Page 258 - THE REVELATION OF THE THIRD HEAVEN and THE MEAT OF THE WORD

Under the Law, obedience to the civil authority is a default principle with
obedience to God (Rom 13:5) as the primary default overrule (Dan 6:22, John
14:21, Rom 13:1-7). In Daniel 6:22 it is established that a crime was not a crime
(Dan 6:22) and was not against God’s will. It was a crime though (Dan 6:8) but
God’s will overrode this (Dan 6:22). This is not just saying that it was wrong to
obey this law but that such civil disobedience was in fact not unlawful even in the
state's terms (Dan 6:22) as God is the ultimate arbiter of such things (Gen 1:26,
Dan 4:35, Matt 22:19-21).

Under the Law God started by showing His people that trust in Him rather than
trust in or use of human weapons was the key (Ex 14:14, Deut 3:22, 19:4, Joshua
10:10-13, 24:12, 2 Kings 13:4-5, Prov 20:22, Isaiah 8:14, Ezek 33:26). Although
to a greater or lesser extent Israel used weapons of war and fought in its own
strength, they were only successful when God fought for them and the greater the
extent that He did the more successful they were (Joshua 10:42, 11:7-13, 1 Chron
11:14). They only had to learn warfare properly (Joshua 2:2) after they disobeyed
God and God no longer destroyed their enemies (Joshua 2:2-3, 15, 21-23, 2 Sam
22:35). Even then God was their shield in war (2 Sam 22:36). The primary will of
God even in the Old Testament was that they trust in God for deliverance from the
sword (Job 5:11, 15, Psalm 11:5, Acts 7:25). Under the secondary will of God
David was shown how to fight via worldy means (Psalm 18:34) but all the time the
primary will of God was that Salvation should be the primary refuge (Psalm 18:35,
Zech 9:9). The shield in Psalm 18:35 is called Salvation which is a function of
faith, this is similar but different to the description in Ephesians 6:16-17 where
Salvation is the helmet and faith the shield.

In the Old Testament times refuge was to be sought under the primary will of God
in the spiritual (Psalm 34:7). Enemies were to be fed and watered under the
primary will (Prov 25:21).

Again and again the point is made that it is God who did the fighting for Israel by
his supernatural power (Judges 7:2, 9, 2 Chron 6:24, Psalm 44:3, 59:9, 60:4).
God’s primary will was that Man would trust Him completely for defence and
failing that the secondary will was that they would fight looking to God for victory
and in general obedience (Ezra 8:22). The primary will was that ALL the fighting
would be done by God (2 Chron 20:12-21). In this last case Judah was saved by
God using other worldy armies (2 Chron 20:22). Wisdom is declared as better than
weapons and a life-giver (Eccl 7:11-12, 9:18).