God &

GENOCIDE
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THE GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IS ARGUABLY THE MOST
UNPLEASANT CHARACTER IN ALL FICTION:
JEALOUS AND PROUD OF IT; A PETTY, UNJUST, UNFORGIVING
CONTROL-FREAK, A VINDICTIVE, BLOOD THIRSTY ETHNIC
CLEANSER; A MYSOGYNISTIC, HOMOPHOBIC, RACIST,
INFANTICIDAL, GENOCIDAL, FILLICIDAL, PESTILENTIAL,
MEGALOMANIAC, SADOMASOCHISTIC, CAPRICIOUSLY
MALEVOLENT BULLY.

RICHARD DAWKINS, THE GOD DELUSION ,P.51

“WE ARE PARTICULARLY DISTURBED BY THE VIOLENCE
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WHEN WE CONTEMPLATE THE
WAY IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN USED TO JUSTIFY VIOLENCE
DOWN THROUGH THE AGES... CRUSADES AGAINST
MUSLIMS, GENOCIDE OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS OR
ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS, APPARTHEID AGAINST BLACK
SOUTH AFRICANS, DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE
AGAINST AFRICAN AMERICANS, EXPROPRIATION OF LAND
FROM PALESTINES - EVEN ATTITUDES TOWARDS ROMAN
CATHOLICS IN NORTHERN IRELAND”

CHRIS WRIGHT, THE GOD I DON’T UNDERSTAND ,P.74

When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If
they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to
forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they
engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God
delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the
women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may
take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord
your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the
cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations
nearby. However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving
you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely
destroy them---the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and
Jebusites---as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will
teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their
gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.
DEUTERONOMY 20:10-18
Raphael Lemkin in "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe" (1943)
invented the term "genocide,"by combining "genos" (race,
people) and "cide" (to kill).

The crime of genocide is defined in international law as "any

of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of
the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole
or in part;
THE 3 FOLD RESPONSE

THEOLOGICAL
HISTORICAL
ETHICAL
THEOLIGICAL RESPONSE
AFFIRMATIONS

1.THE HISTORY RECORDED IN THE OLD

TESTAMENT REALLY TOOK PLACE

2.GOD’S CHARACTER HAS NOT CHANGED

3.THE BIBLE IS AN ACCURATE RECORD OF

WHAT GOD SAID
THEOLIGICAL RESPONSE
JESUS, THE PATIENCE & JUSTICE OF GOD
1. Patient and Just
12As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then
the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a
country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they
serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your
ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back
here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” GENESIS 15
2. Foretaste of Judgement
If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.
15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
MATTHEW 10:14-15
3. Trust the Old Testament because of Jesus
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill
them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen,
will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
4. Progressive revelation
THEOLIGICAL RESPONSE
CONCESSION / ACCOMODATION
“If such methods and practices in war were fairly standard in the
ancient Near Eastern culture of that time, is there any sense in
which God accomodated his will to such fallem reality within the
historical earthing of his revelaing and redeeming purpose?”
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives
because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way
from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces
his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries
another woman commits adultery.” Matthew 19:8-9
THEOLIGICAL RESPONSE
1. CLASSIFICATION:
2. SYMBOLIZATION:
3. DEHUMANIZATION: NOT RACIAL OR ETHICAL
SUPERIORITY
4. ORGANIZATION:
God uses the Israelites but
5 . POLARIZATION: holds them accountable
6. PREPARATION: God uses the Assyrians and
7. EXTERMINATION Babylonians against his people
8. DENIAL
THE 3 FOLD RESPONSE

THEOLOGICAL
HISTORICAL
ETHICAL
HISTORICAL RESPONSE
GARRISONS
This stereotypical ancient Near East language of “all” people describes attacks on
what turn out to be military forts or garrisons containing combatants — not a
general population that includes women and children. We have no archaeological
evidence of civilian populations at Jericho or Ai (6:21; 8:25).8 The word “city [‘ir]”
during this time in Canaan was where the (military) king, the army, and the
priesthood resided. So for Joshua, mentioning “women” and “young and old” turns
out to be stock ancient Near East language that he could have used even if
“women” and “young and old” were not living there. The language of “all” (“men and
women”) at Jericho and Ai is a “stereotypical expression for the destruction of all
human life in the fort, presumably composed entirely of combatants.”9 The text does
not require that “women” and “young and old” must have been in these cities — and
this same situation could apply to Saul’s battling against the amalekites.
HISTORICAL RESPONSE
GARRISONS
Jericho was a small settlement of probably 100 or fewer soldiers. This is why all of Israel
could circle it seven times and then do battle against it on the same day! Also, we
should keep in mind that the large numbers used in warfare accounts in the Old
Testament are a little tricky; they simply may not be as high as our translations indicate.
The Hebrew word ‘eleph (commonly rendered, “thousand”) can also mean “unit” or
“squad” without specifying the exact number.
HISTORICAL RESPONSE
LIMITS
God prohibited Israel from conquering other neighboring nations — Moab
and Ammon (Deuteronomy 2:9,19) as well as Edom (Deuteronomy 2:4;
23:7) — despite the fact Edom had earlier refused to assist the Israelites
(Numbers 20:14–21; cp. Deuteronomy 2:6–8). So, God did not permit land
grabbing, and Israel had no right to conquer beyond what God had
sanctioned.

“The conquest was a single episode within a single generation

out of all the many generations of Old Testament history... by
no means are all the wars in the Old Tesament portrayed in
the same way as the conquest of Canaan.” Chris Wright p.90
THE 3 FOLD RESPONSE

THEOLOGICAL
HISTORICAL
ETHICAL
ETHICAL RESPONSE

WHO CAN JUDGE THE JUDGE?

1. Holding God to account - Abraham and us?
2. Foretaste of ultimate judgement
3. Where does your system of ethics come from?
  “Connects  the  
reader  to  the  
Bible  in  fresh,  
mo5va5onal  and  
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