  Related Stories     You Have A Choice, But Don’t SettleThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude When God allows you to determine how you will walk out your faith, just remember that what he permits is not always what he will bless. Never make a choice that sacrifices long-term blessing for short-term comfort. Stay alert if the choice is between better and best—and go for the best!  Going Deep // Focus: Numbers 32:5-8, 13
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ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude
With the things we don’t understand about God, and with the things the world shudders at about God, keep in mind that we don’t always need to defend him. God is perfectly suited to defend himself. We ought to arm ourselves with as much knowledge as we can through study, but at the end of the day, God is infinite—in being, in wisdom and in power. And we are not. So let God be God, and lean into his loving but just character!
What are we to do with the concept of holy war in the Bible? How are we to handle when the Lord unleashes vengeance upon a nation? It is beyond our modern sensibilities that what we have come to understand as a New Testament God of love would order the annihilation of an entire people in the Old Testament. And annihilation is too clean of a word: men, women and children were put to death—by the sword—among other “atrocities.”
Many have set forth scholarly and reasonable explanations for the concept of holy war, so I will allow you to explore those on your own should you desire to gain greater knowledge. I would simply say here, as I have often said in this journey through the Pentateuch, that context is everything. Keep in mind the progressive nature of what God is doing here: he is forming a people for himself. They have been called out from among the pagan nation, are being purged of the ungodly and brutal influences of those nations they have been among, and are now being fashioned into a nation themselves that is to be uniquely God’s and set apart in holiness for his sacred purposes. So God starts with where they are—a people without form and function—and be begins to give them both. Some of the laws and regulations that we read about are to be observed forever, some are for that time and place only, and some are for an indeterminate but definite period of time. Some of those Divine decrees won’t be needed once they are established in their Promised Land and a great many of them will go away entirely when the promised Messiah comes to establish the reign of God in the hearts of his people.
And that is precisely where the student of the Bible has to distinguish between the rigid letter of the law and the eternal principles of God.
Now what about this idea of holy war—which wouldn’t you agree after reading this account—is hell? At this point, it will be helpful to consider the following article from the NIV Student Bible. While it doesn’t soften the tragedy of holy war, it does supply some of the contextual reasons for it:
The Old Testament makes clear that the Canaanites were not being uprooted on a sudden whim. God had promised the land to the Israelites over 400 years before Joshua. He had called one man, Abraham, to found a nation of chosen people. He repeated those promises often (see Genesis 12:1–3; 15:5–18; 17:2–8; 26:3,23–24; 28:13–14) and finally called the Israelites out of Egypt to take over the promised land. Almost from the beginning Canaan was a vital part of God’s plan. Israel’s inheritance, however, meant kicking out the Canaanites. How could innocent people simply be pushed aside, or killed? In answer to this question, the Bible makes clear that the Canaanites were not “innocent.” Through their long history of sin, they had forfeited their right to the land. Four hundred years before Joshua, God had told Abraham that his descendants would not occupy the land until the sin of its inhabitants had “reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16). Later, just days before the onset of Joshua’s campaign, Moses stated, “It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you” (Deuteronomy 9:5). Historians have uncovered plenty of evidence of this wickedness. Canaanite temples featured prostitutes, orgies and human sacrifice. Relics and plaques of exaggerated sex organs hint at the immorality that characterized Canaan. Canaanite gods, such as Baal and his wife Anath, delighted in butchery and sadism. Archaeologists have found great numbers of jars containing the tiny bones of children sacrificed to Baal. Families seeking good luck in a new home practiced “foundation sacrifice.” They would kill one of their children and seal the body in the mortar of the wall. In many ways, Canaan had become like Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible records that God has patience with decadent societies for a time, but judgment inevitably follows. For Sodom and Gomorrah it took the form of fire and brimstone. For Canaan it came through Joshua’s conquering armies. Later, God let his own chosen people be ravaged by invaders as punishment for their sins. The judgment pronounced on Canaan seems severe, but no more severe than what was later inflicted on Israel itself.
Keep in mind with the things we don’t understand about God, with the things the world shudders at, that we don’t always need to defend God. He is perfectly suited to defend himself. We ought to arm ourselves with as much knowledge as we can through study, but at the end of the day, God is infinite—in being, in wisdom and in power. And we are not.
Let God be God, and lean into his loving but just character. In the final analysis, God will be—and already is for that matter—justified in all his ways.
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ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude
Making a vow while invoking the name of a deity was common in the ancient world. It is common in our day, too. God didn’t and doesn’t want his people to do that. He isn’t just any old god. He wants us to elevate his name. He is the Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the Great I AM. His name is holy, and we must never profane it by treating it at any time and in any way as common.
Making a vow while invoking the name of a deity was common in the ancient world. It is common in our day as well. Someone might casually blurt out, “I swear to God” or “by God” or something similar to impress upon the listener the seriousness of that oath. The problem is, when one swears an oath by the name of the Almighty, it is usually on the spur of the moment or in a fit of emotion, and it is usually done unthinkingly and it is not going to be dependable.
God didn’t want his people to do that. He wasn’t just any old god. And he wanted them to elevate their God’s name. He was the Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the Great I AM. He was holy, and he took his holiness so seriously that he demanded his people eat, sleep, breathe and live 24/7 as his holy people. In fact, they were not to casually utter his name—to do so would be to profane it; to treat it as common. He even put that prohibition in the Top Ten of all his Commandments:
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
Was Israel’s God serious about his people honoring his name? You bet! And here is a shocking example from Leviticus 24:10-14,
One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father came out of his tent and got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the Name of the Lord with a curse. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They kept the man in custody until the Lord’s will in the matter should become clear to them. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard the curse to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death.
God was deadly serious about his name being profaned. He still is. Obviously, we don’t execute people for misusing it, but he is still the Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the Great I AM. He is no less Yahweh today than he was in ancient Israel. He is still holy, and he still takes his holiness so seriously that he demands that we eat, sleep, breathe and live 24/7 as his holy people.
So as it relates to casually and unthinkingly uttering his name, don’t. And one of the ways to implement that kind of respect for the name of the Lord relates to this business of invoking his name in making an oath. To honor his wishes that he clearly expressed to the Israelite, keep the following in mind:
Bottom line: Don’t swear to an oath and invoke the name of the Lord. Follow Jesus’ advice found in Matthew 5:33-37,
The law of Moses says, ‘You shall not break your vows to God but must fulfill them all.’ But I say: Don’t make any vows! And even to say ‘By heavens!’ is a sacred vow to God, for the heavens are God’s throne. And if you say ‘By the earth!’ it is a sacred vow, for the earth is his footstool. And don’t swear ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the capital of the great King. Don’t even swear ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. Say just a simple ‘Yes, I will’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Your word is enough. To strengthen your promise with a vow shows that something is wrong.
Break the habit of uttering the name of the Lord your God unthinkingly in your conversations. Don’t use him name casually in making promises, as if that somehow adds credibility to what you are committing to do. A simple “yes’ or “no” will do!
Elevate his name; reverence it. After all, he is still the Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, Yahweh, your Great I AM!
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ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude
The fact that the Kingdom of God is a party doesn’t mean the God of the Kingdom winks at sin. He doesn’t! Not because he is a killjoy, not because he can’t wait to punish our misdeeds, not because he is an angry deity—not at all. Scripture is abundantly clear that God is benevolent, merciful and kind, all because love is the DNA of God. But let us never forget that true and pure love cannot turn a blind eye to sin. That is why God always confronts sin where it exists, punishes it when he must, but mostly, forgives it where his people acknowledge through confession and repentance.
The fact that the Kingdom of God is a party (see yesterday’s devotional thoughts on Numbers 28) doesn’t mean that the God of the Kingdom winks at sin. He doesn’t! Not because he is a killjoy, not because he can’t wait to punish our misdeeds, not because he is an angry deity—not at all. Scripture is abundantly clear:
Yes, God is all of those—benevolent, merciful and kind, because love is the DNA of God—but let us never forget that true and pure love cannot turn a blind eye to sin. That is why God always confronts sin where it exists, punishes it when he must, but mostly, forgives it where his people acknowledge and repent of it:
God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. (1 John 1:57-10)
In Numbers 28-29, God lays out not only days of celebration but days of confession as well. He made it possible for his people to party—to remember his goodness and provision, and to repent—to acknowledge their impurity and be cleansed from it. Throughout the law Moses delivered to this new nation, God’s holiness took center stage. God is holy, and he expected his people to honor his holiness by following his guidelines for both public worship and daily living. And when there were missteps, he provided sacrifices to atone for their sin through offerings “to purify yourselves and make yourselves right with the Lord.” (Numbers 29:5) In fact, he set up a singular day of the year, called the Day of Atonement (Numbers 29:7), where he commanded his people to cease all their normal activity to fast, wait upon him and make sacrifice for the remission of their sins.
Since we live in a new age as followers of Christ where we are not required to offer sacrifices for sin or to set aside an entire day for confession, repentance and cleansing, that is, a Day of Atonement, it is easy for us to forget how deadly serious sin truly is. So let us never forget that sin destroys. It corrupts our nature, it corrodes our relationships—with God and one another, and it kills—both the abundance of God in this life and eternal life in the next:
For the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23a)
But let us likewise never forget the Good News that provision for the bad news of sin was made by a benevolent, merciful and lovingly-kind God, both through the temporary sacrifices in under the Old Covenant and permanently through the true Day of Atonement through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ:
The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. …For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. (Hebrews 10:1-4, 10)
No, God doesn’t wink at our sins. How could he wink at what would separate us relationally and eternally from his love? He doesn’t wink at sin, but he certainly washes us clean from it: “the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) Yes, the wages of sin is death. That is the bad news; but the Good News is,
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23b)
Thank God for the true Day of Atonement!
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