God does not leave His people unarmed and then call the resulting vulnerability “faith.” From the first organization of Israel after the Exodus to the final instructions Jesus gives His disciples before the cross, Scripture treats the capacity for defensive force as ordinary, necessary, and compatible with obedience.
In Numbers 1, God commands Moses to count every male 20 years old and upward who is able to go to war. “Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male individually, from 20 years old and above — all who are able to go to war in Israel” (Numbers 1:2-3). The total reaches 603,550 fighting-age men (Numbers 1:45-46).
Biblical self-defense
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