And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”
But he said: “It is not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear.”
So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Ex 32:17-19

I’ve never been in a war though I remember Vietnam, the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I’ve seen war movies and news reports on TV.
Much of the current war has been videoed and put on the evening news or streamed live from deep inside.
But television and video can’t do justice to the noise of war.
From our scripture it would appear that the sound of sinfulness is a lot like war.

I can attest to that!

When people begin to argue they get louder and louder. What they say is like a bombshell.
Feelings get hurt, lives are destroyed, and character is killed.
There are many wounded, KIA, and some become MIA, never to be seen or heard from again.
Those that survive carry around a constant reminder of what happened, like pieces of shrapnel.
And like the bombing of a city, a faithful Christian witness that took years to build can be destroyed in a matter of days.

What happened to Israel so many years ago is happening in our churches today.
There is a sound of war; a skirmish, a fight, and a division. Those that make up the church heap to themselves different idols but with the same results.

There was no good ending for those that had sinned in the camp below as Moses received the Law against that sin. Three thousand died that day. Worse yet, no lesson was truly learned as Israel sinned against God time and time again.

Will the church repeat Israel’s mistake and continue bickering from within?

It certainly seems the lesson won’t be learned in actual warfare. Nothing truly good ever comes from fighting army against army. Lives are lost on both sides and families are hurt.

Regardless of the horrors of war, I want to honor those Veteran’s that have fought for the freedoms that we enjoy every day. I salute, honor, and pray for those I know.

And for those spiritual Veteran’s that are on the front line of God’s army, I salute you. The testimony you live by the faith you have is changing lives more than any war can.