You're listening to Tim Bulkeley's 5 minute Bible Yhy do you read? Part 2: The Genocide of the Canaanites
In the first podcast in this series I argued that why we read
the scriptures matters enormously. If we read asking questions about history. For example:
"According to the ancient Israelites or Judeans in the street was God married?" you get
one answer, in this case: Yes. According to many ancient Israelite or julianne's in
the street Yahweh was married to Asherah, listen to my podcast: Why do you read? or
Was God married? If you don't understand what I'm talking about here. But if we ask a
theological question, not a historical one or even a literary question are not
a historical one, like:
"Does the Bible as religious scripture say that God was or is married?" That's the
theological question. Or: "Did the authors of the Bible believe God was married to
Asherah?"
that's the literary question, or we might rephrase it: Does the Bible text say
that God is married, or was married? You then get the opposite answer: No. No way, no how!
Certainly not. So why we read matters. How does this impact on the problem of Bible
passages that instruct Israel to kill or wipe out the Canaanites? I think it
matters like this:
the theological question to ask of such passages is: Does God desire genocide?
or Did God desire the genocide of the Canaanites? As a theological question
the answer if asked of the whole of Scripture has to be: No. For a start there
are Bible verses that make it clear that God does not desire the death of any of his
creatures. As 2 Peter 3:9 puts it: "The Lord is not slow about his promises as
some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but
all to come to repentance." And quite clearly the story of the life and death
of Jesus is understood by Scripture you mean as John 3:16 that favorite verse of
many evangelicals puts it, that God loved the world so much that he gave his one
and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but
have eternal life. God loves the world so much - so much wants no creature to perish
that in Christ God dies for us
or as Brueggemann points out right at the start the Bible in Genesis chapter 3
when the facts warrant death, God insists on life for his creatures. A God like this could
not desire genocide, a God who does not want any to perish, a God who gives
himself so that his creatures might live, a God who when the facts warrant
death as Brueggemann said, insists on life for his creatures, such a God could not desire
genocide! So what do we do
theologically when different parts of the Bible seem to contradict? Well we
give primacy to the thing which is repeated time and time again to the
thing which runs like a thread through scripture from beginning to end and in
this case that thing is the God does not deserve the death of any creature that's
why an understanding of those passages which suggests that God would as
genocide must be wrong! But we're asking the theological question
much more difficult is to ask the historical question and that I've tried to
do in other podcasts and will try to do in other future podcasts. God !