If you'd been Joshua...
We read each day of the suffering in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza. We see old people and children - civilians - being killed and injured. Our conscience tells us - whatever the case for this conflict - that everything possible should be done to avoid harm to the young or the sick or the old.
So that makes me wonder...
If you'd been Joshua, and Godde told you to "destroy all who breathed", leaving no survivors, in successive areas of Canaan (Joshua 10:40)... would you have obeyed Godde?
Take a look at what was required - for example, Jericho: "they destroyed with the sword every living thing in it - men and women, young and old" (Joshua 6:21) ... that presumably includes babies, the bed-ridden, the blind... everyone.
Then take a look at what Godde required against Ai: "Then the Lord said to Joshua... 'You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho' " (Joshua 8:1-2). Would you have obeyed Godde and slaughtered them too? "Twelve thousand men and women fell that day - all the people of Ai" (Joshua 8:25).
And then the same slaughter at Makkedah - and Libnah - and Lachish - and Eglon - and Hebron -and Debir... all who breathed were totally destroyed 'just as the Lord had commanded' (verse 40). Would you have obeyed Godde?
I wouldn't.
They attributed their actions to Godde, the bible says that Godde commanded it, but would you have slaughtered the innocents?
Or was their understanding of Godde (even though it’s expressed in the bible) mistaken? This tribal ‘God’ who favoured them, this warrior ‘God’ who incited ethnic cleansing? I cannot attribute these chapters in the bible to Godde. I can only attribute them to the primitive ignorance and fallability of the authors. The Godde who said “Let the little children come to me” would never have ordered that command to have them slaughtered.
May the little ones of this conflict be protected and comforted. Godde does not sanction their slaughter or desire their suffering.
So that makes me wonder...
If you'd been Joshua, and Godde told you to "destroy all who breathed", leaving no survivors, in successive areas of Canaan (Joshua 10:40)... would you have obeyed Godde?
Take a look at what was required - for example, Jericho: "they destroyed with the sword every living thing in it - men and women, young and old" (Joshua 6:21) ... that presumably includes babies, the bed-ridden, the blind... everyone.
Then take a look at what Godde required against Ai: "Then the Lord said to Joshua... 'You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho' " (Joshua 8:1-2). Would you have obeyed Godde and slaughtered them too? "Twelve thousand men and women fell that day - all the people of Ai" (Joshua 8:25).
And then the same slaughter at Makkedah - and Libnah - and Lachish - and Eglon - and Hebron -and Debir... all who breathed were totally destroyed 'just as the Lord had commanded' (verse 40). Would you have obeyed Godde?
I wouldn't.
They attributed their actions to Godde, the bible says that Godde commanded it, but would you have slaughtered the innocents?
Or was their understanding of Godde (even though it’s expressed in the bible) mistaken? This tribal ‘God’ who favoured them, this warrior ‘God’ who incited ethnic cleansing? I cannot attribute these chapters in the bible to Godde. I can only attribute them to the primitive ignorance and fallability of the authors. The Godde who said “Let the little children come to me” would never have ordered that command to have them slaughtered.
May the little ones of this conflict be protected and comforted. Godde does not sanction their slaughter or desire their suffering.