A New Kind of War

"For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise , and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." Isaiah 9:5

"...He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." Matthew 3:11b

Two things are learned from Isaiah chapter 9: (1) Messiah's coming is as a warrior's battle. We should be sick unto death with all this noise about how Jesus came to teach us how to "love one another." Jesus taught His disciples to love one another (John 15:12-17). The world knows only hatred towards such love (John 15:18-25), and it cannot know such love until Christ overhauls their life with His.
"I am come to send fire on the earth...suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." (Luke 12:49a, 51) Jesus came to draw battle lines in the sand. "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." (John 12:31; c.f. I John 3:8b & Hebrews 2:14, 15) Jesus came to do battle with the god of this world.
(2) Messiah's coming would be a different kind of battle, a new kind of war. Many in first century Palestine were looking for bloody revolution at the hands of the Messiah. Then Christ comes and tells them that the Kingdom of God will come on the shoulders of the poor, the mourning, the meek, the hungry and thirsty, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, and the persecuted (Matthew 5:3-12). Oh, it was to be a revolution, but not of swords. It would be a revolution of subtle subversion through submission. By submitting to your enemy you somehow subverted their power and authority and heaped coals of fire upon their heads. Matthew 5:38-42 is a study case of this (if you look at it with a first century Jewish perspective). It was an inward revolution: something would change in a person so that meekness, humility, and submission would be the weapons that conquered the world. That is what the whole of Matthew 5-7 is saying.
The change Jesus was bringing was an inward change, the battle an inward battle. A fire would fall amongst the people, a new Spirit would fill them, and change them into new kinds of warriors, in a new kind of war. This change would bring division (Matthew 10:34-37; Luke 12:49-53), hatred (John 15:18-25); all the sounds of warring hearts.
Messiah came as a warrior to fight a new kind of war. It would be a war of two kingdoms, one darkness and one light. The darkness would have power, hatred, and violence; the light would have meekness, humility, and submission, and somehow the weapons of the light would subvert the weapons of the dark. This is what Messiah has done: through death He destroyed death, and He has given us the same mission and the same power. May we remember that we fight a new kind of war; not of swords, but of Christ in us.