Throughout human history nations have used hard power to take lands or to influence behavior. We’ve all seen the horror of the war in Ukraine. By engaging in hostilities, Russia is using hard power in an attempt to accomplish certain goals.

Hard power can be brutally effective for achieving political or military objectives. Victors of wars claim lands, and those with power subdue the actions of people.

Scripture details the efficacious use of hard power. God used hard power to free his people from Egyptian captivity. His plagues were designed to coerce the actions of Pharaoh and were, of course, successful. The conquest of Canaan was a master class in hard power. The Israelites did not spend decades changing the culture, they used force to displace the inhabitants in short order.

The judges used hard power to free the Israelites from subjugation, but some judges also influenced the actions of the Israelites through their power and position.

Hezekiah and Josiah, both good kings, used their position to destroy the high places, to punish idolaters, and to encourage people to obey God.

The Assyrians and Babylonians used military force to conquer lands, inflate their power, extend their influence, and enrich their coffers. God used both nations to punish his people when they turned completely away from him.

While hard power may be used to satisfy certain objectives, it has limits.

God didn’t change the heart of Pharaoh. After acquiescing to God’s demands, the Egyptian leader reconsidered. He sent his army after God’s people, and perished in the doing.

The judges didn’t change the minds of the Philistines or the Moabites. Neither did they truly change the hearts of the people. After Gideon’s death, the Bible says, “As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side” (Judges 8:33, 34 ESV).

Josiah led the people in a great restoration. He read the “Book of the Covenant” before all the people, and led them in making a covenant with Jehovah (2 Kings 22:2, 3). He did so “with all his heart and all his soul” and he “made all who were present” join in it (2 Chronicles 34:31, 32). Outside of Hezekiah, Josiah’s work was unprecedented:

“Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him” (2 Kings 23:25).

His power and influence positively impacted the actions of the people, “All his days they did not turn away from following the LORD, the God of their fathers” (2 Chronicles 34:33). But did they do so with all their heart? Jeremiah spoke the words of God to this people, promising that God would allow them to stay in the land, “if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another…” (Jeremiah 7:5-7).

Josiah truly followed God, but he couldn’t force the people to do so.

Hard power has limits. It does not and cannot touch the heart; it does not move the soul. As we’ve seen with the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian autocracy may — through brutality — subdue a country, but they will not win the hearts of the people.

While we are not in control of armies, and cannot exert coercive military or economic power, there are some thoughts that bear upon our daily life.

While force can control people’s actions, it cannot change their hearts. Only love can do that. Parents can make their children obey them outwardly, but they cannot force their children to love them. Parents can make their children do what God says, but they cannot enforce spiritual fidelity.

Discipline must be born out of love. The motivation must be to cultivate the heart not merely control the action.

Jesus expects his disciples to make disciples (Matthew 28:19, 20). We do that, not by political force, but through teaching people about Jesus, and showing what a Christ-led life looks like.

Get the heart and the rest will follow.

by Lee Parish