October 30, 2009
WWGHA (Chapter 16)
You can read Chapter Sixteen here.
I think this chapter is better answered by specifically addressing in turn each passage the author mentions.
Matthew 2
This was a horrendous massacre by Herod, and I have no idea why God allowed it to happen. He certainly could have stopped it, but chose to allow it. I have faith that something greater was accomplished than was lost, but I certainly don’t have any rational argument proving what it was. It is also important that we maintain the distinction between God allowing and God doing. This was allowed by God, but not done by Him.
Exodus 12:28
Though it was God who did the killing, at least part of the blame (and I say this not to excuse God, but to give the full account) lies with the Egyptians refusing to free the Israelites even when given ample opportunity and evidence that it was God’s will. With this one it is easier to come up with an account of the redeeming value (it led to the freeing of the Israelites, it acted as a sign for the seriousness of disobeying God, etc.) Even so, it is heartbreaking and difficult to understand because, it seems, God could have accomplished those things in some other way.
As a quick aside, we don’t know what happened to these children after they died. Were they brought into relationship with God? Did this keep them from following their parents and leaders in rebellion, ultimately saving them? Now this is just speculation, but the presence of an afterlife sort of “reframes” the significance of the death of the body. It doesn’t necessarily carry the same stong as it would if there were no afterlife. This doesn’t provide an answer of course, but it does help us keep an eye on the larger picture.
Isaiah 13
This is one of the many Old Testament passages warning about the seriousness of rejecting God and the result of that. This prophesy is against Babylon, which was one of the most murderous and perverse nations. Most explain this passage in terms of God bringing about justice and punishing those who have done evil. I’m not comfortable with this at all, but I understand the importance of justice. Ultimately, peace, goodness and love require that all injustice be answered.
One of the keys to understanding this is to understand that part of what Jesus was doing on the cross was taking the penalty of justice so that we wouldn’t have to. That is, He suffered both so that we wouldn’t have to ultimately suffer and so that, if we suffer in the mean time, we can be empowered to forgive and love those who cause the suffering. So, all the warnings about the penalty of our rebellion don’t have to come true for us; if we’ll allow it, Jesus’s death can stand in the place of our death. I’m not so idealistic as to thing that this answers all doubts and neatly ends debate, but if we forget this we fail to see a key piece of the puzzle.
Jeremiah 49:20 and Hosea 13
Similar to previous response.
Numbers 31 and Deuteronomy 3
At least part of what’s going on here is this. The nations for which God commands all be killed are involved in witchcraft, murder, child-sacrifice, idolatry, etc. If Israel let people live, the nation ended up practicing the same kind of things (see Deuteronomy 7:1-4 and 20:16-18 for God’s warning about this). Psalm 106:34-40 provides an example of this actually happening. The thought seems to be that this was necessary to keep safe those who were trying to follow God and behave rightly. Additionally, God will spare a nation if it repents (Jonah 3:10).
Noah’s Flood
My comments on this are similar to my response to the passages directly above. That is, we have to give a substantial place to God’s justice and the importance of submission to Him (i.e. embracing goodness). That being said, we couldn’t be human (or godly) without seriously wrestling with these things.
