The first time the word War appears in the Bible, is in the very same verse that the word king appears in for the first time. This is not by accident. It ALL begins in Genesis chapter 14; let’s take a look.

Gen 14:1 It began on the day that Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of the *nations, (gôy H1471, means people NOT of the Hebrew bloodline)
Gen 14:2 made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela which is Zoar.

(The king of Bela is not named, but is counted as the 5th king.)

Gen 14:3 All of these had joined forces in the open country of Siddim, along it’s salt sea.

Gen 14:4 For twelve years they all served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteen year some rebelled.

Gen 14:5 In the Fourteenth year, there came Chedorlaomer and the other kings, and together they killed the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

Gen 14:6 The Horites in mount Seir all the way to Elparan that is among it’s wilderness.

Gen 14:7 When returning back they entered into Enmishpat of Kadesh, and killed all in the land among the Amalekites, and the Amorites that lived in Hazezontamar.

*So, these 4 kings had joined forces to usher out the giants from their lands and the surrounding territories.

Gen 14:8 After this there came the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (Zoar), and they went into battle with them all in the open country of Siddim;

Gen 14:9 And they joined forces together with Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings now allied together with five. (9 in total)

Gen 14:10 The open country of Siddim had wellsprings of slime; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled in retreat there and stayed where they had fled on that mountain.

Gen 14:11 Taking all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, they ran way.

Gen 14:12 And they seized Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who lived in Sodom and was among their possessions taken away.

Gen 14:13 There came one that had escaped to tell Abram that was in the Hebrew territories; for he was living in the plain of Mamre, the Amorite brother of Eschol, and brother of Aner: these were in allegiance with Abram.

*Now, Abram (later to be known as Abraham) had no dealing with these tribes before this. He was dwelling in Mamre among the Amorites that accepted him and aligned themselves with him. It wasn’t until the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah took captive his nephew Lot, that Abram prepared himself and his people for WAR. It was NOT for territory, or for treasures, it was to deliver their blood relative from out of the hands of the enemy. BUT, the spoils of WAR, do become a stumbling block that the enemy will entice with. Let’s read further:

Gen 14:14 When Abram heard that his nephew was taken captive, he began tearing down camp and started recruiting and training those born in his house; Three hundred and eighteen in total, and they chased off the inhabitants all they way to Dan.

Gen 14:15 And he divided the plunder for himself and those in his service under the cover of night, and they killed some and chased the others off to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

Gen 14:16 When he was returned back with all the spoils, even his nephew Lot and all his possessions and also the women among his household.

Gen 14:17 The king of Sodom came down to meet with them, on their way returning home from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings that had allied with them at the open country of Shaveh, which is the kings area in the open country.

Gen 14:18 Melchizedek the king of Salem brough out to him bread and wine: for he was priest of the Most High God.

Gen 14:19 He blessed him saying “Blessed is Abram by the Most High God the possessor of heaven and earth”

Gen 14:20 “Your blessing is the highest of God which has delivered your enemies into your hand, giving you a tenth part of everything.”

*Check this out; look what the king of Sodom says to Abram when he hears the Melchizedek’s blessing on him:

Gen 14:21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and you take all the property and goods.

Gen 14:22 And Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I lift up my hand unto the Lord the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth;

Gen 14:23 If even a thread for the tie of my sandal were to be taken from among any of yours; you would say, “I have made Abram wealthy.”

Gen 14:24 Only what the young men have eaten in your territory, and also the men that came with me, Aner, Eschol and Mamre; and their portions.

Were you able to follow what just happened here? The 5 cowards kings that fled to the mountain region while the other 4 kings were fighting giants; took Abram’s nephew, and had him captive in their retreated to territory on the mountain. Abram and his three hundred and eighteen men had to fight their way through the 4 kings that held the lower regions of open country of Siddim by the salt sea. Before Abram even arrived to this scene though, the 5 latter kings that came to share in the glory with the first 4 kings, fled from the heat of battle against the giants, and they remained there. It wasn’t until AFTER the coast was clear; and the kings they had betrayed and fled from helping in battle were dead; that the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah came down the mountain to the lower regions in an attempt to deceive Abram into thinking they were not previously aligned together with the 4 kings they had just slaughtered in order to save his nephew. Before these two kings even make it to Abram and his men; the priest of God, the king of Salem, Melchizedek, intercepts with wine, bread and a blessing from God before all, saying that God had blessed Abram with the highest blessing of God, giving him a tenth of everything. Now this was before Levi, and before the tenth/tithe to be given to the priesthood was ever commanded by God. So the tenth spoken of here, is the tenth of the spoils of war, that Abram divided among himself and those that served among his household. (Gen 14:15) God is pronouncing a blessing and correcting Abram secretly through Melchizedek at the same time.. The blessing is saying, “What you took from war, it was yours to take, I have given it to you, so you didn’t have to divide it under the COVER OF NIGHT.” Also, something BIG to take notice of; Abram refused to keep anything from out of the spoils he gathered and said to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand to fight for God, and YOU aren’t giving me anything, and I will take nothing from you, not even so much as a thread for the tie of my sandal, lest YOU report that it was YOU that has made ME wealthy.” The tenth God gives to Abram, spoken through Melchizadek; is later to be required by God to be given to the sons of Levi on his behalf.

You’ll find that there are some cases of war in the Bible, where the Lord will tell His people to not take anything from among the possessions of war, and other times the Lord will say that He has given their possessions into their hands. Okay, I’m going to provide a little back story for all of this to make more sense. To do that I need us all to look back 4 chapters to chapter 10 of Genesis. Chapter 10 of Genesis is going to show us all where exactly the sons of Noah became DIVIDED again upon the earth AFTER the Flood. It starts with the 4th generation from Noah, his great grandson Eber has two sons, and it’s from these two sons, the entire earth is divided.

Gen 10:25  Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because for his days upon the earth, he was to be separated from his brother, his name was Joktan. *Peleg means: separated or divided and *Joktan mean: made less or made smaller than.

Joktan had 13 sons, and their names are Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. THESE are the the troublers of the seed of Shem that cause the division.

Gen 10:32 It’s from these families of the sons of Noah that came the nations (goy; outsiders), and it was on account of these, that the earth was divided after the flood.

*It’s here that the seed of Shem are divided and Peleg is separated and set apart from the seed of Joktan, which are now counted as goy; the word used for outsiders or non-Hebrew people. Peleg is not mentioned again until chapter 11:16, where now Peleg is listed as SHEM’s descendant and not Joktan like in Chapter 10. These 13 sons of Joktan combine forces with the seed of Ham, through Canaan’s son Cush. Cush’s son Nimrod that was making a name for himself in Shinar, used his fame of being a great hunter to rally them all together to build the empire of Babel later known as Babylon. Here’s how it went down and how and why they were divided by God.

Gen 11:1 All those upon the earth at this time had one tongue and one way of speaking.

Gen 11:2 And it was upon their journey out of the East that they found a large plain of land in Shinar and they settled there. *Shinar is Chaldea or Babylonia

Gen 11:3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks that can be burned that will provide us with fire” and they made bricks of stone and the slime there, they used for their clay/mortar.

Gen 11:4 Then they said “Come, let us build a city as a Tower and the head of heaven; we must make for ourselves a name, or we will be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

Gen 11:5 The Lord came down to see the city Tower which the children of men had built.

Gen 11:6 The Lord said, “Behold, the people have united, and they all have one language; and this desecration that they are doing, nothing at all will restrain them from what they will imagine to do.

Gen 11:7 “Come, we will go down there and confuse their language; so they can not understand one another when they speak.”

Gen 11:8 So the Lord scattered them from out of there and also upon the face of all the earth, to stop them from building their city.

Gen 11:9 It’s according to this that it is called Babel; because it was here that the Lord confused the language of all the earth: and is from there that the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of the earth.

In Chapter 10 verse 10, it says that Nimrod began the empire known later as Babylonia, with the start of four cities in the land of Shinar; the four cities were named Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh. So we know the building of the Tower in the city of Babel in Shinar, was overseen and approved by Nimrod. Remember; at the start of this article, in chapter 14 of Genesis, it was the kings united from the surrounding regions of Shinar with the king of Shinar that formed an alliance to fight the giants in their land. They were hunters, led by Nimrod, so you know they had the most advanced weapons at that time for such a task. Notice, they were HUNTERS, not shepherds that kept livestock like Abel, Seth or Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, the patriarchs of God. No, these men were hunters that behaved like animals of prey, that stalked and killed animals they never cared for, for their food and their clothing. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, along with the others latter kings, that were five in total; wanted to share in the glory and honor like the first four that were really making a NAME for themselves. So, now let’s go back to the two sons that mark the time of the division upon the earth through the confusion of speech. Peleg and Joktan are where the descendants of Shem are divided and only Peleg’s descendants are recognized in Genesis chapter 11 as being the seed of Shem from then on. The seed of Peleg are listed as four generations: Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, and then Terah had Abram, Nahor Jr and Haran, and as we can see, Abram came from Peleg and the all the seed of Joktan were his enemies because they were made less in the eyes of God and men, as the name Joktan means.

Now, the Lord has a thing about four generations; I believe it has to do with the cycle of witness and judgment. I also believe, based on my studies, that it’s the time is takes to purge out bad blood from the bloodline. Every fourth generation, up until this point, had a great purge and a new head person appointed by God to be their leader. Terah only had three generations of progeny at this point, until Abram was promised by God that he would have a son in his very old age, and that fourth generations head would be named Isaac and the Hebrew people and language was created at this point in history. Hence, why everyone else in the Bible that is NOT Hebrew is considered goy or gentiles in the NT.

Now, the word WAR isn’t mentioned again after Genesis 14 until the first chapter in Exodus, when Abram’s fourth generation seed dies, Joseph. Then all of his seed and the seed of the 70 that came to dwell in Egypt with Joseph from the house of Israel; are brought under heavy oppression and bondage in Egypt under a new king that arises that doesn’t recognize Joseph or his seed, and feels threatened by their growth and strength in his land. *This is where the Word of the Lord to Abram is coming to pass about his seed in the 4th generation would be under the yolk of slavery in a land that was not their own for 400 years, spoken of in Genesis chapter 15. This new king of Egypt devises a plan.

Exodus 1:10 Come, we must be wise; lest they multiply, and it happens that we encounter a war, they will join with our enemies and fight against us and overthrow us and take our lands.

The Pharoah feared that if the Hebrews decided to join forces with any of their surrounding enemies, they would be done for.. So, this king’s plan was to oppress them, and use them up to build him his treasured cities of Pithom and Raames, until they waste away the Hebrews or they are moved them out. The harder this king oppressed them, the more God multiplied them, so the king gathered the two midwives in Egypt that delivered babies for the Hebrews, and told them to kill every male child that was born. These two midwives Shiphrah and Puah risked their lives to save the sons of Israel, and refused to obey the kings orders. Their names mean: Fair and Wonderful, and they are the reason that there ARE even sons of the Hebrews to this very day. The Bible says in Exodus 1:21 that because these midwives feared God, He made them a HOUSE. It’s in Chapter 2 of Exodus when we see Moses the son of the seeds of Levi enter the scene. I pray you can see by this point, that even though the Hebrew people, the seed of Abraham, were massive in numbers; they still did not rise up against their taskmasters in war; but rather obeyed them, because they were NOT people of war.

It’s not until Exodus chapter 17 that the people of Israel become a people of war, but they ONLY fight the battles the Lord tells them to fight, and only against the descendants of Amalek from generation to generation. Exodus 17:16 The descendants of Amalek are the people that settled in the southern regions of Canaan. The REASON they had to stay in perpetual war and strife against the people of Amalek; was due to the sin the people of Israel committed against God in Exodus 17:7.

In Exodus 17:7 Moses calls the name of the place where God had him strike the rock at Horeb to provide water for the contentious children of Israel; Massah and Meribah. He calls it these names due to the controversy among the children of Israel and how they contended with Moses; and due to the people testing the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
It is not by accident that it’s named Massah and Meribah, because it means; A Testing and Contention. The children of Israel tested the Lord and the consequences of it was contention with the the children of Amalek from generation to generation. This contention, or rather on going WAR with these descendants would force the children of Israel to stay united and rely upon the Lord God to instruct them when to go to WAR and when to cease from going to WAR or they would be defeated and taken into exile.

In Genesis chapter 15 we see the Lord explaining to Abram in a vision, this division and contention, that would be between his descendants. If you read it, it will all begin to make sense. Abram was told in Gen 12:1 to “Get thee out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee”, NOT go build an alliance with the Amorites your cousins and dwell among them; as Abram was doing when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah captured his nephew Lot, causing the the first war ever mentioned in the Bible involving the Hebrew people of Abram, that were given a promise from God, through Melchizadek in Genesis chapter 14. Let’s read it, and remember that its right after Abram told off the king of Sodom, saying “you can keep your possessions; I raise my hand only for GOD.”

Gen 15:1 After this a spoken word from the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying “Fear not Abram, I am your shield, and exceeding abundance shall indeed be your reward.

Gen 15:2 Abram replied “Lord God, how will you give me this, for I go childless, and the heir left over my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” *Damascus is in Syria, and the Amorites dwelt in the northern regions of Syria.

Gen 15:3 Abram said “Behold, I’ve been given no seed: so this one born in among my household is my heir.”

Gen 15:4 Then the Word of the Lord replied to him saying “This one shall not be your heir; but one shall come from your own bowels that will be your heir.”

Gen 15:5 He took him out, into the outside, and He said, “Look, now at the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them” He said “So shall it be also with your seed.”

Gen 15:6 “Be faithful to the Lord and it will be judged as righteousness.”

Gen 15:7 Then He said, “I am the Lord that took you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give to you this land, to take possession of it.” *The Chaldees where the people Abram was still hanging out with in northern Syria among his cousins the Amorites.

Gen 15:8 He replied, ” Lord God, how can I know surely that I will inherited it?”

Gen 15:9 And He replied to him “Take a heifer, three years old, a she-goat, three years old, a ram, three years old, and a turtledove and her male young hatchling.”

Gen 15:10 Now take all of these and cut them down the middle and lay each piece opposite from the other; but the birds do not separate.

Gen 15:11 Vultures then descended upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

Gen 15:12 The Sun went down and a deep sleep fell on Abram and he felt a terror of great darkness come over him.

Gen 15:13 A voice said to Abram “Know this, surely your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they shall serve them in oppression for four hundred years;

Gen 15:14 Also, the nation whom they serve, I will judge after all of this, and the people will leave them with a great amount of possessions.”

Gen 15:15 You will enter into the place of your fathers, in peace; and be buried at a good old age.”

Gen 15:16 Your fourth generation will be sent back here again, for the punishment of your iniquity with Amorites to be completed.”

Gen 15:17 And it was while the Sun was up that there came a thick darkness, and he saw a smoking firepot and a fiery torch that passed in between the pieces.

Gen 15:18 It was this day the Lord made covenant with Abram, saying “To your seed I have given these lands along the rivers of Egypt, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Gen 15:19 The Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

Gen 15:20 The Kittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims,

Gen 15:21 The Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gigashites and the Jebusites.

So, I hope by this time in the biblical timeline, you can start to see a picture coming together. If you test God on His promises or commands to you, He will test you and your seed for 4 generations with strife and contentions among your own brethren, those that surround you. THIS is where Ishmael comes in handy for the Lord.. and also WHY the Lord made him and his seed, to be the cause of contention and strife when God’s people would test Him. Those animals that God asked Abram to get; the Heifer, the She-goat and the Ram along with the Turtledove and her male hatchling all represented Abram’s seed being divided and the FIRE of the Lord coming between them. The Heifer is Sarai his wife, the She-goat is Rebekah and the Ram is Isaac, the Turtledove and her hatchling are Tamar and her son Zerah (which means seed or seed rising), Tamar and the sons of Zerah are the Zarhites and they are spared from being divided among Abram’s seed. Wrapping this all up now, I want to draw you back to the purpose of WAR in the bible to begin with. War was NEVER for the spoils or to gain lands that were not promised to them; the Children of God ONLY went to WAR when specifically instructed to by the Lord and for HIS purposes not the agenda or purposes of men.

My sincerest prayer is that article will have you thinking about current affairs in the Middle East in light of these lengthy but needed biblical break downs. I love you, and I love God by feeding His Sheep.

Be Blessed, Be Free and Set Free in Jesus Name!