阅读经文 

在《申命记》的这段经文中，我们发现神给祂的子民提出了有关打仗的指引。我们可能会想，为什么神允许祂的子民去打仗呢？这是一个具有挑战性和令人不安的问题，但这段经文的主要观点是，如果神的子民必须去打仗，他们就要克制，不要破坏他们所遇到的一切。

这是一个革命性的观念，不幸的是，今天我们仍然经常看到，凡是发生战争的地方，几乎所有的东西都会被摧毁。所以上帝制定了新的做事方法，为受造物带来公义，包括树木。

人们常常推理说，如果要引入一种新的秩序，从某些方面来说，彻底整顿或推倒一切，比保留原有旧秩序的某些元素要容易得多。但根据《申命记》的准则，这样做只会造成不应有的伤害和不必要的损失。例如，如果以色列人把一座城市围困起来，毁掉它所有的果树，那么无论是城中的人还是前进的军队，都不能从果实中获益。

这里所概述的伦理道德，与怜悯和同情、智慧和克制有关。当我们从耶稣基督的角度来看这段经文时，我们认识到，耶稣也呼吁我们要有一种表现出克制、怜悯和同情的生活方式。

In this passage in Deuteronomy we find the Lord giving his people guidelines about going to war. We might wonder why God allowed his people to go to war at all. That is a challenging and unsettling question, but the main point of this passage is that if God's people had to go to war, they were to use restraint and not destroy everything in their path.

This was a revolutionary idea, and unfortunately still today we often see that wherever war takes place, nearly everything in the area is destroyed. So God instituted new ways of doing things that introduced justice for created things, including trees.

People have often reasoned that if they are going to introduce a new order, it's easier in some ways to totally overhaul or bulldoze everything rather than to preserve some elements of the old existing order. But doing that, according to the guidelines in Deuteronomy, would only cause undue harm and unnecessary damage. If the Israelites put a city under siege and destroyed all its fruit trees, for example, then no one, either in the city or in the advancing army, could benefit from the fruit.

The ethic being outlined here has to do with mercy and compassion, wisdom and restraint. As we view this passage through the lens of Jesus Christ, we recognize that Jesus also calls us to a way of life that shows restraint, mercy, and compassion.