June 13th: Why the Bloodshed and Violence in the OT?

Speaker: Chris Laws

A superficial look at the Old Testament appears to show an OT/NT divide. The sophistication of both law and life in OT Israel is here explored.

(Deuteronomy 20.10-18)

OT/ NT DIVIDE ?
Deut 24.20 an eye for an eye/ Matt 5.44 “Love your enemies”.
Canaanites exterminated, women and children/ Matt 5.22 anger a form of murder.
Baal’s prophets all slain/ “Live peaceably with all men” (Rom 12.18).
Imprecatory psalms, eg Ps 69.28 “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living” / witness.
Appears to be severity/ compassion; primitive/ cultured.
Dispensationalism views God as dealing differently with men in OT and NT.

INTERPRETATION
This view undermines a correct approach to Scripture.
2 Tim 3.16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for…”
BCF 1.2:  The OT and NT are “to be the rule of life”.
The OT was written for our learning, not just OT people.

CHRIST’S TEACHING
The Law is perfect: Psalm 19.7 “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”
Matt 5.17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets…but to fulfil. For…till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law…”
Fixed for all time. Nothing to be excluded from it/ changed, but Christ gloriously fulfilling it.

Matthew 5 appears to teach a divide.
Matt 5.21 “Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time…but I say unto you.”
By them = the scribes and Pharisees.
Calvin: Christ is opposing the popular fiction of the scribes.
They twisted and distorted it.

Matt 5.38 “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil…” (Exodus 21.24)
In pagan nations a slave accidentally wounding his master was put to death.
In Israel, the punishment had to fit the crime.
Same for rich and poor.
With our children: if they steal, deprive them of some thing or privilege.
Magna Carta only came in 13th C giving equal rights of protection to all. The law was above the monarch.
The king could be brought to the law courts for savagely treating servants.

REFINED LAW
In Exodus 21 the law of the land was refined.
An eye for an eye was for magistrates, not personal revenge.
A magnificent legal code, the basis of many legal codes since.
An originally wonderful law was made ugly by the scribes.
So wonderful that it was commonly summarised by “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…and thy neighbour as thyself”.
Noble, refined, just, compassionate.
The Queen of Sheba could say “Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants (1 Kings 10.8).
Contrast with the primitive, cruel OT pagan world.

WARFARE
Assyrians and Babylonians vicious.
In Israel there was compassion. In Deut 20 we read:

1. Newly weds were exempt from military duty. ”Let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her” (20.7)
Not so in WW2 – my father-in-law sent to India for 3 years 2 weeks after wedding.

2. Fearful were exempt: “What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house” (20.8)
In WW1 even shell-shocked teenagers were executed.

3. Always terms of peace offered first. “When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it” (20.10).
Trapp: God always warns us, desiring peace.

4. Captives to be treated humanely “Wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword…?” (2 Kings 6.22).

THE CANAANITES
Deut 20.16-18 “But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth…”
A unique case against these nations. A fearful teaching narrative.

1. Longstanding evil. 6 centuries before God promised Canaan to the Israelites, but not straightaway.
“For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen 15.16)
Finally they reached the point of judgement.

2. Excessively wicked. Sodomy, bestiality. Child sacrifice (2 Kings 3.26-27).
So great the land was said to vomit them out – as a stomach ejects poison.

3. Warned – at the first abortive invasion of Israel. News spread of God’s command to destroy the Canaanites.
Gibeonites: “It was certainly told thy servants how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants…” (Joshua 9.24)
Second invasion 40 years later, so few – Rahab and others – had heeded warning.

4. Contamination inevitable. Deut 20.18 “that they teach you not to do after all their abominations.”
Sin highly contagious.
So today, we can easily underestimate the effectiveness of the anti-God society.
Believers be careful. Sin is like ozone gas.

5. Point of no return reached.
Their iniquity was now “full”. The vessel representing all their sin could no longer contain it.
God sets a limit on our rebellion.
Like Sodom and Gomorrha we can go beyond the reach of God’s mercy.
With every unconverted soul, there comes a point of no return.

GOD’S SEVERITY
Rare cases recorded.
Aaron’s sons “Nadab and Abihu…offered strange fire before the Lord” (Lev 10.1) in the tabernacle, and died.
Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5.1-3), and died.
God’s hatred of sin must be seen.
How many millions saved as a result of these warnings?
How many today ignore God’s hatred of interference of his worship?
The OT is full of compassion – David in the Psalms.

ISRAEL APPOINTED EXECUTIONER
MH: Israel was given a “divine warrant” without which it would have been great sin.
Why not destroyed with a plague? So hard to obey.
Showed them (and us) the exceeding sinfulness of sin, its contagious nature, the eternal death it leads us to.
Unforgettable experience.

GOD HAS NOT CHANGED
Teaches us that witness can be hard – speaking of judgement, warning people.
Hell is real, and God warns every man.