As I write this, U. S. and Israeli forces are engaged in combat against the forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Like all human wars, this conflict is a symptom of the rebellion against God that has been waged throughout all of history. And also like all human wars, none of the combatants is entirely on God’s side. Which in no way means that one side can’t be more just in its aims than the other.
As I’ve been praying for peace, and for the safety of the innocents caught in the war zone, I’ve come up against the question, is it okay to also pray for victory? I’ve heard many public prayers since this war began, but mostly they seem to shy away from this particular request. So I’m writing this article to explore that question.
Does God Take Sides?
Before we begin to consider how we should pray in any specific wartime situation, we need to first ask whether God takes sides in human wars at all. And it doesn’t require much study to discover that the answer is decidedly yes. The very first example that comes to mind, of course, is the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites at the time of Joshua. Then, after Joshua’s death, the book of Judges records a deadly cycle in which God punishes idolatry by causing the Israelites to be defeated, then sends a military leader to rescue them when they repent.
Moving forward in time, we can read in 1 Chronicles about God bringing Assyria to attack Israel:
But they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria), who took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor, Hara and the river of Gozan, where they are to this day (1 Chronicles 5:25-26).
God didn’t just take sides in that war; according to the text, he was the one who provoked the Assyrian king to attack. He also warned Israel what he would do, through the prophet Isaiah:
The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah – he will bring the king of Assyria (Isaiah 5:17).
Continuing forward a bit further, Ezekiel 21 shows us God provoking the Babylonians into attacking Judah. And later still, God sent the Persian King Cyrus to attack and conquer Babylon (Isaiah 45:1). There are other examples in Scripture, but I think this is enough to establish the point. Disturbing as it may sound, God doesn’t just take sides in human wars; sometimes he actually starts the war. And although he often went to war on behalf of his own people, there were other times that he allowed their enemies to defeat them. National identity is no guarantee of divine support, either in the Bible or today.
A caution is in order in reading all of this, however. We know which side God was on in the wars I just listed because he told us. For wars that are not in the Bible we do not necessarily have any prophetic revelation as to what God is doing, including whether the ultimate outcome will be what he desires, or simply what he patient allows sinful men and women to do. Still, the discovery that God sometimes does take sides in wars suggests that, at least some of the time, praying for one side to win would not just be allowed; it could actually be one way of praying “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Kings and All Those in Authority
The next step, then, after realizing that it’s at least possible that praying for victory in wartime might be a prayer for God’s will to be accomplished, is to try and determine whether this is the case in the specific situations we find ourselves in. To answer that question we have to look deeper.
Late in his life, the Apostle Paul wrote to his former disciple Timothy:
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
At first glance, praying that we might live “peaceful and quiet lives” seems like the opposite of prayer for victory. But on the other hand, it’s undeniable that if you’re already at war, one way to achieve peace is to end the war by winning it. And the goal of this prayer is not peace at any price, but peace for the specific purpose of making it possible for “all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” That is, the peace we’re called to pray for is the peace that advances God’s kingdom on earth. The peace that makes it easier for people to hear the Gospel and respond to it in faith and obedience. And that makes it easier for believers in Jesus to live “in all godliness and holiness.” We are not called to pray for a peace that results in greater barriers to the gospel, or in a situation that punishes faithfulness to Christ. Nor are we called to pray for a “peace” that ignores justice (Psalm 82:3-4).
I have to admit that at this point, my automatic reaction is to resist the idea that evangelism should be the basis for making decisions about war and peace, which is to say, the life or death of human beings. But my automatic reaction runs up against my mind, and what I read in God’s word. Is it that I don’t believe this is really God’s will, even though this passage of Scripture clearly says that it is? Or do I think that my knowledge of good and evil is superior to his? But I suspect that if I understood sin the way God does, and death the way God does, my misgivings would go away.
According to my country’s Declaration of Independence, governments exist to protect the rights of the people, and they derive their authority solely from “the consent of the governed.” These are noble words, but they are, ultimately, just the noblest human theory of government we have yet come up with. The declaration does give a nod to God as creator at the beginning, but it goes on to claim that the only legitimate government is the government that the people choose. I don’t see any way to reconcile that claim with Jesus’ statement that, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Paul wrote to the Roman church:
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God (Romans 13:1).
I have to say that I don’t like this passage, as I’ve already explained in an earlier article. Nevertheless, it is there in God’s word. And just a few verses later Paul tells the Roman believers, and us, that the purpose of government authorities is to reward the righteous and punish the wicked:
For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer (Romans 13:4).
So a big part of the purpose of government must be the establishment of justice, a theme that can be found throughout the Bible. We read, for example, in 2 Chronicles:
Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the Lord your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness (2 Chronicles 9:8)
All of which leads to the conclusion that, in some circumstances, praying for peace, as we are called to do, might genuinely mean praying for the peace that results from victory. When winning the war means more people have the chance to hear the gospel, when it will allow those who are already followers of Christ to live their lives “in all godliness and holiness,” and when it means that justice is served, then we are not only allowed to pray for victory, we are positively called to do so. From what I know of the facts on the ground, it appears to me that these conditions are met for the current Iranian war. If you have concluded otherwise, then you must do what you believe is God’s will. And we must each do so with the humility to accept that we might at some point discover that we’re wrong.
Warfare Prayer
So how do I pray for victory? For that matter, how do I pray for anything? Those of you who are parents, would you rather have your children calmly and unemotionally say, “If it’s your will, please allow us to go to Grandma’s house this weekend,” or fervently ask, “please, please, please, please, please can we go to Grandma’s house this weekend, pleeeeease”? I dare say most of you would greatly prefer the second approach, even if you have good reasons to say no. And it’s obvious why. In the second case, your children trust you enough to show you what’s on their heart. To share themselves with you. God is the same way; he’s delighted when we approach him confidently, with our whole selves.
The last thing I should be doing when I approach the throne of God is to timidly pray, “Oh Lord, if it’s your will please do this thing, and if it’s your will please do this other thing,” as though I were saying, “this would be kind of cool, but it’s okay if you don’t want to.” If I don’t really care what happens, why am I praying? If I do care, why am I pretending that I don’t? Unless I just don’t trust God enough to take a risk that he might disappoint me.
Now, I know somebody out there is objecting, “but didn’t Jesus pray, ‘if it’s your will’ when he was in the garden?” Not quite. Jesus first poured out his heart to the Father, even sweating drops of blood because he did not want to do what he was called to do. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” he told his disciples (Matthew 26:38). It was only at the end of that fervent, heartfelt prayer that he finally and definitively prayed, “my Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). It wasn’t a prayer of resignation, it was a prayer of sacrifice. There are times when we also are called to pray, “not my will but yours.” In fact, I might as well warn you right now that if you truly make it your desire to follow Christ, there will be times you’ll have to pray that way. You will have to follow Jesus even to Gethsemane, and nothing you’ve ever done in your life will be as hard as that prayer. But don’t try to go there until the Holy Spirit brings you there.
So, to get back to the question I asked at the beginning, yes. I can – sometimes – pray for victory in time of war. God’s will is that justice be done, that his kingdom be established over the whole earth, that people receive salvation and that his children be holy. And when my goals are the same, I know that I can approach his throne to pray with confidence. Even when my country is at war.