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How Do We Understand God’s Violence in the OT?
How Do We Understand God’s Violence in the OT? Reading Joshua, specifically the conquest of Canaan, and it is disarming (which is the opposite of the armies!) and disquieting (and battles are not quiet!). There are various ways to handle this, one of which is far more appealing to me, and I hope to you.
The first is the Israelites did not worship the same God as we do. Marcion (2nd Century) preached that the god who sent Jesus into the world was a different, higher deity than the creator god of Judaism. That would destroy the symbiotic relationship between the writings of the two covenants, including the messianic promises.
Another is that God adapted more to man’s culture than He demanded Israel adapt to His nature. There are topics and events where I do think this happened such as slavery. Why would God command Israel to have slaves when they had been slaves themselves? Although Israelite slaves were treated better and freed at certain points, it is something I can’t completely answer to my own satisfaction. One thought though is parts of slavery were surprisingly for the benefit of the slave, made so through his criminal actions. This way he became part of a functional family and hopefully learned to function at a higher EQ (Emotional Quotient). This was mentioned in my study of Restorative Judgment and the fact there were not prisons in Israel.
The most satisfying (to me) is looking at the OT through the lens of the gospel of grace. Just as we can’t understand much of the OT without the NT, this we cannot either. As with the conquest, among Israelites there was a death penalty for sin. Specifically concerning Canaan, God was very patient “because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full”. But still the overall point, the one I am most comfortable with, is the OT reveals to us how God would violently execute His will based on justification by law. Therefore, when we read it, and then we see how Jesus suffered the penalty of law of death and shame, we can appreciate the gospel of grace even more. The violence of the penalty of law meets the violence of the cross of grace. The light becomes brighter after the dark. Joshua was a dark time of the victory of law; and Jesus is the Light of the victory of grace.
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