It was the Lord
himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might
destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy (Joshua 11:20).
In John 14:9 we read
the words of Jesus: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. In
times past, some people believed the God of the New Testament (Jesus) must be
different from and superior to the god of the Old Testament. Jesus was trying
to teach us that what we saw in him was what we got in God – they were one and
the same (or three-in-one and the same).
I think most
biblical scholars and theologians today would prefer to believe that the Old
Testament understanding of God was probably immature, needing development. The
biblical concept of herem is that God commanded Joshua to totally
destroy the inhabitants of Canaan. Some thinkers are questioning if God would
do that.
If you want to read
more about this, try Greg Boyd’s blog Christus Victor. Search for two specific articles that
address the concept of violence in the Old Testament: Shedding Light
on the Dark Side of God and The Command to Utterly Destroy. Or go to his blog and type herem in
the search window. He dedicated a lot of print space to the subject in 2008.
That sixth commandment
sure throws a wrench in the works, doesn’t it?
TODAY’S MEDITATION
Ask God to reveal himself
clearly when you have difficulty reconciling the violence of the Old Testament
with the Jesus of the New Testament.
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