Those rascally Israelites are at it again. They have no leadership, in human form anyway so they fall into old habits.
This is why I feel like teaching through fear doesn't work. If I teach my students that if they misbehave they get hit, then do they ever learn why they should act properly? Or do they simply learn to act correctly out of fear. And once that fear is removed, say the principal is out one day, will they act correctly? Usually not. Just like these guys, if they must have the fear hovering over them, are they genuine? Obviously these people don't do right out of the pure goodness of their heart. Isn't this the way we train animals?
Its what I tell my students every year. I tell them I will not hit them, that they will learn to behave for the sake of behaving, not out of fear of physical pain. Its hard but by the end of the year I always have one of the most well behaved class at my school.
I digress, but again I do love to talk about my students.
Anyhoo, God is angry because they have not done what needed to be done. They didn't kill everyone who needed to be killed. We both know how I feel about that, so I can hardly feel anything but a sense of relief.
And then we get Deborah. She decides that enough is enough and like any good woman she takes charge of the situation. Her and another gal, Jael who kills Sisera.
3 comments:
I don't know what to say. And I don't know why you don't get it. But I do know that this is already coming out badly. So I'm gonna stop and try to think how I can put this..
You say they're being manipulated out of fear to behave. I think that is soooo totally wrong. And once more I've explained this lots...just like the killing everybody thing. They (the inhabitants) could leave anytime they wanted. Maybe that's a crappy choice, but it's a choice nevertheless. I know that certain people feel like that if at least one of the choices isn't a "good" one then it's not freewill, but it is. For example, if someone comes up to me and pulls out a gun and says give me your money or die....I have a choice. They both stink, but they're still choices. And just because I give them my money doesn't mean I'm doing so out of fear or that I'm afraid to die; maybe it's just the most practical of the choices. If I were 80 and had cancer maybe I'd tell him to stick it and let him shoot me. We are on the road to Hell. We are born into sin. God does not hold us over the fire and say, worship me or else. The consequences He speaks of are simply what is already going to happen to us and/or what will happen if we decide to ignore His promise of salvation. What He is really saying is, let me save you. Just because a lot of people don't like His rules for doing so is just typical of our society. People want things, but they want them in the manner and timing of their own choosing. Well, that's too bad. SO THIS IS NOT TEACHING THRU FEAR. There is every bit as much, if not more, reminders of all of the good things/blessings that come when they obey. It's simply reminding them of their commitment, and reminding them of the rewards AND consequences. I think ignoring the consequences is dangerous to teach people and esp. children. But maybe it works in your class because they have grown up in a uniquely different environment than 99% of the rest of the world. Is this one of those times where we take the exception and pretend it's the rule? Either way, God and their leaders are constantly reminding them of all the blessings (and their commitment) that come their way when they are obedient. Maybe if they weren't also reminded of the consequences of disobedience they'd be even worse than they are. And didn't we just read that they were given another opportunity to get out of their covenant with God? It just greatly vexes me...this whole attitude in society today...that says it doesn't matter what commitment you've made, it doesn't matter how many chances you've been given, it doesn't matter.....you should be given an infinite amount of chances, you should be able to break any agreement, and you should never face consequences or be held accountable. And if you are, then you're not loved and somehow that is unfair. I don't know what else to say.
Our Heavenly Father give us rules and discipline for the very same reason we give it to our own children...because if we didn't they'd grow up to be self-centered, selfish, greedy, dishonest, spoiled brats.
What parent would just give their kids everything, never hold them accountable, and let them do whatever they want? Besides Paris Hilton's. And look how great she turned out. I don't know any parent who cares about their kids that just let them do whatever. But, yet, that's what our society today thinks a loving God would/should do. I think that's idiotic. When you love your children you make them work for what they get. You have rules for them to obey. They aren't rewarded for doing what their supposed to, they're rewared for doing more than their supposed to. AND they are punished when they break those rules. That's what a loving father does, and that's what our loving Heavenly Father does. Except He doesn't actively punish us for not worshipping and obeying Him...it's more passive then that...He simply allows us to continue on the journey we were on when we were born.
There are dozens of contradictions to your free will argument, in the Bible alone.
The fact is, Crystal DOES get it. There is no choice or free will, if the Bible is to be believed. Here's some quotes straight from your holy book.
Acts 13:48
And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Rom.8:29-30
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.... Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom.9:11-22
For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. .... For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? ... Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.
Eph.1:4-5
He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
2 Th.2:11-12
God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned.
2 Tim.1:9
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Jude 4
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.
Putting a gun in someone's mouth and saying they have to do something or get shot through the back of the head is not giving them a choice. It's the behavior of a bully, a thug, and an evil being.
You worship a bully, a thug, and an evil being.
You are better and more moral than him, even you Jamie, despite your obvious mental illness, you are better than the God you worship.
You'd never give your children that punishment or choice and call it free will.
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