The violence of the Old Testament - part 1

A smiting God

The word 'smite' is seldom used today, yet everyone seems to know its meaning. The reason they know is that everyone is aware, whether they've read the Bible or not, that a lot of 'smiting' went on in the Old Testament. And often God was the one doing the smiting.

Tissot: the taking of Jericho

Recent translations of the Bible don't use the word smite. But the perception that the Old Testament is full of violence, much of it ordered or carried out by God himself, hasn't gone away. New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchins have made much of it, painting a picture of God as a violent and sadistic monster, promoting genocide

But it's not just the ignorant and the New Atheists who are disturbed by the violence of parts of the Old Testament. Many Christians are disturbed by it too. For some, the violence is intolerable, more than they can stomach. Their solution has been to reject the Bible as a source of truth and walk away from their faith. I have been tempted to do this myself at times.

And surely we should be deeply concerned when we read of God ordering the Israelites to slaughter every living thing in a city, including women, children and even the animals (Deut 20:16-18, Jos 6:21). Or when Moses is outraged on God's behalf because the Israelites have spared the women and children of Midian. (Num 31:7-19). What sort of God tells parents to have their unruly son put to death? (Deut 21:18-21) or orders the stoning of adulterers? (Lev 20:10)

Who hasn't winced when such passages have been the reading for the day? What Bible study leader or preacher hasn't wished they could avoid such passages in their teaching of the Bible? Isn't the Old Testament giving us a picture of a God that would feel familiar to the Taliban? Haven't such passages been the justification for so much blood shed and war in the name of God over the centuries?

If you had been here

"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21)

These are intriguing words. If you are familiar with the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, you will recognise them as spoken by Lazarus' sister Martha, and later echoed by Mary (verse 32). Several days earlier, when Martha and Mary saw how seriously ill their brother was, they had sent for Jesus, asking him to come quickly. But he didn't come, even though he was only a few kilometres away. Lazarus steadily grew worse, and died. They held a funeral for him. Still Jesus didn't show up. And then, four days after Lazarus' death, Jesus arrived, with no explanation and no apology.

As readers of the story we're told why Jesus didn't respond immediately to Martha's message. But Martha knew nothing of this. Surely there's more than a hint of disappointment, resentment, even anger in her words when she says to Jesus "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." And there's an unspoken question too: " I thought you loved Lazarus. I thought you cared for Mary and me. Why didn't you come?"

Anger towards God is not, in itself, a good thing. Yet anger towards God can only arise in someone who, like Martha, has some level of faith. Atheists, if they are honest with themselves, have no-one to be angry with when life is disappointing. Those with only nominal faith will simply shrug their shoulders when their prayers aren't answered - they weren't really expecting God to show up anyway. It's only the person who knows God, who knows God's character and understands what he can do, who feels disappointed and angry when they believe that he has failed them in some way.

Martha's initial request to Jesus to come quickly was based on her faith in his ability to heal Lazarus and her trust that he loved Lazarus, Mary and herself. She doesn't lose her faith that he could do something (verse 22). Note that Jesus' response to Martha's bitter words contains no rebuke. Instead he leads her to a deeper level of faith and understanding. Eventually she comes to see why Jesus didn't respond immediately to her request to heal Lazarus.

It seems to me that when we find ourselves angry with God, Martha's example is a good one to follow. She didn't reject Jesus, or rant at him, or tell everyone she met that he was a big disappointment to her. She expressed her feelings directly to him. She expressed her continuing faith in him. This is honest prayer from a faithful heart, and God listens graciously to such prayers.