The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my mind and heart in Judges 3:1-2,
"These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who
had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to
teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had
previous battle experience)..."
Looking ahead to the Christmas season, many cards will be sent out in
December with the phrase, "Peace on earth, good will toward men." It
is a paraphrase from the King James Version of Luke 2:14, "Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
From these kinds of passages, many have come to the conclusion that
God hates war, war is sinful and his desire is that all mankind live
in peace. If that is the case, why did God teach warfare to the
descendants of the Israelites? If that is the case, why did God send
the Israelites into the promised land to carry out genocide against
the Canaanites? Maybe God was different back then... maybe by the time
Jesus was born God had "evolved" and now loves peace? I think not. I
think we have a misconception of God.
As I read all sixty-six books of my Bible I find that God has an
agenda. That agenda is to build a people for himself to spend eternity
with. Jesus came to proclaim the "kingdom of God" and offered it
initially to Israel, and eventually to all people. Far from desiring
that mankind have a happy and peaceful existence here in this lost and
fallen world, free from war, etc., God brings frustration to mankind.
"For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice,
but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation
itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into
the glorious freedom of the children of God." Romans 8:20-21. As much
as we hate to face it, the fear of enemies, the fear of poverty, the
fear of sickness, infirmity, disease and death provide us with the
motivation to reach out to God, to look to him for help, for a refuge,
for deliverance.
God knows if we live in a happy existence we will fail to recognize
our need of him and reach out to him. The purpose of this life is
build God's kingdom for the resurrection. He builds his kingdom of all
those who will embrace him in faith through the gospel message. Life
on this side of the resurrection is not the fullness of life God
intends for those who come into his family. I think in terms of this
life as a maternity ward. It is in this life that we come into being,
that we are physically born and hopefully, born again spiritually.
Jesus told Nicodemus, "no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is
born again." John 3:3.
This life is not about mankind living in peace and prosperity. What
the angels said on that Christmas night was "Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." The peace
proclaimed there is peace between God and those who have now embraced
him in faith. This is what the coming of Jesus Christ was all about.
Mankind exists as enemies of God, "For if, when we were God's enemies,
we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more,
having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" Romans
5:10.
In the Scriptures we find God moving nation against nation for his
purposes. In the case of the Canaanites, their level of sin precluded
the achievement of God building his kingdom. Just as in the days of
Noah, God acted. Now, with the Israelites moving into their territory,
God provides an environment of difficulty and frustration for the
Israelites that caused them to reach out to him. He did this knowing
they would turn from him. "They forsook the Lord, the God of their
fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and
worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the
Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the
Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord handed them over to
raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around,
whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to
fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as
he had sworn to them. They were in great distress." Judges 2:12-15.
God did these things to draw Israel back to himself. "they cried out
to the Lord" when they were subjected to Aram Naharaim. Under the
thumb of Moab we read "Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord".
Under Jabin, a king of Canaan, we are told, "they [the Israelites]
cried to the Lord for help". In Judges 6:6 we read, "Midian so
impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help."
God's agenda is to draw all men to himself. He is not building
paradise here, in this age, but will provide that in the resurrection
for all who will embrace him in faith. In effort to draw mankind to
himself, he has subjected the world to frustration through war,
poverty, sickness, disease and death. I don't know if this means that
God is pro-war, a "hawk" and not a "dove", but he certainly uses it to
achieve his purposes. He does it to draw all men to himself out of his
unfathomable love for all mankind.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment