What Do We Do with Violence in the Old Testament?

Tough Questions. Real Answers.
Good God, Bad Press:
What Do We Do with Violence in the Old Testament?

I. Introduction

A. In essentials, unity.

    In non-essentials, liberty.

    In all things, charity.

II. Grappling with Difficult Text

A. The conquest of Canaan (Joshua 6-12)

1. Joshua 6:21 (NIV)

2. Joshua 8:24-25 (NIV)

3. Joshua 11:10-11 (NIV)

4. Deuteronomy 20:10-16 (NIV)

B. Saul and the Amalekites

1. I Samuel 15:2-3 (NIV)

C. Covenant Framework: Blessings and Curses

D. The Flood Narrative

E. Miscellaneous Text

1. Psalm 137:8-9 (ESV)

F. Exodus 21:17 (NIV)

G. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (NIV)

H. Deuteronomy 22:20-21 (NIV)

III. Common Ways of Dealing with Old Testament Violence

A. Detaching from the Old Testament

B. God’s Sovereignty justifies His actions.

C. Framing violence as judgment on wicked nations.

D. Viewing violence as situational manifestations of God’s justice.

E. God was accommodating culture.

1. The Israelites’ understanding of God came through the categories available to them. They lived in a world that shaped how people understood the divine, what gods were like, how they acted, and how they responded to human behavior.
And this begins to move us toward a different framework. Not that God is violent because the culture was violent, but that God’s people, including the biblical authors, sometimes understood Him through the lens of their violent culture.

IV. Understanding Scripture: Inspired, Divine, and Human

A. The sufficiency of Scripture: The Bible contains all the information necessary for a person to understand the way of salvation and to live a life of faith and service to God.

B. Inspiration does not erase humanity.

V. Reading Between the Lines: Practices to More Fully Understand Old Testament Violence

A. Recognize Jesus as the hermeneutical key.

1. Hebrews 1:1-3a (NIV)

2. Colossians 1:15a (NIV) The Son is the image of the invisible God….

3. John 14:9b (NIV) Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

B. Asking the right questions

1. Is this a human perspective faithfully wrestling to understand God, rather than a record of God’s exact character?

2. Is this a culturally conditioned understanding of God?

3. Is this part of a gradual revelation that finds its fulfillment and correction in Christ?

4. We should at least consider the possibility that what we’re reading in violent passages may not be a direct command from God, but Israel’s understanding of God expressed through the lens of their time and culture.

C. Read text through the lens of accommodation and God working within culture.

1. Accommodation means God uses familiar forms but fills them with deeper truth.

D. Identify hyperbolic warfare rhetoric in the Ancient Near East.

E. Read covenant blessings and curses through a Suzerain-Vassal Treaty framework.

F. Allow the cross to be the fulcrum.

VI. Conclusion