This is what the Lord Almighty says...
'Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'
(1 Samuel 15:3)
Word-Filled-Wednesday is run by the lovely Amydeanne at The 160 Acre Woods. This week, please join us for God's Word at PennyRaine.comReflection: Understanding Difficult Bible Passages
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My friend, Buffy is a an intelligent English woman blogging “across the pond” at Buffy’s Salon. She writes about many topics of interest to Christian women including beauty, Bible, books, children, culture, health, lifestyle, manhood, nostalgia, philosophical, science, spirituality, travel, and womanhood. Go visit!
Chapter & Worse
Recently, Buffy blogged about a discussion going on at Ship of Fools, a Christian website whose mission is "to help Christians be self-critical and honest about the failings of Christianity, as we believe honesty can only strengthen faith."
Buffy writes, “they invited readers to nominate and then vote for the verses in the Bible that they found difficult to swallow. They then published the top (or should that be bottom?) ten verses. The results say as much about modern society as they do about the vagaries of the Bible.”
In second place came 1 Sam 15:3 where the Lord via the prophet Samuel, instructs King Saul to carry out a full-scale ethnic cleansing: "This is what the Lord Almighty says... 'Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'" (1 Samuel 15:3)
Buffy says, “It seems like a rather disappointing elucidation of what the Lord did and didn't mean by, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
Can We Practice “Holy War?”
In this post, I’d like to address this difficult subject of biblical ethnic cleansing (herem). How do we reconcile our concept of God as an all-loving spiritual being, with his direct command to carry out such full-scale violence against an entire people group?In their (straightforward, easy to read) book, Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian Survey Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer shed some light on this issue:
“The book of Joshua records Israel’s conquest of Canaan. God commanded his people to destroy Canaan’s citizens, sparing no one. How can Christians deal with such passages of Scripture? Does the Bible encourage us to practice “holy war?”
Regarding Israel’s conquest of Canaan, we need to remember the following points:
1. The people of Canaan were exceedingly wicked, and their social and religious customs angered the Lord
(Lv 18:24-30).
2. God had given them time to repent, but they had not done so (Gn 15:13-16).
3. God used the Israelites as his instruments of judgment against the people of Canaan (Jos 11:18-20), just as he later used the Assyrians and Babylonians to judge Israel and Judah (2 Kgs 17:6-7; 24:20-25:7).
4. “Holy war” (or the practice of herem) occurred only at certain times during Israel’s history (1 Sm 15:1-3;
2 Chr 20:15-23), and we should not view it as a pattern for future generations.
Israel’s destruction of the Canaanites demonstrates how seriously God takes sin. He governs the nations, and he can and will judge those who oppose him. Christians should heed his warnings in their nation. We dare not assume God will tolerate evil forever.”
In the conclusion to her post, Chapter & Worse Buffy asks a pertinent question, which bears repeating (below).
Photos: purplemattfish (Flickr) & prophecystudy.com (Google Images)
Up Next—Humor: Friday Funnies
So what's your view? Do we have to admit that there are a few "unacceptable" verses in the Bible?
8 COMMENTS:
WOW! You're just chocked full of interesting info! I love it! Thanks...I couldn't find the MkLinky today so I'm visiting people I know do WFW! So glad I did...
Very interesting. Thank you for tackling a deep subject, as there are a few verses that can be difficult to understand, this was surely one of them. You brought clarity and understanding to this one in a very interesting way. Thanks!
Excellent post E-mom!
No, I do not find any of God's judgements as "unacceptable".
I believe all of judgements are based on truth.
Psalm 9:4, 8--"Thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou didst sit on the throne judging right.... and he shall judge the world in righteousness."
I think I can just add one thing. God knew how easily swayed his people were. By destroying them, there would be no watering down of his people. I don't know if that's exactly right, but their history shows when they allowed the people to live, Israel became more and more disobedient.
Fantastic.
MomE: Hey, thanks for seeking me out! :~D
Joyfull: I appreciate your vote of confidence. We all need help to understand verses like these.
Susana: Thank you for that verse. Thank God, He is the Judge of all, not me!
Kim: Excellent point! God did not want his people to inter-marry with the heathen for example, because they were so easily distracted away from Him. "A little leaven..."
Denise: Thanks!
Well good for you for tackling such a difficult subject.
I particularly liked how you linked God's judgement of Canaan through the Israelites with the later judgement of Israel through the Assyrians and Babylonians. This puts it into perspective.
I like to think that the allies' victory in the 2WW was God's judgement against the evils of Nazism. Evil will only be tolerated for so long - maybe long enough for the people to have plenty of time to repent.
And of course, an evil society helps to bring destruction upon itself.
I wonder if the Roman occupation of Israel was another judgement by God? Of course,the Roman Empire in its turn collapsed in on itself.
Thank you for the link :)
Buffy: Are you referring to the Roman conquest in 70 AD, when the legions destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple? If yes, then yes, definitely a judgment of God. And yes, in a like manner, God judged the Romans too, as he had judged the Assyrians and Babylonians before them.
Jesus prophesied all these events in his Olivet Discourse, including the destruction of the Temple. He also cursed the fig tree (a symbol of Israel) for not recognizing the time of their visitation. He knew God would judge their unbelief.
Daniel had prophesied the Messiah's coming... in fact the Jews were fully anticipating his arrival. For a variety of reasons, the Jewish leadership could not accept Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Very interesting stuff, isn't it? Let me know if you have more questions, and I'll turn them into another post. Thanks again for sparking this post and discussion! :~D
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