Category Archives: Bible Study

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Men on the Path 2010

Why bother? It is so EARLY? I would rather be sleeping.  Church on Sunday is enough.

Really? I would agree….10 years ago.  But then…I had no friends that really knew me, that I could share my deepest fears and joys with…I had a marriage that was ok…I was lonely, anxious….

Men’s Group has rescued and transformed my life: I have friends that KNOW me…that I share my fears and joys with…who help guide me…who make me a better husband and a better father.  I have a marriage that is filled with joy. I have men who have surrounded me with love, prayer, and fellowship and who have rescued me.

What is the trick? Just show up.  Yes. It is that easy. Join us.

We are starting up again and going to have an exciting study from the Biblical book of Timothy with an emphasis on Leadership.

  • WHEN: Wednesday’s from 6:45am-8:00am
  • STARTING: January 5, 2010
  • WHAT: 1 Timothy
  • WHERE: North Park Community Center (NOTE: It is best to enter the housing complex off of Portola Parkway because then when you go through the gate the club house where we are meeting is straight ahead of you.

View North Park Community Center in a larger map

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New Year’s Quiet Time

Any part of a New Year would not be complete without the challenge and encouragement to refocus on what is important.  Find a devotional (suggestions below) and walk deeper with God this year.  2 key parts to any quiet time are prayer and devotional reading.  Please click on the links here to review:

1. How to Pray

2. Devotionals

As for my New Year’s Devotional, I will be using a free Bible application on my droid phone that gives you the readings for each day so you can read through the Bible in a year.  I have thankfully read through the Bible in a year several times, and it has always been a blessing.  However, there are those dry spells during which I find myself struggling to accomplish my goal.  Don’t give up! And if you have any questions about what you are reading along the way please don’t hesitate to ask us about them at uberlumen or uberlumen@uberlumen.com

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The Christmas Story: Then and Now Luke 2:1-20

Now:

  • Jesus birth was a late night, imminent, delivery
  • Joseph and Mary had a hard time finding a place
  • Jesus was born in a ‘manger’
  • There was no room at the ‘inn’

Then:

  • Joseph and Mary were not in a rush, and there was no late night, emergent delivery.
  • Joseph was of the royal line of David (in fact, Bethlehem was known as ‘the city of David’).  Joseph’s arrival would be welcomed and he would have been shown the respect of someone from the royal line of David.  Mary had relatives in a neighboring town, and in the middle eastern culture at the time, a pregnant women would have been shown respect and utmost care.  Mary would have been welcomed with open arms.
  • Jesus was born in a family room of a friend or relative’s home.  A manger was a cut out in the floor of the family room.  In the Middle East in the 1st century, the home was structured in such a way that the animals were placed inside the home at night to provide warmth and protect them from robbers.  There were several mangers in the family room for the animals.  Jesus would have been wrapped in warm clothes and placed in comfort in a manger in the family room of the home.
  • The Greek word for ‘inn’ (katalyma) used by Luke was also used by him in Luke 22:10-12 and was translated more accurately there as ‘guest room’.  If Luke meant a commercial inn or hotel, he would have used the Greek word: pandocheion.  Many families would have a main living area (with a manger) and a guest room attached.  The attached guest room was occupied to the home of the family that Joseph and Mary were staying with so that is what is meant by ‘no room in the guest room’ in the Biblical text.

reference: Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey

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Covetousness, Jealousy, Gratitude

Jeff Pries does a beautiful job teaching us in this sermon on covetousness.

  • The 10 commandments are for our benefit.  God wants us to know as Christians the path that will benefit us.
  • Coveting leads to jealousy which is a painful dead end
  • Life is unfair sometimes
  • Be grateful for what you have
  • YOU are enough!
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The Power of Forgiveness: Matthew 18

I know that I am getting a nudge to post when I am reading a chapter about forgiveness and I also happen to start listening to a podcast on forgiveness. These notes are a summary of a chapter on forgiveness in “You Were Born for This” by Bruce Wilkinson (Chapter 12: The Forgiveness Key), and the podcast is a sermon done by Mike Erre.  As always, share your thoughts with us.

Forgiveness is VERY important to God and for us to embrace.

There is only ONE thing that we are called to do in the entire Lord’s Prayer:  “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…”-Matthew 6:12

God, as represented by the King in Matthew 18, gets angry with those He has forgiven of an payable debt refuse to forgive others of a very small debt:

“…so My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trepasses…”-Matthew 18:35 (see also Matthew 6:14-15)

What will God do to us if we don’t forgive?  He will ‘hand us over to the torturers’ (Matt 18:34).  What?! What does this mean?!  It means that God turns His people who refuse to forgive others over to the painful consequences of their own unforgiveness until the person, from their heart, forgives others their trespasses (debts).  We will torment OURSELVES until we open our hearts and forgive.

3 key points to remember:

  • Jesus: “Jesus forgave you.  You can choose to forgive others.”
  • Justice: “Vengeance belongs to God, not to you or me.”
  • Jailer: “You are your own jailer.  Your torment won’t end until you forgive.  Then it will end immediately.  You will be free. And that is what God wants for you.”

2 gifts occur when we forgive:

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Men on the Path, November 4, 2009: True Success

We were in session #3 from a quiet strength a men’s Bible study by Tony Dungy and our question for today is: How is God’s definition of success different from how most people define it?
We looked at five key verses: Psalm 1:1-3; one Samuel 16:7; Micah 6: 6-8; Matthew 22:34-40; acts 1:8; Philippians 1: 21

God’s definition of success is “to live is Christ to die is gain” only when we can die to ourselves can we truly be successful. J. C. Ryle in his book titled Holiness points out what it costs to be a true Christian (to gain true success).

“For one thing, it will cost us our self righteousness. We must cast away all pride and high thoughts and conceit of our own goodness… for another thing it will cost us our sins. We must be willing to give up every habit and practice which is wrong in God’s sight. We and our sin must quarrel, if we and God are to be friends….For another thing, it will cost us our love of ease…we secretly wish we could have a vicarious Christianity, and could be good by proxy, and have everything done for us. Anything that requires exertion and labor is entirely against the grain of our hearts… in the last place, it will cost us the favor of the world… surely a Christian should be willing to give up anything which stands between him and heaven…A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing! A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown…”-pg 82-86

“We must seek to have personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus, and to deal with him as a man deals with a loving friend. We must realize what it is to turn to him first in every need, to talk to him about every difficulty, to consult him about every step, to spread before him all our sorrows, to get him to share in our all our joys, to do all as in his site, and to go through every day leaning on and looking to him.”-pg 113

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Men’s Group: Why show up? What is in it for me? The storms will come.

We had a football quiz to kick off our fall series: Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy (The Bible Study), and then we spent some time talking.  Mostly small talk….but we also spoke of the importance of being in a men’s group.  Do you ever wonder why? Do you worry about not fitting in? Do you have ‘better’ things to do with your time?  I don’t blame you.  I understand.  I had those thoughts myself, but I took a risk and started to show up and my life has never been the same.  The men in my life have rescued me.

We discussed Matthew 14:22-33.  Jesus calms the storm.  75% or more of men in America don’t have a friend that they can turn to in a ‘storm’.  I am reminded of 2 men who shared with me that they knew each other very well and were close friends, but when we started going deep under the surface, it became clear very quickly that they didn’t truly ‘know’ each other much at all.  This is the norm.  We walk through life completely alone with the facade of knowing each other.

10 years ago, I jumped out of the boat by sharing with a friend one of my deeply held ‘secrets’, and little by little we continued to grow closer and closer knowing everything about each other, our past, present, and future struggles, fears, and dreams.  I have never felt so free, peace filled, and truly alive knowing that there is someone that I can turn to with ALL my fears.

Then the storms came….and I had a friend who was there with me when I was drowning, suffocating, and had no where else to go….he held onto me and kept me from drowning when the waves were crashing over me.

I don’t know any other way to tell you.  One day, I decided to just show up to a men’s group even when I really ‘couldn’t’–too busy, bad time of the day, too early, etc.  By showing up, my life has been transformed–my marriage, my family, EVERYTHING–I now have friends that know more about me than I know about myself.  Join us! AND bring a friend along for the adventure of a lifetime.

The storms will come.  Who will be there for you? How will you survive?

“But what if your heart be right with God, and yet you are pressed down with a load of earthly trouble? What if the fear of poverty is tossing you to and fro, and seems likely to overwhelm you? What if pain of body be racking you to distraction day after day? What if you are suddenly laid aside from active usefulness and compelled by infirmity to sit still and do nothing? What if death has come into your home, and taken away your Rachel or Joseph or Benjamin and left you alone, crushed to the ground with sorrow? What if all this has happened? Still there is comfort in Christ. He can speak peace to wounded hearts as easily as calm troubled seas. He can rebuke rebellious wills as powerfully as raging winds. He can make storms of sorrow abate, and silence tumultuous passions, as surely as He stopped the Galilean storm. He can say to the heaviest anxiety, “Peace, be still!” The floods of care and tribulation may be mighty, but Jesus sits upon the waterfloods, and is mightier than the waves of the sea (Ps. 93:4). The winds of trouble may howl fiercely round you, but Jesus holds them in His hand, and can stay them when He lists. Oh, if any reader of this message is broken-hearted and care-worn and sorrowful, let him go to Jesus Christ, and cry to Him and he shall be refreshed. “Come unto Me,” He says, “all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).”-excerpt from Holiness by J.C. Ryle

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Men of Pathways: Get in the Game!

Join us this Wednesday as we open God’s word and learn from Super Bowl winning Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts, Tony Dungy, as we go on a six week journey to becoming the men that God created us to be. Come join us and connect with other men in authentic ways and find your answers to the six questions that men often deal with…..

1. What is my Game plan?

2.Where’s my security?

3. What’s my strength?

4. What’s my significance?

5. What’s success?

6. What’s my legacy?

Wed. mornings from 7-8 at the Northpark Club House (10 Meadow Valley, Irvine, 92602)

Please RSVP so I can have a study book ready for you.

Blessings Bucky

http://store.grouppublishing.com/OA_HTML/jtfdload.jsp?fileid=5802180&appName=IBE

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Cornerstone: Christ is ALL & without Him there is NOTHING!

This is a powerful sermon by Greg Boyd about the Messianic prophecy regarding Christ being the cornerstone.  He points out the emptiness, void, and nothingness that we have without Him.  Without Christ, we try to fill the void and despair of our meaningless existence by so many fleeting and worthless endeavors.

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Men on the Path: Men’s Group on Wednesday’s

We are starting up again and going to have an exciting study from Dungy’s Book.

  • WHEN: Wednesday’s from 6:45am-8:00am
  • STARTING: September 23, 2009
  • WHAT: Dungy Bible Study
  • WHERE: North Park Community Center (NOTE: It is best to enter the housing complex off of Portola Parkway because then when you go through the gate the club house where we are meeting is straight ahead of you.


View North Park Community Center in a larger map

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Guy’s Night Out: Mobster’s Story

Monte has invited all men who can make it to a Mariners Church event:

Gentlemen,
We have been invited to participate with a special Mariners Church event on Sunday evening, the 13th of September.
This is what the event is about….Guys, you won’t want to miss this BBQ dinner from Newport Rib Company and music by three-time Grammy Award winner, Brent Lamb!

After dinner, you’ll hear the unbelievable story of former mobster, Michael Franzese – a story of hope and redemption. You may have heard him before and now your friends need to hear Michael’s story as he paints a picture of his former life and his life today.

Cost: $20pp or $150 for a table of 8.
Please let me know who is interested and we will coordinate. I know I am going, and I believe Pastor Bucky is as well.
Pastor Monte
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The Mercy of God in the Old Testament

I continue to search for brief articles pointing out the true God of the O.T.  A friend and fellow physician who has an AMAZING website has a GREAT article summarizing key points: 1. God of O.T. is merciful; 2. God of O.T. NEVER killed innocent people 3. God of O.T. ALWAYS asked/pleaded with people to repent.

I have also cut and pasted it for you here:

The Mercy of God as Found in the Old Testament
by Rich Deem

Introduction

Jonah and God’s Mercy

Most Christians know Jonah as the reluctant prophet who was swallowed by a whale in order for God to convince him to go to Nineveh. Atheists often get caught up in the whale part of the story, not realizing that the story reveals that the ancients believed that God was merciful, although, at time, they often wished He hadn’t been.

Rich Deem

According to Richard Dawkins, Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is “jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”1 Absent from any of Dawkins’ description of God is His mercy. People tend to think of the God of the Old Testament as cruel and unforgiving, whereas the God of the New Testament is seen as the God of mercy, who sent Jesus to atone for the sins of the world. The Old Testament prophets were always warning the people about the wrath of God should they stray from the path of righteousness. However, what is usually ignored by atheists is God’s mercy for those who did repent of doing evil. Yes, God judged many people groups, but not before warning them.

Jonah and God’s mercy?

For those of you who only remember the whale part of Jonah’s story, here is a brief synopsis to get you a better background about Jonah. God called Jonah to travel to the city of Nineveh to warn them about their impending judgment, because of their wickedness.2 Jonah had different ideas, and attempted to flee from God by paying for passage on a foreign ship.3 However, God was not amused and sent a violent storm.4 The sailors were terrified and eventually figured out that Jonah was the cause of their endangerment, which he eventually admitted to them.5 Jonah was thrown overboard and God directed a great fish (or whale – the Hebrew is not that specific) to swallow Jonah and take him to the shore.6 Once expelled from the whale, Jonah decided to do what God had originally requested and travelled to Nineveh to preach repentance from their evil.7

A number of Christians assume Jonah was reluctant to go to Nineveh because they were known for their cruelty, and he feared for his life. However, the account gives a different reason why Jonah did not want to go. Jonah actually wanted God to judge the city of Nineveh and kill all their inhabitants. He was disappointed that the king and the people repented of their evil and were spared from God’s judgment.8 In fact, Jonah was so angry with God that he asked God to kill him.9 After that conversation, Jonah left the city and sat outside of it hoping that God would still destroy the city.10 God caused a plant to grow overnight to give Jonah shade during his watch, but then caused the death of the plant the next day. Jonah was furious about the plant.11 God pointed out that Jonah’s priorities were completely messed up, since he was more concerned about a plant that gave him shade than the fate of 120,000 souls in Nineveh:

Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11)

So, it was clear to Jonah that God was merciful and He would reconsider His judgment of evil if the people repented.12 Since Jonah wanted no part in God’s mercy, he tried to avoid following God’s instructions to warn the people.

Did God warn others?

Atheists would like you to believe that the God of the Old Testament just randomly killed people for no good reason and without warning. It turns out that atheists often don’t present the entire stories about God’s judgment. For example, in the greatest story of judgment, God sent a flood to kill all humanity except Noah and his family. However, Noah preached to the people of the coming judgment during the 100 years he was building the ark.13 In another famous example, God destroyed the cites of Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their evil. In fact, all the men of Sodom (including both young and old) attempted to rape the two angels who came to warn Lot of the impending judgment.14 Although warned,15 the men attempted to harm Lot, but were prevented when the angels caused them all to become blind.16 In many lesser known stories, God warned the people prior to executing judgment. Some of these warnings were heeded17 and others not,18 with the expected consequences. God’s own people were often recipients of God’s judgment, when they refused to heed His warnings.19 Here is a short list from the writings of the prophets:

Prophet Warning to Result
Isaiah Judah Judgment
Jeremiah Judah Judgment
Lamentations Jerusalem Judgment
Ezekiel Jerusalem, Tyre, Egypt Captivity in Babylon
Hosea Israel Judgment
Joel Tyre, Sidon, Philistia Judgment
Amos Israel Judgment
Obadiah Edom Judgment
Jonah Nineveh Repentance
Micah Israel Judgment
Nahum Nineveh Judgment
Habakkuk Judah Judgment
Zephaniah Judah Judgment
Zechariah Tyre, and other cities Judgment

It is a well known principle that God regularly warned people of impending judgment and He personally indicated that He would relent if they changed their ways.12 So, the atheists’ idea that God killed people without warning is false.

Does God kill the innocent?

Did God kill any innocent people along with the evil ones? In the two most famous examples of God’s judgment discussed above, the text clearly says that all the people God killed were evil.20 When God was about to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asked God if He would destroy the cities if there were 50 righteous people in them.21 God said no. Then Abraham asked the same question if there were 45 righteous people. Every time he dropped the number and got the same answer. The fact is that God would not have destroyed those cities if there were any righteous people in them. The few righteous who were in those cities He warned ahead of time to get out.22 In another example, Abimelech, king of Gerar, took Abraham’s wife because he lied saying that she was his sister.23 However, God prevented Abimelech from sleeping with her and warned him in a dream. Abimelech heeded God’s warning and was spared from death.23 Eliphaz the Temanite, in his discussions with Job, acknowledged that God did not judge the innocent with the guilty, but that those who act sinfully will incur God’s judgment.24 So, God does not destroy the righteous along with the evil.

Conclusion Top of page

In numerous instances, atheists cite the Old Testament for examples of where God killed “innocent” people. However, the texts show that the innocent are not judged, but only the guilty. In addition, virtually always, the guilty individuals were warned ahead of time about their sin. Jonah is often known as the reluctant prophet, although the reason for his hesitation was not due to the cruelty of Nineveh, but because he feared its people might repent and God might spare them. Jonah wanted God to kill all the people of Nineveh, but feared His mercy. So, Christians are not the only people who often seem to want to see God judge people for their evil, rather than praying for their reconciliation with God. Jonah reveals that God was known for His mercy even in Old Testament times. Even though God is merciful, His mercy extends only to those who heed His words of warning. There is no toleration for evil in God’s kingdom, so those who insist on testing God’s resolve toward sin will find themselves judged, and incarcerated in God’s jail.


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What about those grey areas?

Many believe that the Bible teaches us that all moral choices are black and white when in reality, the Bible teaches the reality that life is hard, correct moral choices are challenging, and there are plenty of grey areas.

Mike Erre teaches from a passage of 1 Corinthians that helps us to be able to navigate through those moral grey area choices that we ponder every day.

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Is there really a satan? PART 3

This is the 3rd part of a 3 part series on the Biblical foundation of the spiritual truth of the demonic, the evidence of the demonic, and some evidence of the demonic learned from experience and C.S. Lewis. Uberlumen has chosen this 3 part series because we in the western world have lost site of the demonic.  As one friend has said: Don’t you think satan is real if Paul wrote about him?  Part of our Christian growth and walk must acknowledge the truths that we don’t like to think about and that we put into question in our society.
“The commonest question [I am asked about The Screwtape Letters] is whether I really ‘believe in the Devil.’
Now, if by ‘the Devil’ you mean a power opposite to God and, like God, self-existent from all eternity, the answer is certainly No.  There is no uncreated being except God.  God has no opposite.  No being could attain a ‘perfect badness’ opposite to the perfect goodness of God; for when you have taken away every kind of good thing (intelligence, will, memory, energy, and existence itself), there would be none of him left.
The proper question is whether I believe in devils.  I do.  That is to say, I believe in angels, and I believe that some of these, by the abuse of their free will, have become enemies to God and , as a corollary, to us.  These we may call devils.  They do not differ in nature from good angels, but their nature is depraved.  Devil is the opposite of angel only as Bad Man is the opposite of Good Man.  Satan, the leader or dictator of devils, is the opposite, not of God, but of Michael.
I believe this not in the sense that it is part of my creed, but in the sense that it is one of my opinions.  My religion would not be in ruins if this opinion were shown to be false.  Till that happens–and proofs of a negative and hard to come by–I shall retain it.  It seems to me to explain a good many facts.  It agrees with the plain sense of Scripture, the tradition of Christendom, and the beliefs of most men at most times.  And it conflicts with nothing that any of the sciences has shown to be true.”-C.S. Lewis, The Joyful Christian, pg 145
“One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe–a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin.  The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong.  Christianity agrees…this universe is at war.”-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“…so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”-2 Cor. 4:16-18
As C.S. Lewis has pointed out in his ‘essential Christian reading’ book: The Screwtape Letters in which a young demon is mentored by his ‘uncle’ demon:
“Dear Wormwood…Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head.  He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily ‘true’ or ‘false’, but as ‘academic’ or ‘practical’, ‘outworn’ or ‘contemporary’, ‘conventional’ or ‘ruthless’.  Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church.  Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true!  Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous–that it is the philosophy of the future.  That’s the sort of thing he cares about…your affectionate uncle [demon]…Screwtape”
I also learned a great deal from a book on spiritual warfare titled:  The Invisible War by Chip Ingram
I also came across a very interesting and thought provoking article from Greg Boyd’s Blog where he discusses with a scientist the idea that there is too much evil for the kingdom of darkness NOT to exist…
Please share your insights with us.
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Is there REALLY a satan? PART 1

This is the 1st of a 3 part series on the Biblical foundation of the spiritual truth of the demonic, the evidence of the demonic, and some evidence of the demonic learned from experience and C.S. Lewis. Uberlumen has chosen this 3 part series because we in the western world have lost site of the demonic.  As one friend has said: Don’t you think satan is real if Paul wrote about him?  Part of our Christian growth and walk must acknowledge the truths that we don’t like to think about and that we put into question in our society.
PART 1: The Biblical foundations of this spiritual truth.  We live between a clash of 2 kingdoms.  Enjoy this sermon by Mike on the Biblical truth of the kingdom of darkness.
As always please share with us your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
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How can YAHWEH be perfectly good and just and yet command extermination?

What is up with the Old Testament God? He seems so different than the God of the New Testament (i.e. Jesus)? Or does He? I have been told that Jesus mentions hell more? And Jesus certainly showed righteous indignation (turning over the money changer’s tables in the temple) not to mention His clear disapproval of hypocrisy (i.e. Pharisee’s behavior).
Recently the topic of OT vs. NT God has come up.  There are 2 articles written by Paul Copan (a philosopher who is able to distill down knowledge better than most of his peers).  These 2 articles and this brief summary by Ken Samples hopefully will shed some light on the topic.

1. Is Yahweh a moral monster? by Paul Copan

2. Yahweh wars and the Canaanites by Paul Copan

3. How can Yahweh be perfectly good and just and yet command extermination? by Ken Samples

HOW CAN YAHWEH BE PERFECTLY GOOD AND JUST AND YET COMMAND EXTERMINATION?

Kenneth Richard Samples

Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous atheist, asserts that the God of the Old Testament is “a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser.”1

Yahweh, the Hebrew name of the personal God of Israel in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, reveals himself to be the Creator of heaven and earth. As the one true Lord, he is an infinite, eternal, and morally perfect personal deity. Historic Christianity identifies Yahweh as none other than the Triune God who is more specifically unveiled in the New Testament as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Tension arises when examining the Scriptures. The Bible reveals God to be perfectly good (Psalm 145:8-9) and perfectly just (Deuteronomy 32:4) in the very nature of his being. However, the Old Testament states that God personally commanded the army of the Hebrews to destroy the Canaanite nations.

During the conquest of Canaan, God commanded the following to the Hebrews:
“When the LORD [Yahweh] your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy” (Deuteronomy 7:2).
“However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes” (Deuteronomy 20:16).

In response to this frightening divine command, the Hebrew army carried out the following:

“They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys” (Joshua 6:21).

How can this seemingly brutal genocidal command be reconciled with God’s perfect goodness and justice?

Moral Justification for God’s Command
The following seven points help provide the moral context and justification for Yahweh’s command to destroy the Canaanites:

  1. While God doesn’t always reveal all the details concerning his sovereign decisions, Scripture indicates that God’s moral will flows from his perfectly good and just nature. Therefore God has morally sufficient grounds for his commands even if those reasons are not fully revealed to humankind. However, in this specific case some of those reasons are evident.
  2. God’s command to destroy the Canaanites was motivated by his intention to preserve Israel from the deep moral corruption that would have inevitably resulted through cultural assimilation with the pagan nations. God’s wrathful justice upon the Canaanites resulted in an act of mercy (protection) upon the Israelites. Therefore God’s command to destroy an entire people group nevertheless constituted a moral good.
  3. The Canaanites were a morally decadent and reprobate people. Archaeological discoveries have revealed that they practiced such moral abominations as temple prostitution, child sacrifice, and bestiality.2 And for hundreds of years they consistently ignored God’s call to repent of their wicked ways (Genesis 15:16). In God’s eyes they were beyond moral rehabilitation.
  4. Life in the ancient Near-Eastern world was extremely brutal. And the Canaanite nations viewed the Israelites as their enemies. In this context of warfare among nations God’s command to destroy the pagan peoples was a necessary act of war.
  5. God, as the sovereign creator and sustainer of life, has the prerogative to take life at his just discretion (Deuteronomy 32:39; Job 1:21). Because the cosmos belongs to the Lord, he has the ontological right to do as he wishes with his creatures. His only constraint is his moral nature. God is therefore in a different moral category of being than his creatures. He is the ultimate judge of all things. As Christian philosopher Paul Copan notes: “Like Narnia’s Aslan, Yahweh, though gracious and compassionate … is not to be trifled with.”3
  6. God’s order to exterminate the Canaanites was not a command to murder (to take human life without just cause). Rather, it constituted a command of capital punishment on a grand scale and therefore reflected a retributive form of justice (the punishment matched the crime).
  7. The divine command for the Hebrew army to destroy the Canaanites took place in a unique historical and biblical context. This was not a common or normative event in the life of God’s people. Yahweh is compassionate and patient and remains, in spite of this act, a God of mercy (Exodus 34:6).

Why Such Utter Devastation?

Yet while God had just cause to destroy the Canaanites for their wicked ways, was it necessary to kill all life? Couldn’t the innocent children have been preserved?

Unfortunately, the abominable evil of the Canaanite society had polluted the children as well.4 God, who knows the thoughts and intentions of people (Hebrews 4:12), knew that if these children had been allowed to live they would have inevitably infected God’s people with terrible iniquity. The Hebrews had to be “preserved” because they were the very people from which the Messiah would emerge. Additionally, it may be that God took mercy upon these children and granted them divine acceptance in the next life. God’s compassion is deep and wide even in the midst of temporal judgment.

An important lesson to be learned from this great and terrible event is that God loves his people and he will take extreme measures to protect them from moral and spiritual ruin (Romans 8:28).

References:
1. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006), 31.
2. Gleason L. Archer Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago: Moody, 1964), 261.
3. Paul Copan, “Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?” Philosophia Christi 10, no. 1 (Summer 2008), 31.
4. Ronald A. Iwasko, “God of War,” in Christianity for the Tough-Minded, ed. John Warwick Montgomery (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1973), 99-107.