceased to be the perfect world or our final destination. We became sojourners residing here only temporarily. God has purpose for war. One of them is to bring His people back to Him and it is an effective tool for accomplishing that desire.

My dad used to tell me: “Don’t get caught with your pants down.” On 9/11/2001, the United States got caught, paying no attention, just doing life in our peaceful nation. But, when the towers were attacked everything changed.  The churches exploded with people who knew no other place to turn but to God, but only until the dust settled. 

War has a purpose for God because it causes people to seek Him. What will it take for you to place yourself in God’s presence today?