This is US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaking about our war efforts in Iran. He is speaking with much bravado. In this brief clip from this week’s press briefing, he boldly states, “We’re playing for keeps.” He said: “We’re punching them while they’re down, which is how it should be.” The Secretary of Defense stated that our war efforts will continue “until we decide it’s over and Iran will be able to do nothing about it”.

Are rules of engagement stupid? I guess I believed that not only does it inform how we behave, and what we can and cannot do, but that it was an internationally accepted practice. So, there’s a sense of protection, so to speak.

Is all fair in war? Mr. Hegseth doesn’t believe so. No rules. We can do what we want to do. I do not believe that God, our Creator, would agree with Mr. Hegseth’s position. In fact, God has said the exact opposite to two nations, Assyria and Babylon, who also acted with impunity. God had used these nations to punish his chosen people, Israel, for their sins. However, God pronounces judgment on their arrogance.

Judgment of Assyria

⁵ Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger;
    the staff in their hands is my fury!
⁶ Against a godless nation I send him,
    and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
    and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
⁷ But he does not so intend,
    and his heart does not so think;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
    and to cut off nations not a few;

¹² When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he^[a] will punish the speech^[b] of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.

¹⁵ Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it,
    or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,
    or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! – Isaiah 10:5-7, 12, 15 ESV

Judgment on Babylon

¹¹ “Though you rejoice, though you exult,
    O plunderers of my heritage,
though you frolic like a heifer in the pasture,
    and neigh like stallions,
¹² your mother shall be utterly shamed,
    and she who bore you shall be disgraced.
Behold, she shall be the last of the nations,
    a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
¹³ Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited
    but shall be an utter desolation;
everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled,
    and hiss because of all her wounds.

¹⁸ Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria. – Isaiah 50:11-13,18 ESV

It appears that we have forgotten that all authority is delegated authority from God. Both Assyria and Babylon forgot.

Have we forgotten?