{"id":18203,"date":"2013-05-21T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T18:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=18203"},"modified":"2013-05-19T10:17:46","modified_gmt":"2013-05-19T18:17:46","slug":"god-lying-about-violence-old-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/god-lying-about-violence-old-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Is God Lying about Violence in the Old Testament?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"oldI have been saying in my posts on the violence of God that God inspired the biblical writers to say that He told them to do the violent things they did, even though He did not. The reason God did this was to take their sin upon Himself. Just as Jesus became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21), so God became sin for Israel. This doesn’t mean God became guilty, nor does it mean that God became a sinner. It simply means that God took their guilt upon Himself just as Jesus did upon the cross. To read more about this line of thought, see the list of posts at the bottom of this article.<\/p>\n

One of the possible objections to this view is that it makes God out to be a liar.<\/p>\n

Yet we know that God does not lie.<\/p>\n

So how can God inspire biblical authors to write that He commanded Israel to do things that He did not actually command them to do? I believe it is because that although God is not guilty for these things, nor did He want them to happen, He nevertheless views Himself as\u00a0ultimately responsible for what goes on in this world. Why? Because He created a world where such sin and horror was possible.<\/p>\n

In a way, God truly is guilty. It is not that He sins or is a sinner, but He made a world where horrible sin and nightmarish tragedy was possible. So when the nightmare began, God took the blame, and through divine responsibility, took it upon Himself to make the nightmare stop. Ultimately, God pled guilty for the sins of the world, and paid the penalty on the cross by dying a sinner\u2019s death. One of my favorite theologians put it this way: Jesus \u201cdies as a criminal, under the curse of the Law\u2014as if to say, \u2018Look, I\u2019m as guilty as you are in this situation because I set it up in the first place; let\u2019s just forget about blame and get on with the party;” (Capon,\u00a0Mystery of Christ<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>34).\u00a0
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

And this actually reveals the primary problem with all other theories about the violence of God in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n

In previous posts we surveyed various proposals about how to understand the violent portrayals of God in the Old Testament in light of Jesus Christ. All of those proposals were rejected for various reasons, but the main problem with all those views is this: they all try to get God off the hook.<\/strong> They all try to wash God\u2019s hands of evil. They all try to explain why a good God can command such horrible things and still be good.<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is that in Scripture God never tries to get Himself off the hook. To the contrary, if He inspired Scripture to contain the information it does, God seems to go out of His way to put Himself on the hook. <\/i>God seems intent in Scripture on laying the blame for all the sin and violence of the world directly at His own feet.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"bloody
These are the hands of God.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over and over in Scripture, God seems to be saying, \u201cLook at my hands! They are bloody! Now stop trying to wash them clean!\u201d It is as if God is Lady MacBeth, but we <\/i>are the ones trying to wash His <\/i>hands: \u201cOut, damned spot! Out, I say! \u2026What! will these hands ne\u2019er be clean? \u2026Here\u2019s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh!\u201d And with every theory we throw at the bloodstained hands of God in an attempt the wipe them clean, the stain of blood only grows deeper and darker.<\/p>\n

Robert Farrar Capon insightfully wrote that \u201cIf God seems to be in no hurry to make the problem of evil go away, maybe we shouldn\u2019t be, either. Maybe our compulsion to wash God\u2019s hands for him is a service he doesn\u2019t appreciate. Maybe \u2026evil is where we meet God” <\/i>(Capon,\u00a0The Romance of the Word<\/em><\/a>, 170).\u00a0Could it be that our feeble attempts to wash God\u2019s hands of evil seem so ineffective because the deeper we scrub, the darker His bloodstained hands become? The more evil we try to remove from God\u2019s hands, the more evil He seems to scoop up with them.<\/p>\n

It is frustrating and embarrassing for us, but maybe this is exactly the way God wants it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christians often go to great length to wash the hands of God, but why do we try so hard to do this when God seems to be doing the exact opposite?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

God does not run from evil; He runs into it. God does not keep distance between Himself and wickedness; He gets so close to it that sometimes it is difficult to discern the difference between God and evil. So if God jumps right into the evil and wickedness of the world, it is impossible for us to separate Him from it.\u00a0
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

When God inspired the human authors to write that He was commanding them to do the violent actions which they had already set out to do in their hearts, God was not being deceptive. He was taking responsibility for the way the world had gone. Though He was not guilty, He took the guilt. Though He is not a sinner, He took the sin.<\/p>\n

God did this partly because of His great love for us. He knew that if He let the sin and guilt remain upon us, it would destroy us and He would never have the relationship with us that He so desires. So God took the blame, took the fall, and became sin for us, so that we might be His righteousness in the world. It is not deceptive. It is pure beauty, light, and love.<\/p>\n\"GodHow can a God who says \"Love your enemies\" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n

These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. \r\n\r\nLearn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group<\/a>\r\n\r\nI can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this post, I continue to to address the problem of violent portrayals of God in the Old Testament. Christians often go to great length to wash God’s hands from violence, but why do we try so hard to do this when God seems to be doing the exact opposite?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1213],"class_list":{"0":"post-18203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-when-god-pled-guilty","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nIs God Lying about Violence in the Old Testament?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christians often go to great length to wash 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