Tag: injustice

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.

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.

A Warning and a Reassurance (Isaiah 32:9-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Prophet Isaiah, by Sefira Lightstone

You women who are so complacent,
    rise up and listen to me;
you daughters who feel secure,
    hear what I have to say!
In little more than a year
    you who feel secure will tremble;
the grape harvest will fail,
    and the harvest of fruit will not come.
Tremble, you complacent women;
    shudder, you daughters who feel secure!
Strip off your fine clothes
    and wrap yourselves in rags.
Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
    for the fruitful vines
and for the land of my people,
    a land overgrown with thorns and briers—
yes, mourn for all houses of merriment
    and for this city of revelry.
The fortress will be abandoned,
    the noisy city deserted;
citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,
    the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
    and the desert becomes a fertile field,
    and the fertile field seems like a forest.
The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert,
    his righteousness live in the fertile field.
The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;
    its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,
    in secure homes,
    in undisturbed places of rest.
Though hail flattens the forest
    and the city is leveled completely,
how blessed you will be,
    sowing your seed by every stream,
    and letting your cattle and donkeys range free. (New International Version)

The biblical prophets spoke their prophecies for a reason, usually because there was some sort of injustice happening. And typically they addressed those with power, authority, and influence within society – who were doing something wrong, or were simply unaware of what was happening around them. In other words, the people ought to know better.

A Warning Against Complacency

The prophet Isaiah was specifically addressing particular folks, in our Old Testament lesson for today. Isaiah was calling out those who were complacent and living a life of ease. There was a chunk of society in Isaiah’s day who were safe, secure, affluent, comfortable, and rested on their laurels and their resources. Such persons didn’t ever think the thought that their lifestyle was temporary.

The warning of Isaiah was directed specifically to the well-off women in society. Concerning the rich and powerful, the biblical prophets had a tendency to address the women, e.g. the prophet Amos went after the women, calling them “the cows of Bashan.” (Amos 4:1)

The tone of Isaiah’s warning here is much more toward preparing the rich for a time when they won’t be able to rely on their wealth and affluence – they will be stripped of what they have. The women, Isaiah warned, need to prepare themselves for a time of grief.

In other words, they need to face up to what is about to occur, and not idle their lives away merrily as if nothing will ever happen to change their way of life.

Realize, Isaiah says, that the land will be emptied of life, and that resources will become scarce. You women will be reduced to near poverty. The once pride and joy of your nice house will quickly become, in no time at all, a turn of pride and joy in at least having a donkey to sit on.

The happy world they presently know will soon become nothing but a memory.

That is, until a new spirit takes over…

A Reassurance of Newness

Lamenting a loss will not happen forever. The grief shall eventually break. Not everything will be doom and gloom, as if it is some sort of new normal. Positive hope is also on the horizon. A spirit will be given, Isaiah insists, that will generate a wonderful restorative newness.

From a New Testament perspective, the spirit which is given is the Comforter. The Holy Spirit of God moves us through our grief and helps us realize a new lease on life.

“But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me.”

Jesus (John 15:26, MEV)

The Spirit is the very force of God in the world, given to help us live into grace and truth – thus, turning injustice to justice, fear to faith, complacency to action, foolishness to wisdom. The desert is transformed into a garden, the dry land becomes lush and fruitful. All things are restored to vitality; people flourish and thrive again.

People’s needs, along with their great need for peaceful relational connections, will take their rightful place. Throughout the land there shall be human well-being. In other words, there is real peace – wholesomeness and integrity, with settled trust and rest in the plans and purposes of God.

In this present contemporary world of political instability for so many, instead of running about like Chicken Little believing that the sky is falling, people of faith can exhibit a peaceful confidence and a settled trust that grace and mercy will have the day.

We don’t need to live in fear, continually and anxiously vigilant to the bad thing around the corner. And when something good happens, we don’t have to wonder when the other shoe will drop. A good God has good purposes in store for humanity.

At the same time, those who are complacent and either cannot or will not see beyond the end of their nose, are served a merciful notice: They can become aware of how things really are – and do something about it.

Cycles of violence, pain, and injustice can and will be broken. Yet we must all do our part to become self-aware, acknowledge the arrogance within society, and determine that in faith we will trust in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth; and that we will work for a better society and a more fruitful culture.

We are truly not far from the kingdom of God.

Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification, give me grace to put away the leaven of malice and evil – so that I may always serve you in purity of heart and truthfulness of mind; through Jesus Christ your Son, my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Don’t Get Too Comfortable (Amos 9:7-15)

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

“Are not you Israelites
    the same to me as the Cushites?”
declares the Lord.
“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
    the Philistines from Caphtor
    and the Arameans from Kir?

“Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord
    are on the sinful kingdom.
I will destroy it
    from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy
    the descendants of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will give the command,
    and I will shake the people of Israel
    among all the nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
    and not a pebble will reach the ground.
All the sinners among my people
    will die by the sword,
all those who say,
    ‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’

“In that day

“I will restore David’s fallen shelter—
    I will repair its broken walls
    and restore its ruins—
    and will rebuild it as it used to be,
so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
    and all the nations that bear my name,”
declares the Lord, who will do these things.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman
    and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine will drip from the mountains
    and flow from all the hills,
    and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.

“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.
    They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
    they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
I will plant Israel in their own land,
    never again to be uprooted
    from the land I have given them,”

says the Lord your God. (New International Version)

No one is immune from judgment, nor from the watchful eye of the God who knows both the actions of humanity and what is truly within their hearts.

Every one of us has the capacity and the potential for evil – even, and perhaps especially, those who claim to believe and follow God. To be arrogant and cocky is to set up oneself for a fall. To think that you could never fall or do evil is to operate in the realm of pride and hubris – which are the very traits of the Evil One.

Don’t get too comfortable with your life. Don’t simply believe you’re okay and anyone who disagrees with you is not okay.

Evil is not always (and usually isn’t) an in-your-face sort of thing. The sinister and unjust amongst us is much more like someone putting the text of the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance inside of a Bible, making it a convenient collection for those who are tired of having to separate their church from their state.

The Lord, however, will do some separating – the wheat from the chaff, and the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 3:12; 25:31-33)

God does not punish simply for the sake of punishment; rather, judgment is a means to restore and renew. Curses will give way to blessings. What has been lost shall be found.

“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them...”

Doom and hope, judgment and grace, suffering and glory. These are the movements and rhythms of the Old Testament prophets. The great sin of Israel which warranted divine wrath was not only that they trampled on the poor and needy. On top of it all, they saw nothing wrong with their way of life. 

This profound lack of awareness, rooted in the spiritual blindness of greed, is what led to judgment. It would take the form of having the Assyrian Empire come, seize the land, and take the people away to a place where they would have no chance to oppress others. Sadly, death would come to many.

The sin of oppressing others and believing there’s nothing wrong with it comes with severe consequences. The people relied too much on their ethnicity and spiritual pedigree. The ancient Israelites wrongly assumed that because they were the people of the covenant, this somehow inoculated them from disaster. Their belief in Jewish exceptionalism was their downfall.

Yet, all would not be endless gloom. The Lord will not destroy completely. God’s anger lasts for a moment. However, God’s grace lasts forever. Restoration, renewal, and fruitful times will come because of God’s mercy. 

Yes, God pronounces judgment when it is warranted. But God also makes and keeps promises to people. In our lesson for today, the Lord promises to restore the fortunes of the people through rebuilding ruined cities and letting them inhabit them once again.

God steps in and graciously acts on behalf of all people because that is what God does. We might get the notion in our heads that God executes judgment to teach people a lesson or to make a point. In my line of work, it is common to hear people express the idea they are under divine punishment because of personal illness or hard circumstances. 

God, however, acts independently out of a vast storehouse of righteousness and mercy. The Lord maintains holy decrees while showing grace to the undeserving. The nation of Israel, in the days of the prophet Amos, deserved only judgment, not grace. 

It seems to me God would have been completely justified to never restore or renew a recalcitrant people. Yet, God’s grace overwhelms and swallows human sin. Try as you might to understand grace, you will end up befuddled. That’s because grace is wildly illogical, nonsensical, and unconditionally free. Grace shows radical acceptance where there ought to be only the punishing fire of hell.

The height of grace and the pinnacle of restoring the fortunes of Israel (from a Christian perspective) came through a baby and a humble birth in the small village of Bethlehem. Jesus came to save the people from their sins. God acted by entering humanity with divine love so that there could be new life and fresh hope. 

So, let grace wash you clean. Allow mercy to renew your life. Receive the gift of gracious forgiveness, merciful love, and divine peace. Look ahead and see there is hope on the horizon.

For the afflicted, there is comfort. But for the comfortable, affliction is coming.

Merciful God, although you are careful to uphold your great holiness, your mercy extends from everlasting to everlasting. May the gospel of grace form all my words and actions so that true righteousness reigns in my life through Jesus, my Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.