Readings for today: Joshua 11-12, Luke 17:11-37, Psalms 84, Proverbs 13:5-6
“For it was the Lord 's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses.”(Joshua 11:20)
Herem. A notoriously difficult Hebrew word to translate. Roughly it means to “put something/someone under the ban” or “devote to destruction.” Less an act of war, it was more about worship. Ritual cleansing. God’s righteous and holy and terrible judgment against idolatry. Israel was His instrument. Chosen to enact this judgment against the Canaanites. And it was a brutal and terrifying as it sounds. It was jihad. Yahweh-sanctioned genocide. And we cannot - if we’re being honest - shrink back from the horror of it all.
Too many preachers attempt to justify God’s actions here. Soften them to make them seem more palatable. I will do no such thing. What I will say - and what we MUST grasp - is that Herem is fully in line with God’s eternal character. It is who God has revealed Himself to be. A God of righteousness and judgment and holiness. A God who hates evil and sin. A God who literally fights to eradicate these things from the earth. And we want God to be this kind of God. We NEED God to be this kind of God! How else will things be made right? How else will judgment come on 20th century evils like Nazism, Stalinism, or the killing fields of Pol Pot? Don’t we demand God to be a God of justice when faced with these atrocities? Didn’t we, on some level, consider ourselves to be acting on God’s behalf...in service to His righteous cause...when we stormed the beaches of Normandy? Or defeated the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union? Were not those actions a form of jihad? Holy war against an unholy enemy?
But how does this God square with the God we see revealed in the New Testament? The God of love Jesus spoke so eloquently about? Here it is essential we remember how God defines love. It is not an abstract category or warm fuzzy feeling in the heart. It is not soft and sentimental. No, God defines love as sacrifice. Specifically, the sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) What we have to understand is the only reason we get to receive the grace of God...the mercy of God...the love of God...is because of what Jesus Christ endured on our behalf. The Father essentially put His own Son under the ban! Devoted Him to destruction so that we may live! This, friends, is the love of God! The Father pouring out His righteous wrath and judgment on the Son! The Son willingly offering Himself up as the sacrifice for all humanity’s sin! Enduring unimaginable pain. Unimaginable suffering. Separation from His Father. Death. Hell. God descending to the uttermost darkness. It was without a doubt the most horrific act of Herem in the history of the world. More terrible than genocide is deicide. God allowing Himself to be murdered by His own beloved creation.
But this He did on our behalf. This He did to cleanse the earth of sin. Idolatry. Evil. Death. 1 John 2:2 says, “Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” God is the same yesterday, today and forever, friends! There is perfect congruence between the God of the Old and the God of the New Testaments. He acts in perfect concert with Himself. With His character and nature. He never deviates. As the old hymn suggests, “There is no shadow or turning with Thee! Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be!” Great indeed is God’s faithfulness!
Readings for tomorrow: Joshua 13-14, Luke 18:1-17, Psalms 85, Proverbs 13:7-8