When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them? – Deuteronomy 20:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 19, 2012): Deuteronomy 20

In Lord Byron’s poem “The Eve of Waterloo” Byron tells the story of the happenings on the eve of the decisive battle against the French and Napoleon. In the poem, Byron describes the revelry taking place inside the city. The Gentlemen and the Ladies of Belgium have gathered to dance and the music is playing and everyone is having a good time. No one seems to be aware of the battle that is about to take place. No one is fearing the death and pain that war inevitably brings that is laying just around the corner. And then they hear something, but no one is sure. And then Byron writes –

            But hark! -- that heavy sound breaks in once more,

As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before;

Arm! arm! it is -- it is -- the cannon's opening roar!

                                                                        Lord Byron (The Eve of Waterloo)

History records Waterloo as the place of total defeat for Napoleon. Not only did he lose the battle at Waterloo, but he lost the ability to rule at Waterloo. It was the place that buried all of his political aspirations. Napoleon would never again be Napoleon I, the Emperor of France.

But Napoleon’s demise actually started years before in another battle. This one was waged in Russia. One of the rules of warfare is to that you need to be careful of your supply line. If you fight beyond where your supplies can reach you, then you are in trouble. And, eventually, your attack will fail. Napoleon had never really worried about logistics; his armies were very good at simply living off the land. But in Russia his adversary burned everything in the path of the French army leaving them nothing to eat. Napoleon reached Moscow, but by the time he did his army was only a shadow of what it was when they had started the battle. Waterloo may have been the ultimate defeat of Napoleon, but Russia was the turning point.

Part of Moses farewell address is devoted to the idea of war and of siege. And his instruction is that the army needs to exercise wisdom in even in as little a thing as the trees that they cut down. Because fruit trees can be used as food, especially if there is no other way of supplying your army. Moses does not indicate that this is the preferred method, but rather that it is not an option that can be overlooked. Napoleon well understood Moses lesson, but used Moses instructions to the exclusion of other plans. And because of that, Russia also learned the lesson well and used it in their defeat of Napoleon.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 21