King Saul told David the giant-killer: “Only be thou valiant for me, and fight Jehovah’s battles.” (1 Sam. 18:17, AS) It was with good understanding that Abigail, the woman of the city of Carmel, spoke to the same David, saying: “Jehovah will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fighteth the battles of Jehovah.” (1 Sam. 25:28, AS) To be a battler for Jehovah is a high honor and a blessing, and Jehovah is with each theocratic battler. The divine blessing is upon him. Today there are Christian battlers for Jehovah, and in a way they display greater courage than did the Israelite battlers for Jehovah, because these Christian witnesses of Jehovah do not use or resort to carnal death-dealing weapons such as the Israelite warriors did and they will not use or resort to such violent weapons or raise private military squads even at the battle of Armageddon, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” Why is this so concerning these Christian battlers for Jehovah? We shall see.

SANCTIFIED WARRIORS

14. Because of its sacredness how were those engaging in it prepared for it, and what exchange of words by David with Ahimelech has a bearing on this question?

¹⁴ Theocratic warfare is a sacred thing, and those who are privileged to engage in it are sanctified for it because of its holiness. The warfare must be approached and be engaged in in a sanctified condition as a holy service. This becomes clear from David’s conversation with the high priest Ahimelech at the city of Nob, where the sacred ark of Jehovah God had been transferred. King Saul had become jealous of David because Jehovah’s blessing rested upon this young man as a battler for Jehovah. Finally David was obliged to flee from Saul’s reach in order to escape death. Accompanied by faithful young men for part of the way, he came to Nob, hungry and unarmed. He wanted food for himself and the young men whom he had left at a certain place. David went on to say to high priest Ahimelech: “‘Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.’ And the priest answered David, ‘I have no common bread at hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.’ And David answered the priest, ‘Of a truth women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy, even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?’ So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD [Jehovah], to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.”—1 Sam. 21:1-6, RS.

15. How did Jesus show that holiness was something to be considered in that connection?

¹⁵ The Lord Jesus showed that holiness was something to be considered here when he verified this historic occurrence and said: “Have you not read what David did when he and the men with him got hungry? How he entered into the house of God and they ate the loaves of presentation, food it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests only?” (Matt. 12:3, 4, NW) This was the reason why Ahimelech first asked whether David and his young men had been kept from women for at least a day and David replied that they had. But how was holiness here involved? And what was implied by David’s answer with reference to a war expedition?

16. Why would contact with women by David and his men have disqualified them for eating the showbread, and why did David emphasize their cleanness by a comparison with a military expedition?

¹⁶ Being kept from women meant being kept from sexual intercourse with their wives or concubines. At ordinary times there was nothing wrong or disqualifying with such proper intercourse. But when an occasion or a service called for ceremonial cleanness then such relations between an Israelite and his wife were out of order. Why? Because after such intercourse both the man and his wife were ceremonially unclean until the following evening. In the theocratic law that was given through Moses to the Israelites it was written: “Now in case a man should have an emission of semen go out from him, then he must bathe all his flesh in water and be unclean until the evening. And any garment and any skin upon which the emission of semen gets to be must be washed with water and be unclean until the evening. As for a woman with whom a man may cohabit with an emission of semen, they must bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.” (Lev. 15:16-18, NW) Consequently, sexual intercourse that day would have made David and his men unfit to be given the unused holy showbread to eat. Now David claimed that it was an ordinary mission on which he was in the king’s service; yet David said that he and his men were ceremonially clean from sexual contact with their wives and concubines the same as if they were going out on an “expedition,” that is, a military expedition. Going out on a military expedition or war called for sanctification by ceremonial cleansing of their “vessels” or physical organisms. The theocratic nature of the warfare called for sanctity of this kind, if the divine blessing was to rest upon the army and victory was to be granted to those battling for Jehovah. It was a sacred service.

17. How was an Israelite army camp to be kept clean, and why?

¹⁷ Cleanness ceremonially, morally and physically was required of the Israelite camp engaged in theocratic warfare. Said Jehovah’s law to the Israelites: “In case you should go out into camp against your enemies, then you must keep yourself from every bad thing. In case there should happen to be in you a man who does not continue clean, because of a pollution that occurs at night, then he must go outside the camp. He may not come into the midst of the camp. And it must occur that at the falling of evening he should wash with water and at the setting of the sun he may come into the midst of the camp. And a private place should be at your service outside the camp, and you must go out there. And a peg should be at your service along with your implements, and it must occur that when you squat outside, then you must dig a hole with it and turn and cover your excrement. For Jehovah your God is walking about within your camp to deliver you and to abandon your enemies to you, and your camp must prove to be holy, that he may see nothing indecent in you and certainly turn away from accompanying you.” (Deut. 23:9-14, NW) If the divine presence as represented by the angel of Jehovah was to accompany the army clear to final victory, the camp had to be kept clean according to theocratic standards.

18. How did the pagans differ from this in camp and in conquest, and how was this difference illustrated by the course of Uriah the Hittite, warrior of King David?

¹⁸ The camp of Jehovah’s theocratic nation, therefore, differed from that of the pagan armies. The pagans would take women along with them that the warriors might indulge themselves with them, or on capturing a place the soldiers were given free rein to seize the womenfolk and rape them. (Isa. 13:16; Lam. 5:11; Zech. 14:2) There exists something similar to this today, when we read or hear of prostitutes tagging along after the military camps and of military officers deliberately providing places of prostitution in the neighborhood for the sexual satisfaction of their soldiers. In the theocratic camp of Israel this was prohibited because the war on which they were set out was theocratic, therefore sacred, and called for sanctification by the fighters. Therefore sexual contact with women, even their own wives and concubines, was prohibited to them and they voluntarily abstained from it. This was why Uriah, a Hittite of good will, when called in from the field by King David, did not go at night to his home in Jerusalem to be with his wife. When King David, ignoring the sacred requirements of the military campaign, asked Uriah why he had not gone home that night, that loyal soldier theocratically replied: “The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in booths; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open field; shall I then go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.” (2 Sam. 11:6-11, AS) Uriah wanted to remain sanctified for the fight. So for the time being he would be as without a wife. It reminds us of what the apostle Paul said to Christians: “Moreover, this I say, brothers, the time left is reduced. Henceforth let those who have wives be as though they had none.” (1 Cor. 7:29, NW) At times theocratic duties will call a Christian from his wife’s side and he must respond.

19. For the sanctity of the Israeilte army what procedure was required respecting captive maidens wanted as wives, and how and why was a man engaged to a girl exempted from military service?

¹⁹ If the Israelites were commanded to capture a place and kill off the men and the women that were not virgin, they were not free to rape the girls who were preserved alive. That would have been defiling the army, for it would have been committing fornication, immorality. If any Israelite wanted any captive maid he could not have relations with her immediately on capturing her. No, but he must keep himself sanctified for theocratic warfare by following the law that said: “In case you should go out to the battle against your enemies and Jehovah your God has given them into your hand and you have carried them away captive, and you have seen among the captives a woman beautiful in form and you have gotten attached to her and taken her for your wife, then you must bring her into the midst of your house. She must now shave her head and attend to her nails, and remove the garment of her captivity from off her and dwell in your house and weep for her father and her mother a whole month, and after that you should have relations with her and you must take possession of her as your bride and she must become your wife.” (Deut. 21:10-13, NW) Until the military campaign was over and its sanctity had been maintained this sexual contact could not occur with divine approval. If a man called to the army was engaged to a girl, he was relieved of his army obligations for one year that he might go home and take his betrothed one in marriage and have a child by her that he might have an offspring and keep his name alive, that thus he might not be killed in battle childless.—Deut. 20:7; 24:5.

20. To the camp what was of vaster importance than ceremonial or moral uncleanness?

²⁰ The vindication of Jehovah, the God of victory, was at stake. Keeping the camp above reproach in God’s sight and worthy of gaining the victory by Jehovah’s continued favor was of vaster importance than committing any ceremonial or moral uncleanness and violating the sanctity of the military expedition. This is true also of the sacred warfare of Christian battlers for Jehovah today. Of course, the legal covenant that Jehovah God made with the ancient Israelites through Moses does not apply today to the Christian, and hence the Christian battlers are not required to abstain from intercourse with their wives because they are in a sacred warfare. Nonetheless, their conduct must be clean morally and spiritually. Their keeping themselves from immorality and also from spiritual adultery by being a part of this world must befit the sacredness of this Christian warfare. (Jas. 4:4) Their part in the vindication of Jehovah is at stake, and furnishes them a cleansing influence, an impulse to purity morally and spiritually.

Priests with the Theocratic Army

1. By whose presence was the Israelite camp sanctified, and why was their presence required?

THE sacredness of theocratic warfare called for a sanctifying of the Israelite men for this service of God as upholders of his universal sovereignty and as executioners of his righteous indignation against the worshipers of false gods. Accordingly it was necessary for priests of the tribe of Levi to accompany the Israelite army. Their presence added sanctity to the army of Jehovah. In the days when his sacred ark of the covenant was sheltered under the tabernacle or tent it was the custom to take the ark into the army camp, as it symbolized the presence of Jehovah God with his fighting forces. (1 Sam. 4:4-6; 14:18, 19; 2 Sam. 11:11) This necessarily required the presence of the Levite priests in the camp, for they were the only ones authorized to carry the ark of Jehovah God. Once a nonpriestly Israelite was killed for touching the ark, thinking to keep it from falling off a cart. Had the Levite priests been carrying the ark, this would not have occurred. (Deut. 31:9; Josh. 3:17; 6:4-11; 1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:6, 7; 1 Chron. 15:2-15, 26) Also when a battle engagement was facing the Israelite army it was customary for a sacrifice to be offered to Jehovah God, and this required the presence of Jehovah’s prophet or of his Levite priests. (1 Sam. 7:9; 13:9) Furthermore, before engaging in a certain battle strategy the God-fearing military commander would consult Jehovah by means of the ark of the covenant or by a priestly ephod or by the sacred Urim and Thummim that were borne by the high priest. The pagans, like Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, resorted to various forms of divination, but Jehovah’s people inquired of him, the true God, for his direction in battle. (Judg. 1:1; 20:27, 28; 1 Sam. 14:37; 23:2, 6, 9-14; 28:6; 30:8; 2 Sam. 5:19, 23; Ezek. 21:21) This, too, required the presence of Jehovah’s prophet or priest with his theocratic camp.

2. For what purpose were priests ordered directly to the front before battle, but were they required to take up arms and fight?

² Jehovah specifically ordered priests of his to the front when he gave the following commandment for the Israelites in their battles in the Holy Land, the Promised Land: “In case you should go out to the battle against your enemies and you have seen horses and war chariots, a people more numerous than you, you must not be afraid of them, for Jehovah your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And it must occur that when you have drawn near to the battle, then the priest must approach and speak to the people. And he must say to them, ‘Hear, O