(* from '60s tv show, “Lost in Space” meaning I’m likely to be in trouble for what I write here)
1 Samuel 15:1-3, 7-23 (NRSV)
The Israelites hear God tell them to kill the inhabitants of the land – all of them! “...kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
When Saul spares some of them, Samuel declares “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Ouch. This is one of those parts of the Bible I can’t accept.
I mean, I can accept the part that teaches we should do what God truly wants us to do, even when it appears foolish in our judgment, as slaughtering every thing did to Saul.
What I can’t accept is that God actually wanted them to kill all those innocents in the first place. I believe it is human mis-understanding of what God wants that is the problem here. In this little blog I am not going to solve this whole dilemma today! After all, it is 4th of July and we should be off celebrating.
Actually, confronting this passage is particularly appropriate on the 4th.
God has blessed America, indeed. But in the process of declaring liberty and justice for our male, white ancestors, our nation was created out of actions not unlike the slaughter of the Amalekites, invading the land and killing the natives to take it for ourselves.
Our nation, like Biblical Israel, has indeed stood for many wonderful and virtuous principles, not least of which is trying to hear and heed God’s guidance in being a sign of God’s blessing to the world. But we do ourselves and our faith a dis-service if we fail to acknowledge that we have not always succeeded in being true to the nature of our loving God.
As a parent, I really do love both my children, and would never intentionally choose to elevate one at the expense of the other. Jesus says God is our Daddy, and we are to know God is the perfect parent. So I cannot believe God loves the people born in any country more than another. Not the USA, not Israel, not any of God’s children anywhere. God loves ALL the children, everywhere.
And while I’m in controversial territory here, I'll also explain that I do not pledge allegiance to the flag of any nation. I pledge allegiance to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for me and for the people of Every land, and whose way it is to reconcile us all to one another not through violence but through love.
I hope that my example, our family practice of prayer and worship, and the sacrifices I made to send my children to Quaker schools, helps them to live out principles of love and service in the name of Jesus.
Lord God, help me to hear and obey what you truly want.
Help me to shut my ears to the voices of expedience, chauvinism and self-aggrandizement.
Help me to know and understand you, even as I question the understanding of you written down by fallible men, in the Bible.
And Lord, help those who disagree with me to be at peace with me, and I with them. Amen.
(4 July, Monday, Proper 9)
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