The Israelites have a little battle and decide not to kill the women and children. I'm sure they were thinking they did pretty good for themselves. God will be pleased, was probably rolling around in their heads...
They get to camp and are met by Moses who is angry.
At what you ask? They didn't kill the women and children.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSE TO KILL THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN!!!"
?????????? This book and this God never cease to amaze me (and not in a good way).
Because they were here anyway, the girl children were allowed to live as were the virgins, who were given to the returning warriors....so much for that brief glimpse at women's rights.
Everyone else was killed.
I just hope they killed the women first, so they didn't have to see their boys being murdered.
I wonder if they separated them, or did the little girls have to watch their mothers and brothers being slaughtered?
All in the name of God?
The idea of a "loving God" seems to be getting farther and farther away. I know he is also a vengeful God and all that other stuff... but, I was hoping to at least see a overall idea of love. It seems like in order to deliver this one group of people to their "promised land", even though they continue to disobey, everyone else must pay the price.
"Sorry miss, but you and your son just happen to be in the way of this large group of people I'm trying to move from point A to point B and because you don't believe in me (whats that???......oh you've never heard of me?? So you can't possibly believe in me?) bottom line is you DON'T believe in me, so you have to die.....and your little boy too."
I was hoping to find peace, love, understanding. The only real understanding I'm getting is about the radical people who kill in God's name. These people I totally understand now.
I'm also getting a better idea as to why the idea of Hell came along. Right now its looking to me like a whole lot of folks would look at this and think exactly what I'm thinking...
"why would ANYONE want to be a part of THIS?!"
.......and your answer is:
"because if you don't you will burn in hell for all eternity"
.......and to that most people say:
"oh, Let me look at that Bible one more time......read between the lines a little, dig a little deeper....there has to be SOMETHING here that I can hold onto"
...but then again I'm the skeptic
6 comments:
Crystal,
I agree with your sentiment here. I was a devout Christian very much like Jamie until my early 20's.
Now I'm an atheist. So,what changed? I kept asking questions like the ones asked here. I read the Bible a couple times. It just doesn't make sense that a loving, all-powerful God would require, no, demand, His "people" to commit genocide in his name.
Chp 31:2..for seducing Israel, i.e. causing them to sin against the Lord, esp. the women. That is why they were to die. And if you watch Battles BC, and I know you do, then you'd see that it is as much a military decision as spiritual. And also, you know that in antiquity generational vengeance was common; hence, the killing of the little boys...kind of like now and all the little terrorist boys. They see their dads, uncles, and older brothers doing it, and despite what we may do in the future, they grow up and do the same thing; sometimes, even after, living here and getting their educations here.
Again, you say you don't understand God's way, but we've just started reading, so I don't understand why you're so caught up in understanding everything right this second. If you could understand it all right now after only reading four books, then you'd be the smartest person to ever live. So for you to claim that they were killing them in the Name of God, so to speak, is being a little dramatic given all of the practical reasons for doing so.
And this notion that you cannot/are not influenced by others' thinking is simply not true. Afterall, isn't THAT part of the reason for doing this blog? You say you kind of want to believe? So by allowing me to attempt to explain AND influence you with my thinking, isn't that swaying your thinking? We all know that people, many times think alike and are swayed by people they hang out with. That's sort of common sense. Not to get off subject, but isn't that the reason why Obama's notion that just cause most of his friends were left wing nuts/socialists that somehow he wasn't, was absolutely ridiculous (as we're seeing now, esp.)? Of course it was. Similarly it's equally false for someone to claim that their thinking is never influenced by outside interference....as though there's an original thought.
And, again, as stated before (correcting Stefen) we are already on the path to Hell, God offers us salvation. So it's not as though these people who choose not to believe (and they've all heard of the God that saved the Israelites from Egypt) are being taken off of the path of to Heaven and put on the path to Hell because of their refusal to worship the one, true, and only living God.
And if your assertion were true that God takes you off of the path to Heaven and puts you on the path to Hell for not believing in Him, then I ask you, no matter what you think of Him, why would you refuse Him...knowing that He was going to do that to you. That seems kind of non-sensical. Well, I know if I don't believe God will send me to Hell, so I'm not gonna believe. See how that makes no sense?
And getting back to what was said earlier about doing things by our own power, etc. I was making a larger point about miracles and the like. Plane crash into the Hudson, Spanish Armada being split by a freak storm, Pilgrims landing at the only spot on the entire coast they could have and not get annihilated, a lady (unbeliever)in a mall parking lot being protected by an angel frightening off two attackers (non-believers, not under the influence). etc. etc.
If you look at everything under the microscope then you will never see the big picture. That isn't to say, you shouldn't ask questions, but asking questions and ignoring the answers that are in front of you (being argumentative) are not the same things.
Back to what we're supposed to be doing....The few Israelites that asked Moses if they could stay on the east side of the Jordan would later become known as Judah, whereas the Israelites on the other side would be known as Israel. This split was prophesied earlier.
We are finishing Numbers tomorrow.
Jamie,
Why does a loving, all powerful God need his chosen people to commit genocide, more specifically, to murder women and children?
Isn't a more logical answer that they used God to justify their own greed and power lust?
In my experience the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
Serious question. Please address this.
Jamie wrote:
And if your assertion were true that God takes you off of the path to Heaven and puts you on the path to Hell for not believing in Him, then I ask you, no matter what you think of Him, why would you refuse Him...knowing that He was going to do that to you. That seems kind of non-sensical. Well, I know if I don't believe God will send me to Hell, so I'm not gonna believe. See how that makes no sense?
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The issue you're not understanding is if you don't believe in gods, then fear of retribution or punishment by them isn't an issue whatsoever. Atheists and Agnostics don't hate your god.
They know there's nothing to fear besides the people who do believe in him and commit huge atrocities and evils in his name.
Justifying and accepting the "wonder" and "magnificence" of the god that would empower, encourage and reward genocide, slavery, murder, incest, rape, racial division, theft (properties and land), ignorance, blind obedience, and servitude is what makes you much much scarier than any hell.
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