Our God Named Death
The war is won, but the fighting is not done.
7 min read
Exodus 20:2-3 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.“ All the Commandments are good, but this one might be my favorite. The Hebrew people, Catholics, and Protestants each number the 10 Commandments differently, and the reason for that is we don’t actually know exactly which statements are the fully contained Commandments. We know that the Commandments are listed as 10, but we aren’t told where Commandment 1 starts and ends, or Commandment 2, and so on. And so, when it comes to numbering we come to different conclusions where one Commandment starts and another ends.
The reason why this first Commandment is a personal favorite is because in the Jewish numbering of the Commandments you’ll find that Exodus 20:2 is the entirety of the Commandment for them. That is, the first Commandment “omits” the verse “you shall have no other gods before me“ and instead renders that second part of the first Commandment (according to the Catholic reckoning) as the second Commandment. To say that differently, Catholics have the first commandment as Exodus 20:2-3, Jews have Exodus 20:2 as their first Commandment, and Exodus 20:3 as their second Commandment. Now, the reason for this being a personal favorite: the definitive statement of belonging. He is our God, and as was stated in times before this in Scripture, we are His people. I am His, and He is mine (Song of Solomon 2:16). This is now declared as universal law - it was true before but now it is clearly stated - that God is our God, Him alone.
This is the purpose of this article. God declares before all that He is our God, and He must make this declaration before the whole world because before this we had chosen a different god, and He is looking to fix this. No, it is not the gods of Egypt which we chose, not Baal, nor any other false deity. No, because of our rebellion against God, we submitted ourself to a god unfamiliar to us, and we made him our ruler over us. This god is Death, and he has had dominion over all of humankind, all the way to our first parents. In Romans 5:17 it says that “death reigned”, and he still does - but in a different way now, which we will speak of for a moment.
In Genesis 2:17 God tells Adam that “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.“ When Adam and Eve later both eat of the fruit of this tree they are then given over to death, and our new god was given dominion over us. But it is not as if God threw us away as soon as we disobeyed His rules, rather He allowed us to leave and choose for ourselves what we wanted, even though the choice being made was the wrong one, He still allowed us to make that choice.
And so now death has dominion over the world. All things are under it’s reign. Every single thing. Each person, no matter what, will die. The land will die. Each plant will die. The stars will die. The planet will die. The stars will die. The universe, will die. Death is the only inevitability of existence. Perhaps you will own a house one day, perhaps you will be married, perhaps you will break a bone, perhaps you will make a great discovery in this world - there are many possibilities, but only one certainty, which is that you will, one day, die. Death is the god of all man, unless we subject ourselves to our true Father, to the Lord God. We were sold by our parents into slavery, and God bought us back. We may return to Him and be freed, or we may not. But, even when we do return to our Father as the Prodigal Sons we are, we are still subject to the lord of the land, Death.
And though we fear Death, we run from it as much as we can, yet we still love him. We continue to reject God and the life which He offers to us and instead embrace the small things which kill us each day. These things are lust, greed, wrath, ego, and more. These things which only hurt us, we embrace them as if they are the father who truly loves us. There is precedent for this of course, as the Hebrew people said that they would prefer to return to their slavers in Egypt (Exodus 16:2–3) rather than deal with the discomforts of the freedom which was given to them. We return to the familiar rather than accept the call to enter the new but unknown. We prefer comfort, over the good God.
We hate Death, and yet we love it. But, Death has lost the greater battle, and his days are numbered. In 2 Timothy 1:10 we read that “[Christ] abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.“ Death has lost, God has won. God is victorious, but Death is not yet pulled from his throne. Tell me, in what year did World War II end? If you remember your history, or if you search up the answer, you’ll recall that we speak of 1945 being the end of the conflict. And what day was the fighting finally over? Against Germany, it was May 8th. Against Japan, it was September 2nd. Now the question I find more interesting, when did Japan and Germany know they had lost? Though there were still battles being fought, at what point was it clear to these two nations that there was no way they could win? Yes, we still had to go and drive these different aggressors out of the regions from which they didn’t belong, and of course we had to cripple them militarily so that they would cease harming others. But, there came a point where our opponents knew they would not win the war, and it was before their surrender. When was this?
I want to just look at Japan for this, for simplicity’s sake. Japan invaded China in 1937, then joined the Axis Powers in 1940, which was a year before WW2 began officially. In 1941 Japan attacked the United States, and is considered by some as when it “officially” entered into the global conflict. So when did Japan lose the war? There are two answers to this which some take (excluding the third answer of when Japan fully surrendered in 1945), and I will give both of them to you. The wildest answer is this: Japan lost the war in 1942, merely six months after entering the fight, at the Battle of Midway. Japan’s losses were immense, and were kept mostly secret from the United States and from the people of Japan in order to maintain morale and keep the war going. Japan’s navy and air force was so impacted by the loss of this battle that even if you do not believe they “lost” the war at this moment, their chances at victory for the rest of the conflict were, at best, slim.
The second answer that you can give for when Japan lost is 1944, at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history. It was at this time that the Japanese navy was thoroughly destroyed, and therefore crippled them in a way that they could not recover. After this the nation could no longer commit to offense, they had to switch to defense, which truly means a loss for them. Exactly one year after this battle Japan surrendered, and World War 2 was officially ended.
Some of you reading are likely asking yourselves why I gave you this mini history lesson and spoke on war theory. It is because there is a direct parallel to the war we fight today, the battles we wage for our King. Christ has won victory over Death, but even though we know that it is impossible for our enemy to defeat us there is still a battle we must wage, and we will still suffer losses throughout it. Death takes what victories it has left while he is still in power. Death knows its time is limited, so it enjoys what suffering it can inflict while it still reigns. Death will still fight, evil will continue to claim dominion, and our neighbors will continue to suffer the effects of this war. The fighting is not over. Our participation is still necessary, else more will suffer.
Japan still fought until the end, even knowing they couldn’t win. Hell is doing the same. It may think, through naivete, that it could still win, somehow. And yet, it can’t, Christ has destroyed Hell’s navy and air force, but they still have the army which causes us nuisance. Japan fought against the United States, until we dropped the sun on them, twice. Even then there was a coup by the military to prevent the emperor from surrendering so they may continue the war - and thankfully that coup failed and Japan did surrender. God could definitively end the war against Death today, but He instead asks us to fight the battle alongside Him and try to pull as many people out through the gates of Hell to somewhere safe before the battle ends. The war does not continue because God thinks it’s funny to watch us - no, there are innocents behind enemy lines, and we need to pull them to safety. Perhaps they do not think they need saving, just like the druggie thinks he doesn’t have a problem, and yet both still need our help.
Thank God that the war is not over yet. Had it ended five years ago there are people I care for very much that would have been locked out of Heaven. Because this war has raged on they learned who God is, and they have since come home. Yes, some people leave the Kingdom, but that is their choice, and I cannot bemoan them for this. Clearly they are making a terrible decision, but if God allows them to make such a choice then so shall I. I do not wish to have this terrible war between Death and our God to end so that people cannot make the wrong choice - our God gave us this very same choice in the Garden - and though I do not rejoice at the continuation of this war, I am grateful for those who have been rescued from the enemy before Hell’s gates are shut for good. God knows that He can work good through the continuation of this conflict, and I trust Him in that. The war rages on, and there is no draft which will enroll you. Just like the Crusades, this is a pilgrimage which you must volunteer for. We are dearly in need of more soldiers to be at the front lines. Not soldiers wielding swords and spears, God has His innumerable armies of angels for that. He needs us to conduct a rescue, pull those out from under the rubble, and tell them of a place away from this war.