January 30, 2009
“…we can stand with authority and power, knowing He [God] will take care of us.” (Robert Soto, “Words from the Creator”)
Reading and studying in Deuteronomy: although I understand the theological explanation of God’s necessary judgment and destruction of those who choose evil – I can also see why people “choke” over the destruction (“putting under the ban”) of the peoples of Canaan…
It makes me wonder, though, what is in store for our “Godless” nations: we seem to think we are somehow “safe” … and yet look at the fall – bloody fall! – of so many previous “empires” – do we somehow suppose we are immune? We talk about how the world today is too civilized for that – but all over the world there are horrible blood-baths continuing… and we are seeing more and more of them rising up in our midst… they “seem” like isolated incidents… but how many people in our “civilized” nations will be easily drawn into incredibly destructive behavior… how many are there already “in the shadows” for every terrorist, serial killer, criminal, killer-student(s), dirty cops, whatever, who has already stepped out and into action? (And what is encouraging all this??)
I heard an interesting discussion recently about how our “civilized nations” are continuously making endless new laws, rules and regulations, about all kinds of relatively minor “misdemeanors” … while in most parts of the world those kinds of things aren’t even “in the radar” of the “justice system” because poverty, war, drought, starvation, political upheaval, etc are so severe…
And how long can we blithely carry on with our blindness to the reality of what is happening in the rest of the world… and also to the reality that what we consider “poverty” here would be considered wealth by a huge percentage of the world’s people… and even our blindness to the reality of what is happening, what is brewing in our own back streets… and in our “corridors of power” I dare say!
I fear that it will not be long before our blind arrogance and our disregard of God (yes, our denial of His existence, even), is going to put us “under the ban” (dedicated to destruction) one way or another… How can we not look back through history and see, over and over, the rise and fall of nations, kingdoms, empires, people-groups… yes, even “democracies”! – think Athens/ ancient Greece, the “birthplace” of the “democratic system” we hold so dear (and no, sorry folks, democracy and free enterprise, our “sacred cows,” are not inherently “Christian” or “Godly”…) – anyway, as I was saying, the rise of these “civilized” powers which unfortunately seem inevitably to fall into unbridled power, arrogance, lack of compassion, the glorifying of violence as entertainment, and all kinds of other forms of, well, what shall we call it? “Civilized evil” perhaps? And so they start crumbling within, and are soon easily destroyed, taken over by other powers … sometimes powers that have been quietly rising up from within (think about this carefully… it’s the “enemy” we are most unlikely to recognize until it is “too late”), sometimes by competitive outside powers (the “enemy” we are most likely to focus on, are even encouraged to focus on, by the real “enemy”/ power brokers, who want to distract us)… and sometimes even by the very peoples they had conquered, destroyed, enslaved, impoverished, in their self-righteous march of superior civilization (well, maybe we deserve this “enemy” eh…) hmmmm…..
Maybe that “genocide” of the Canaanites by Israel, in the bibilical record, isn’t quite so astonishing after all… Gen 8:21 “The intent of man’s heart is evil” … and while God is amazingly patient (even with Canaan who got a 400 year reprieve – except for Sodom and Gomorrah - according to the biblical account)… hmmm… does it make you wonder when our “reprieve” might run out… and how our turn for judgment and destruction will look… pretty messy, I’m thinking… “peace at all costs” perhaps?
(Maybe that’s why we find those biblical commands so distasteful… and prefer to think of them as myths… or perhaps as tales told to the Israelite people by their power-hungry leaders in order to convince them to take part in genocidal massacres … or however we choose to “explain” what makes us uncomfortable… what perhaps makes us squirm, because it maybe forces us to take another look at ourselves and our own sins/ wickedness/ evil! (a.ka. our “civilization” and “progress” and “human rights” perhaps?)
Yikes. There must be something more pleasant for me to ponder, eh?
(A little voice keeps telling me, “You are beginning to sound like a wacko conspiracy theorist…” I don’t think so. More like an historian who looks and sees the reality of the past, and the present… and the future, because we haven’t learned any lessons at all…)
(Umm… how can one really see the “truths of history” without factoring in the reality of YOU, God… without You, it’s simply the closed system of the cosmic box… which makes no sense at all of concepts like “good, evil, truth, morality” … if there is nothing outside the box, there is only survival of the fittest… which of course is then neither good nor bad, but whatever happens is just “it is what it is” … no need for civilization, justice, caring for the environment, or any of the other “goods” we so fondly claim… woo hoo… another uncomfortable topic… anyone game? … nah… might as well just go out and “have fun” while you can, without worrying about anyone or anything else, eh! … yep… “We’re here for a good time, not a long time, so have a good time, the sun can’t shine every day…” Catchy tune! ) (Smith/McGuire, 1977, MCA Records … for those of you too young to remember!)
