Monday, March 5, 2012
The warrior leader
I don't feel like I have much for this one...it's pretty straight-forward. There are some pretty amazing parts of the story that are left out - like God stopping the flow of the Jordan River in Joshua 3. It also left out the fact that the Jews killed everyone in the city...but I'd say there's a pretty obvious reason for that omission. I find it kind of interesting that so soon after the story of the Ten Commandments we come to a story of murder - was there a "Holy War" clause in there that I missed? In fact, in the next Chapter God gets mad at people stealing things from the city - but nothing is mentioned of the sin of murder!
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Not really sure what to say about that.... its a reason we still have so much grief in the Holy Land. It seems that entitlement to homeland and to the promise of the promised land trumps the law. Or something like that.
ReplyDeleteThis is the place where we wrestle with scripture, with the nature of God.
We can take the view that Scripture universal moral truth. That God has this fiery nature and simultaneously deep love and compassion for mankind. (Which is why Jesus's death as an atonement for sin is so important)
We could also take the view that scripture expresses God's character at a given point in time. That God's nature is too complex and morally evolved for us to understand and so God expresses love, justice, compassion, etc by means that the people of the day can understand. And so our interpretation of scripture must include historical and cultural study to fully understand what God is teaching.
In either perspective we will find challenges in reconciling the God of the old and new testament. Even within each, there are conflicting passages referring to God's nature.
My view and approach is to combine prayer, experience with God, scripture and reason to seek God. Recognizing that where I am in my faith journey allows different things to speak to me. I also recognize that other people are in other places on their journey and need to hear or learn different things and so while God's nature is absolute, our understanding and experience of it is bounded. None of us are right.
Yet, if we seek, we will find. If we knock the door will open. God does reveal themselves to us and that understanding and depth of knowing deepens the longer we walk with God in faith.