Salvation Summaries

For three years now, I’ve been trying to get my arms around God’s violence in the Old Testament in order to understand it, and then be in a position to write about it. It has been no easy task.

I started by reading a handful of books on God’s violence, but I simply didn’t learn enough from them, so I decided to read through the Old Testament myself. But reading through it once wasn’t enough, as it left too many questions unanswered. As of now, I’ve read most of the Old Testament four times, and God’s actions are finally making sense.

The problem with this topic though, is that, on the surface, God really does appear to be more angry and violent than we would want or expect Him to be. He inflicts punishments that seem too harsh for the crime. And, too many of these stem from emotional anger and outrage – traits we don’t want to see in our God, and which raise concerns with God’s justice. Can I trust Him to deal with me fairly?

To understand why God acted the way He did in the Old Testament, many factors have to be considered, and I’ve listed them below in the outline I plan to follow for the next three posts.

1. Big Picture of the Old Testament
2. The Bad (verses showing God’s violence)
3. Need to Understand how the Old Testament was Written (not word for word dictation, culture influenced authors)
4. Need to Understand Culture
   • People were rash
   • People were wicked
   • People were violent
   • Other nations were more violent than Israel
5. Need to understand Figures of Speech used by many Authors (especially the major and minor prophets)
   • Just because an author describes God as angry doesn’t mean He is
   • An author’s use of hyperbole can make God appear to be more angry and violent than He is
   • Anthropopathism (this is important to understand God’s violence yet most people have never heard of it)
   • Things are not always what they seem
   • There are some actions (by God) that we don’t and won’t understand
6. God’s Initial Response to Man’s Evil, Wicked and Violent Behavior, and the Significance of the Covenant in Leviticus and Deuteronomy (this is a key to understanding much of the violence in the OT)
   • Need to take sin seriously (God is a holy God)
   • Harsh deterrents proved ineffective to curb Israel’s wickedness
   • Capital punishment proved ineffective to deter Israel’s wickedness
   • Blessings and curses proved ineffective to limit Israel’s wickedness
   • We need to understand God’s Divine Anger
7. God’s Reasons for Punishment and Violence
   • To punish wrongdoing
   • To punish to correct bad behavior
   • To avenge
   • To prevent wickedness from spreading
   • To protect Israel from enemies
   • As ultimate judgment for the unrighteous who would not change
8. Need to Reconcile God’s Violence with
   • His kindness toward others
   • His blessings
   • Who God says He is; how He describes Himself
   • How other authors describe Him
   • What God wants from His creation
   • What God does not like/detests
   • The God of the New Testament
   • How Ezra viewed God’s violence
   • Job’s encounter with God (Who are we to question Him and His ways?)
9. Summary

Can we make sense of God’s violence in the Old Testament? Yes. Can we still view Him in a positive light and be willing to love and serve and worship Him? Yes. But it’s a complicated topic for sure, without short and easy explanations.

So, stick me with reader, and by the end of the next three posts, I’m confident you will understand why God acted the way He did, and why you can still trust Him.