`The allusion is to the marshal array of an army.  All the parts of the visible

creation, like a disciplined army, had their proper place'.

The only objection to this comment is that it does not go far enough.  The

kosmos was not `like' a disciplined army, it was an army, and there was at the

time of the six days' creation a state of war in the universe, the chosen

battlefield being the earth with its immediate heavens.  It is not enough to

merely make such a statement.  Readers will expect demonstration and proof.

Tsaba the Hebrew word translated `host' and kosmos occurs in two forms,

the verb 13 times, the noun 486 times.  The verb is translated `fight', `war',

`muster', `assemble', `wait upon' and `perform'.  Even where it is employed in

describing the service of the Tabernacle, the margin (Num. 4:23 and 8:24,25)

tells us that the service equally with that of the soldier in the field was `to

war the warfare'.  Two references to `assemble' are used only of women, and

could be unrelated to the conception of war, but even then we do not really know

why these women `assembled in troops' at the Tabernacle.  The noun is translated

mostly by the word `host', of itself a military term, and then `war', `warfare',

`army', `battle' and `soldier' leaving only 13 references out of the 486 to be

translated `appointed time,' `company', `waiting upon' and `service', and even

among these the margin in the Revised Version has rendered some by the word

`warfare'.  Moses uses the word tsaba 90 times, of which 87 speak of war,

battle, army and host, and 3 of the host of heaven.  In Daniel 10:1, where we

read `the time appointed', the Revised Version reads `warfare'.  The occurrences

of tsaba in Daniel apart from this reference are 8:10 (twice), 11,12,13, where

the anti-christian king of the latter days wages war against the host of heaven,

ultimately to be broken without hand (8:25).

`The Lord is a Man of War' says Moses at the `overthrow' of Pharaoh at the

Red Sea.  The Hebrew word haras (which in the LXX, in some other places, is

translated by kataballo), is used in Exodus 15:7, `... Thou hast overthrown them

that rose up against Thee ...'.  The `depths' that closed over Pharaoh and his

host in Exodus 15:5 is the Hebrew tehom.  This identical word tehom is used in

Genesis 1:2, `the face of the deep'.  The Hebrew word ruach that is translated

`the Spirit' that moved on the face of the waters for the reconstruction of the

world is translated `blast' in Exodus 15:8, `the blast of Thy nostrils'.  Like

the flood in the days of Noah, as the epistles of Peter testify, the overthrow

at the Red Sea is a smaller version of that primal catastrophe and enables us to

see that these were all acts of `war'.  Another lesser picture of the same

conflict is that of the destruction of the Canaanitish king Sisera at the hand

of a woman.  Deborah the prophetess when commemorating the victory says:

`The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by

the waters of Megiddo ... they fought from heaven; the stars in their

courses fought against Sisera' (Judges 5:19,20).

Here the heavenly host, spoken of as `stars', engage in conflict, and

Megiddo but looks forward to Armageddon, the mountain of Megiddo, where will be

fought the `battle of the great day of God' (Rev. 16:16) with all its demonic

accompaniments.  Revelation plainly tells us that there will be `war in heaven'

and the fallen followers, `the army' of Satan are likened to `the stars of

heaven' (Rev. 12:4,7,9).  Here, Satan is said to be `cast out', the Greek word

being kataballo (in the Received Text of Rev. 12:10), the long deferred

`overthrow' first introduced in Genesis 1:2.  The critic referred to in the

preceding article, does not seem to know how to avoid the evidence of this

verse, all he can offer his reader is the comment: `The word used is the passive