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The Book of Joshua opens with a command that still confronts me every time I read it: “Be strong and courageous… go in to possess the land” (Joshua 1:6). It is a stirring beginning, but the next chapters carry a moral weight that cannot be ignored. Israel is told not only to enter the land but to cleanse it—to remove what would corrupt their worship and fracture their life with God.

In my earlier essay, The Pre-1900 Just War Tradition (for the workshop, the paddock, and the pulpit). A Personal Reflection, I traced the lane markers that Christian teaching has laid down across the centuries—Scripture, Augustine and Aquinas, Salamanca and the law of nations, the pastoral manuals that speak plainly to ordinary people, and the moral ballast supplied by Edwards and sharpened by modern historians of war.1 That essay was written for people who live by their hands as much as their heads: measure twice; do only what must be done; keep faith with your word; stop the moment the danger is past. If you’d like that foundation at hand, you can open it here: The Pre-1900 Just War Tradition (for the workshop, the paddock, and the pulpit). A Personal Reflection.

By Trevor Forrester Chaplain. Psalm 8 humbles us under the night sky and honours us under God’s Word: the human creature is finite yet crowned by grace for delegated stewardship that returns to praise.

Facing suffering, especially children’s deaths, critics say Christian blessing is hollow, God does nothing, Scripture sanctifies violence, and faith stifles reason. The Christian reply begins with lament, not denial. Blessing invokes God’s steadfast presence. God acts in Christ’s cross and resurrection, entering pain and pledging restoration. Scripture locates death’s reign with the devil; Christ breaks it. Hard texts like 1 Samuel 15 are contextual and read under Jesus’ enemy-love. Faith renews the mind, seeks understanding, and repents of ignorance. Practically, we lament, accompany the grieving, defend the vulnerable, and hope in resurrection. Blessing promises companionship until tears are wiped away.