The Issue of Holy War (Deuteronomy 7:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Joshua’s military campaign against the five Amorite kings, by Gilliam van der Gouwen, 1728

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. 

Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 

This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. But

those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction;
    he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today. (New International  Version)

You may likely identify today’s Scripture as a difficult passage in the Bible. And rightly so. It doesn’t quite square with many people’s concept of a gracious and loving God. Yet, here it is. So, what do we do with this supposed loving God, commanding the new nation of Israel to completely wipe out the Canaanites?

Here are a couple of approaches I believe are completely unhelpful as we consider the text in front of us: 1) Ignore this text and relegate it as some antiquated piece of ancient literature which has nothing to do with us today; or 2) Reinterpret the text so that the killing doesn’t seem so bad, e.g. it’s not murder but a just war that was necessary to do.

However we choose to approach this text of Scripture, there’s no getting around the reality that it is talking about God commanding the Israelites to engage in a holy war of killing Canaanites – even though it was God who commanded, “Thou shalt not kill.” (Exodus 20:13, KJV)

Indeed, let’s face the reality that this is a moral and ethical conundrum for us. Let’s neither ignore it, nor do some interpretive gymnastics to make it say something it isn’t saying. In practical and objective terms, this is about God giving the Promised Land to the Israelites, of occupying and settling the land without any sort of residual contamination from the Canaanite way of life.

The taking of the land involved the exclusive worship of Yahweh. In order for that to effectively happen, the elimination of Canaanite gods needed to occur, according to God. And it was taken to the extreme limit of also eliminating those who worship the other gods.

An explanation is given for the method of holy war: To leave anything Canaanite in the land would end up being a snare to the Israelites because they would be led astray to serve those other gods.

For Israel to make it as a nation, they were to be holy and set apart exclusively for the worship of Yahweh. To have the Canaanites alongside them would be something like leaving a box of donuts on the desk next to you when you’re trying to work and attempting to lose weight.

Gathering, by Yoram Raanan, 2015

Covenant loyalty was highly important to both God and the Israelites. If the people would faithfully follow God’s will, as revealed in God’s Law, they could confidently go into battle against their enemies. Then, the Israelites will know that the Lord is going before them to give them success and victory.

However we try to understand holy war in the Old Testament, this was not really an issue for ancient cultures. Such an approach to taking land and occupying it was almost taken for granted. And in light of the Israelites having just lost an entire generation of people because of disobedience and complaining, they wanted nothing to do with that again – or with being under the slavery of an empire like Egypt.

Yet, here we are, trying to still make sense of the text of Scripture for today. And, it seems to me, every generation of Bible readers will continually grapple with this. There is something, however, that is important to consider: The nature of the ancient pagan worship.

There was a huge difference between the worship of Yahweh and the worship of the seven distinct gods in Canaan such as Molech and Chemosh. The abuse of both women and men in cult prostitution, as well as the practice of child sacrifice, were characteristics of that pagan worship.

Canaanite worship was so offensive to the Lord, that God as the rightful and just Judge, made the judgment to do away with them – not because Israel was so holy, but because Canaan was that immoral. In those circumstances of immoral and unethical ways of worship and life, the danger of Israel becoming morally and religiously corrupt was particularly acute.

So, this is why the Lord demanded that the Canaanite implements of worship be completely destroyed. And this situation was deemed of such high risk, that God commanded everything of the Canaanites – including the Canaanites themselves – be done away with. It was a war not just against people, but against their gods.

None of this necessarily makes a holy war justifiable from a contemporary perspective; but it does bring a needed context and understanding as to the extreme nature of ensuring the Canaanites were snuffed out altogether.

All of us are influenced by others. Bad relationships corrupt good character. No individual, group of people, or even an entire nation, can keep itself on a right, just, and good path if they are continually around others who harm people either verbally and/or physically.

It behooves us to be vigilant as to our relationships and to who we choose to listen to. One of the most significant issues for people today, in my opinion, is how we hear, and who we listen to. The poor choices that so many persons make as to the sort of people and ideas they hear every day significantly impacts our culture and society.

It is my ardent desire to be an agent of healthy religion, sound ethics, personal morality, cultural good, and societal justice. I neither need to be an obnoxious jerk in doing so, nor need to go on a holy war – namely because only God can call for such a thing. And if any person (especially a politician or a pastor) tries to tell you or me that it’s okay to destroy others and harm them, then that person is not speaking from a place of understanding or rationality.

In the end, we can choose to listen or not listen to whomever; yet we will eventually have to listen to the greatest force which exists in the universe.

Almighty God, the Sovereign of the universe who dispenses both judgment and grace: Deliver us from any sort of coldness and hardness of heart, or any kind of unhealthy and deluded thinking, so that we may have thoughts of steadfast love and affections of that which is just and true. Amen.

Abide In Love (John 15:9-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. (New Revised Standard Version)

We Need Love

The world, in truth, spins on the axis of love. Without love, there is no beauty. Apart from love, we would all be living in a dystopian world of mere survival. But with love, there is life, hope, purpose, and meaning; there is fulfillment, satisfaction, and security. With love, our most basic needs as people are met.

So, love is a word that must be intentionally pursued and valued; because we cannot live without it.

The very word “love” gets used in various and different ways in our world. Jesus used the word in a sacrificial sense – that love willingly gives up one’s life for the benefit of another.

Love is large. It involves the whole person – body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Love in today’s Gospel lesson is used by Jesus as an action. And it’s even more than that. Christ defined love in the Upper Room to his disciples as a willingness to die – not necessarily for a spouse or a child – but for a friend, a fellow follower of Jesus.

It seems that for most Christians, giving up one’s life for another is not at the forefront of our idea of loving another. Yet, to love our neighbor as ourselves does involve the willingness to die so that another may live. To know precisely what this is like, we need look no further than the love which exists within God.

God is Love

Love is seen above all in the love of God the Father shown forth in God the Son. Because God so loves the people of this world, the Father sent the Son, Jesus, to give his life for us. And Jesus, embodying the very love of God, willingly gave himself on our behalf. It hearkens us to Christ’s earlier words about this:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Jesus (John 3:16, NRSV)

Just as the Father loved the Son, and the Son loved us, so we are to love others with the same sort of sacrificial love which was graciously shown to us. The Apostle John made this plain in his first epistle:

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:9-11, NRSV)

Therefore, it is our privilege and responsibility to abide in this divine love and let it fill us to the full, so that God’s love moves powerfully in us and through us, for the life of the world.

Remain in Love

Love is the end result of an abiding relationship and close connection between Christ and his followers. We are to remain in the love of Christ, just as Christ remains in the love of God. Jesus asks nothing of us that he has not already modeled for us in his sacrificial service to the world. Living in union with Christ, loving Jesus, and keeping God’s commands are all a single package, bound up together in a mutual relationship.

We don’t need to wonder what God wants for us and from us: Love. The commands of Jesus are not general; they are focused and specific. Christ commands that we love one another. Our continuing work on this earth is to keep on loving people as Christ has loved us and gave himself for us.

No Greater Love

There is no greater love than that shown in the giving of one’s life for one’s friends. The power of God’s love is focused in Christ. It is confirmed in Christ’s resurrection from death. And it flows from Christ giving his life on the cross for us.

Yes, Christians are servants who are committed to serving others with sacrificial love. Yet, the disciples and all those who follow Christ are much more than servants; they are considered primarily as friends of Jesus.

Through the cross and resurrection of Christ, believers have discovered the divine power of love. There is no greater love than this. And it is this sort of love that binds Christians together as united in their mission to love as Jesus loved them.

We have been called, chosen, and appointed by Jesus to embody love’s mission and purpose. What’s more, we are equipped for the active work of love.

Whatever You Ask in Love

The very name of Jesus is love itself. So, whatever you ask, “in my name,” said Jesus, “the Father will give you.”

Because Christians are united to Christ, they are to remain in and abide with Christ. This relational connection opens up the power of prayer. And the content of those prayers – if we are truly in Christ – will always come from a place of love, be directed to love, and go to great lengths to accomplish love.

Prayer is an activity which is grounded in the abiding relationship of Father, Son, Spirit, and the Christian community. Love directs our prayers. And prayers are directed toward the action of love.

A confidence in the power of prayer is an abiding trust in the power of Love. With love animating our prayers and infusing our service, we are bold to ask God for what is right, just, and good in this world. Indeed, we pray that we will give love to each other with the love we have received from God.

Love and Joy

Being called and appointed by God to love is a privilege and a joy. There isn’t any begrudging service when love is involved. Perhaps one of the greatest prayers we can pray is to pray that our hearts be filled with love. If you don’t feel love for others, then pray for it. And be assured that you will receive it.

Love and joy go together like mashed potatoes and gravy, peanut butter and jelly, grits and honey. We know we are loving others if our joy is complete in doing so.

Jesus came to this earth so that we might experience an overflowing life of abundant love and joy. Christ longs for his joy to be in us, and for us to abide in his love. Our joy comes from knowing that we have been loved by God – chosen, called, and sent out into the world with love and for the purpose of love.

And it is this divine love that has the power to renew and transform everything – even the most troubling and stubborn of people and problems that you are presently facing. Indeed, if love is not the answer, then you are not asking the right question.

Creator God, by the mercies of your son, our Lord, Jesus, compel us to turn our hearts to his way of Love, so that we might follow Christ together as your faithful people. Dear Jesus, guide us in your way. Amen.

Trust and Obey (Deuteronomy 32:44-47)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Moses and His People, by Marc Chagall, 1973

Moses and Joshua son of Nun recited this song, so that the people of Israel could hear it.

When Moses had finished giving God’s teachings to the people, he said, “Be sure to obey all these commands that I have given you today. Repeat them to your children, so that they may faithfully obey all of God’s teachings. These teachings are not empty words; they are your very life. Obey them and you will live long in that land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy.” (Good News Translation)

It seems that most people don’t like being told to do anything. There’s a lot of reasons for that. For me, it’s a trust issue. I have a very hard time obeying an authority that I don’t have much faith in.

That’s why I’m just fine submitting myself to God and obeying God’s commands and instructions – because I am firmly convinced that God knows what God is doing; and what’s more, that God has my best interests at mind and at heart.

The ancient Israelites were exhorted by Moses to obey all of God’s teachings because it would be the best way for them to live as a new nation in a new land. The Lord truly wanted what was best for the people, and so, God made sure to give them solid instructions on how to live and thrive together as a nation.

Deuteronomy is the fifth and final book of the Hebrew Torah, and of the Bible’s Pentateuch. The core of the book is a restatement of God’s Law received at Mount Sinai 40 years earlier for the generation about to enter the Promised Land.

The book of Deuteronomy emphasizes God’s love, justice, and transcendence; and stresses the covenant relationship between God and Israel. It looks forward to Israel’s life in the land being established. Foundational to their society, was maintaining God’s social and religious laws.

And those laws were in no way meant to be onerous or oppressive, but were a divine gift to the people. By obeying the Law, the divine/human relationship was secured and the people brought close to God. Foremost to the society was a humanitarianism and concern for the welfare of the poor and disadvantaged.

What’s more, Deuteronomy has a strong intellectual orientation. It urges all Israelites to study God’s laws. There is the expectation that everyone is to be smart and learn how to live wisely.

The participation of Joshua with Moses in teaching he laws was appropriate and important because Joshua was the one who would take over the leadership of Israel and bring them into the Promised Land. The leaders of the people were thoroughly committed to God’s Law – and it was through their wholehearted devotion that they could encourage others to follow them and do the same.

They were to take all of God’s words to heart. The mind, will, and emotions of individuals and families were to be captivated by the standard of God’s divine gift of the law to them. Only in this way would obedience truly become a reality. In other words, it takes complete faith and trust in order to obey.

The way to receive all the blessings of being in the land is through knowing God’s instructions and following them with wholehearted obedience. That means future generations need to be educated about the Law’s stipulations and about the necessity of obeying them with confidence.

Moses made it clear to the people that the divine laws are what life is to be oriented around. God and God’s Law cannot be separated because God’s Law is an expression of God’s very character. For the ancient Israelites, there was no other way.

Many generations later, King David received and learned these laws, understanding the relationship between the Lord and the Law:

The law of the Lord is perfect;
    it gives new strength.
The commands of the Lord are trustworthy,
    giving wisdom to those who lack it.
The laws of the Lord are right,
    and those who obey them are happy.
The commands of the Lord are just
    and give understanding to the mind. (Psalm 19:7-8, GNT)

When it comes to passing on the faith and spiritually forming others, we must have a holistic concern for both what and whom is being taught, as well as how to teach and why we do it. 

For Moses, he was open about expressing the great redemptive acts of God that brought deliverance and vindication to the people. He was convinced that there is no God but the Lord. And he wanted all Israel to know this and to never forget.

All of us, in every generation of believers, are to remember, recite, and rehearse the mighty acts of God, who secured salvation for us. We are responsible to learn, know, and keep the commands of the Lord in our hearts so that we can live into the freedom we possess as believers.

And the Lord has made it known that learning, knowing, remembering, and doing is no trifle thing; rather, this is our very life.

This is one reason why I have devoted myself to the reading, learning, teaching, and living of the Bible. It’s important stuff! And I can testify that living according to the understanding I have of God and Scripture is satisfying, as well as far superior to any other way I have ever tried to live before.

God’s Word must be personally received – no one else can do the work that I myself must do. God’s Word must be faithfully shared and communicated with our children. And God’s Word must be carefully obeyed and observed with head, heart, and hands. This is the responsibility of every believer.

Moses knew that the people could not possibly enjoy life if they deliberately chose to ignore the words given to them in love. I’m glad that, by grace, I know that, too.

Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Servant of the Lord (Isaiah 42:5-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
    who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
    who gives breath to its people,
    and life to those who walk on it:
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
    I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people
    and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
    to free captives from prison
    and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

“I am the Lord; that is my name!
    I will not yield my glory to another
    or my praise to idols.
See, the former things have taken place,
    and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
    I announce them to you.” (New International Version)

For those who serve the God of Scripture, there is work to be done.

According to Scripture, people are created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). As the only creatures on earth with the divine stamp of God’s image, humanity’s purpose is to reflect and work toward that which characterizes God:

  • Be holy because God is holy. That is, set apart your life for good and right purposes, and not for ill. Devote yourself to being above board in everything, and work for the common good of all persons.
  • Love one another as God has loved you. Since the Lord demonstrated a sacrificial and unconditional love toward you, so do the same for others. Love God. Love your neighbor.
  • Do justice because God is just. God is concerned that everyone on planet earth has what they need – both physically and spiritually – to live and thrive in this world. Ensure that people’s needs are met, without any prejudice or favoritism.

The servant of God has a mandate to be a covenant and light for people. Since God makes and keeps promises to people; and since the Lord is light without any darkness, so God’s servant is to embrace and embody a steadfast commitment to continually doing good.

We are meant to be a blessing to people on this earth – and not a curse. (Galatians 3:8)

I don’t have much stomach for fellow believers who think they are responsible to let people know how sinful they really are. Such supposed messengers end up puking the “good news” on others, often leaving people in such a bad state that they want nothing to do with religion.

Any sort of forceful verbiage, or manipulative gaslighting of others, does not in any way reflect the God whom I serve; I view such underhanded methods as inconsistent with Scripture. Besides, the Lord certainly doesn’t need any of us, as if God is dependent on people’s gospel witness.

Instead, the Lord graciously cuts us in on the benevolent and gracious divine action that is being accomplished in the world. That God allows me to be a mouthpiece is a privilege and a responsibility. So, I will steward that trust well by using words that build up and encourage, without verbally accosting another in the name of serving God.

In the ancient world, the poor often found themselves in prison through the inability to pay off a debt. Part of the servant’s work is to cancel debt, thus providing freedom and a further means to work and support family. For the Christian, this is an elementary part of our prayers:

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12, NIV)

Those words of Jesus are meant to uphold the ethical teachings of the Law:

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts… There need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. (Deuteronomy 15:1, 4-8, NIV)

Holiness, love, and justice are done by paying attention to the neediest of persons around us. The Lord’s servant can bring light because God is against the darkness. And the reason debts are cancelled (both real economic and spiritual forgiveness) is so that the monetary poor, and the poor in spirit, are liberated.

God is attentive to the vulnerable and needy; it is the Lord’s will that no one lives under the oppression of debilitating debt.

The work of the humble servant brings dignity, honor, and respect to human beings, thus honoring God and showing to the world what sort of God the Lord is – a gracious and merciful God who has a zeal for justice and for right relations in society. The Servant of the Lord, the ultimate Servant, is described in this way by the prophet:

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:7, NIV)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil. Amen.