I'm rounding out my "year with God". I've got to say, that other than reading the Bible every day, I have not done a great job at keeping a journal or blogging like I had hoped. It went about like I expected, pretty consistent at first to a little less consistent to almost non existent.
I have been reading the Bible, though and I'm really trying to think about some things that, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't go there, but still, here's the train of thought I've been on:
I really try to think about what it is I'm seeing in God's character when I am reading each day.
Today, I was reading in Joshua. Here the Israelite nation has crossed over the Jordan (on dry ground) and they are conquering other nations. God says, "I'll go before you, just don't take anything from those you conquer. Destroy everything." So what does someone from the tribe of Judah do? They take from a conquest. It wasn't even that much stuff, just some items that caught their eye.
Then 3,000 men go out to conquer a small land and they get slaughtered, many die. Why? Joshua soon finds out from God that one man took from a conquest. So, what happens next? God says, I'll not be with you if don't do as I say. So He has them kill the man and his family and then He says ok, go back to the land and I'll go with you, this time you'll conquer them and "oh yeah, by the way, this time - take all the stuff".
It seems odd to me that at first we can't take anything, then someone does and many die because of it. Then they and their family get killed for it, not just killed but stoned to death. This is a violent death. But what do we do now? We go back, conquer the land and this time it's ok to take things?
There is so much violence in this part of the Bible. All the kings getting killed and being impaled and hung on poles. I know that this is before Christ comes to save the world and be our eternal internal King, but I see so much violence in what God does in the old testament. I'm certainly glad that I don't have to endure that or make blood sacrifices to God, I'm grateful for the ultimate sacrifice Christ did for us. I just wonder, is it our human nature to be violent? We are created in God's image. He is love and peace and patience and everything we read in the New Testament. But he is angry, and jealous, demanding, and everything we read in the old testament too. You can't have one without the other.
I am just rambling and I don't have any particular answers or for that matter expect any. I'm glad that God created me in such a way that I'm allowed to have thoughts and process them. I look forward to someday in His FULL presence understanding how this all works and fits together. Until then, I'll just keep praying that I'll see what He wants me to see from His Word and accept that not everything will be revealed to me at this moment in time.
1 comment:
Sorry I'm a bit late to the party. I have (and still do) struggled with the violence in the Old Testament for a long time. Something that stuck out to me in Deuteronomy when I was teaching it a year or two ago was that God was using Israel to punish the nations that were there. God wasn't giving Canaan to Israel because Israel was wonderful, but rather because God is almighty and just, and that was His plan to bring about justice and glorify His name.
Somehow, the nations in Canaan deserved destruction, and Israel was simply following God's orders. If a nation did that today, though, we'd call it unconscionable genocide, so I still struggle. I don't question God's wisdom or justice, though.
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