Other Thoughts and Resources on the OT Atrocities 2

As I mentioned in "part 1", Greg Boyd is doing a series of articles about the OT atrocities. In the last two posts he focused on the book "The Problem of War in the Old Testament" by Philip Craigie. Boyd says, "

"Craigie’s small book contains a number of insights that I believe can help us begin to reconcile the "God as warrior" motif of the Old Testament with the self-sacrificial God revealed in Jesus Christ."

Hmmmmm....isn't that what almost everyone has to somehow come to terms with at some point in their Christian walk? I am doing it right now....and with perhaps a bit of a paradigm switch because of some of the ideas I've read in Boyd's blog entries and especially in the article I mentioned in part 1 of this post.

In Christians and Violence the author states that he sees two possible hypotheses. that might explain what appears to be profound differences between the God of the OT and Jesus. Hypotheses A is that:

"God's unabashed involvement in war signals that the God of the Old Testament is in essence a deity that thrives on war and violence."

The problem with that, however, is that it conflicts with a God of love and compassion. Yep, sure does. His hypotheses B entails three points:

1) God has a project...to make men and women in his own image who will ultimately serve him out of love.

2) God is fully committed to the principle of partnership with humanity...meaning that he not only works ON us and IN us to achieve his purpose, but he also works WITH us.

3) Because he has chosen to work in cahoots with sinful man, he meets us where we are...with all our foibles, warts and weaknesses. We are trapped in history and although he probably could magically transform us to a higher level of awareness, morality etc, he has chosen not to work that way. There is a verse in the Psalms that declares, "he stoops down to make me great." Perhaps in the OT times he had to stoop very low, indeed, to meet mankind where we were in our in development.

The author of this article, uses as an example, a father playing on the floor with his young sons....rolling around, tickling, carrying on. If one were to judge him infantile, they would not understand he has condescended to the level of the kids. And so, perhaps it is with God.

A father cannot expect little children to come up to his level; if he really wishes to relate to them in a significant manner, he must take into account their limitations and adapt himself to their
reality.

Now this is starting to make a bit of sense. Even though I still cannot reconcile the thought that God actually ordered the carnage in the OT, I can accept that he did not stop it and that he actually used it to achieve his purposes. If there was some supernatural help there in some of the situations, I'm not sure. Will have to ponder that a bit more.....

This author points out that God's involvement in war in the OT:

.....does not suggest that God is essentially violent in character. On the contrary, his willingness to intervene and participate in human history, a history profoundly and irrevocably tainted by sin, broadcasts his infinite love for humanity.

And to stress the point that God is not afraid to get down and dirty with humanity, he reminds us that God, in Jesus, condescended enough to take on human flesh and dwell among us in. He stooped down to make us great.....