Shalom: Welcome and Peace!
Do you ever wonder Why?
I sure do!
WHY did HaShem do some of the things He did in the Torah?
WHY were the Canaanites and others put to death in the Torah rather than something else?
WHY did the Ruach HaKodesh take the lives of Ananias and his wife Sapphira in the Book of Acts?
WHY don't angels just appear and tell us which doctrines are correct and which are not?
WHY do good people suffer so with illness, poverty, prejudice, wars ...Why, why why!
I recently replied to a reader's question about this (in relation to the biblical accounts of the Canaanites being destroyed) and thought I'd share it with you. Let me know what you think. As always I invite your questions and/or comments.
The question revolved around Genesis 12:3 and the statement that those who bless Israel will be blessed while those who curse them will be cursed. Does this mean, the reader asked, that we have to support (bless) what the Israelite armies did in the Torah when frankly some of their actions seem harsh and unjust?
Here's my response, somewhat expanded.
The events that occurred in the Bible, that were done in obedience to God's directions, are the acts of God. Many of these acts are difficult to understand however those who obey God are God's instruments and blameless.
When one judges these accounts negatively one is not therefore judging those people, one is judging God.
Exactly what it means to "curse" someone (Jewish or not) is debated. The emphasis is on blessing the Jews. When we do not bless them we are moving into the domain of cursing them. When individual Jews do bad things they should not be blessed in their wrong doing of course. However obedience to God is never a wrong thing. Jews are people like all others. They do good things and bad things.
Many people have problems with the way the Israelites in the Torah killed the Canaanite men women and children. They view these as barbarous acts intended only to take the land of other people. That is not the case however.
We would need to carefully read large segments of the Torah to understand why these events were ordered by HaShem. Such in-depth study is beyond our current on-line abilities. In a nutshell, these people were worshiping other gods, they were performing human sacrifices, they were attacking the Israelites and forbidding them to pass through their lands, they were denying permission to draw water from their wells for the people or their livestock (which at that time and place was virtually a death sentence). When one understands what was happening at the time, it is clear that God's rulings against these people were completely just. They were refusing to allow the people of God to settle in the Land God was giving them (or to pass through on their way there).
In part the reasoning for these events is explained this way:
CJB: Numbers 33:50 ADONAI spoke to Moshe in the plains of Mo'av by the Yarden, across from Yericho. He said
51 to tell the people of Isra'el, "When you cross the Yarden into the land of Kena'an,
52 you are to expel all the people living in the land from in front of you. Destroy all their stone figures, destroy all their metal statues and demolish all their high places.This is a key to understanding.
These people were worshiping false gods and HaShem had chosen to establish His worship in the Land. His worship was not to be mixed with the worship of the local gods and so they had to go. Likewise, throughout the Torah we read how these people ill treated Wandering Israel. If they were allowed to remain in the Promised Land Israel would never be secure.
Understand that for most people today religion is "what you do" (occasionally). People may play baseball, they go to shows, they attend church services... its all the same to most people. For the Israelites however God was the Reality. He sojourned with them and interacted with them in ways that no one could deny or question. If HaShem said jump one jumped! If HaShem said clear this area, one cleared the area! There was no question of faith, there was the reality. HaShem was present with His people and they all knew it.
HaShem our God is not a philosophical construct, He is alive and at that time He was leading the people of Israel and establishing their eternal homeland.
Eretz Israel
As defined by GODHaShem gave ALL of Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) to the Israelites as their eternal homeland.
That land above all others belongs to the One True God because He chose to specifically display His glory there. Who can tell God yes or no?
In the Torah HaShem specifically defined the boundaries of the Jewish Homeland as shown in the map to the right. That Land belongs to the Jews because God said it does. Debate with Him if you wish.
Today the nation of Israel only occupies a small fraction of the Land God gave them and just see how the nations are trying to steal even this sliver from them! In these Torah accounts HaShem established where His Chosen people would live. Anyone then or now who is seeking to take Eretz Israel for (or to keep it from) the Jews is opposing God and is cursed. This was true of the Canaanites of old and it is true of the Muslim Ummah, the US, the UN, or any other power that exists today or may exist in the future that tries to take this Land from Israel. Israel eternally beings to the Jews by the order of God Almighty.
GOD established that the Holy Land was not to be defiled by these people. When the Israelites were obedient to HaShem He was Personally accompanying His people. When Israel returns to obedience -- and they will -- He will lead them and establish Moshiach on the Throne of David.
God has the right to take any land, any people, any planet, and do with it as He wishes. He alone is God. There is none other.
HaShem refused to allow the Pagan gods (like Hubal and Sin) to be worshiped in His Holy Land. To say the actions of the obedient Hebrews were wrong would be to say God does not have the right to do with His creation as He chooses.
For us today many of things written in the Torah are difficult to understand and accept. The world is a very different place now (for good or ill). However when we read the Scriptures with an understanding of time, place and cultural paradigms, the texts usually clarify these issues. For example:
CJB: Deuteronomy 20:17 Rather you must destroy them completely - the Hitti, the Emori, the Kena'ani, the P'rizi, the Hivi and the Y'vusi - as ADONAI your God has ordered you;
18 so that they won't teach you to follow their abominable practices, which they do for their gods, thus causing you to sin against ADONAI your God.Again, here is the reason in the text. God was calling the Israelites to be a righteous people devoted to Him alone. HAD the Israelites done such acts on their own it would have been horrific (although no more so than what the nations generally did at that point in history; it was a brutal time) however if we accept the biblical claim that HaShem was directing these events then we can only say Amen... otherwise we condemn God Himself! (may God protect us from ever doing such foolishness!).
The Israelites Are Uniquely Chosen
The point to understand here is that biblically speaking the Hebrew/Israelite/Jewish people are unlike any other.
The One True God chose them from among all the people of the world (because of their weakness and insignificance: not because they are better than others) so that through them He would demonstrate His glory and power to the world and, in the end, bless us all.
KJV: Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
This is critical to understand! The God of the Torah is not some demented demiurge who wreaks havoc on the Earth and seeks our harm! God forbid! HaShem is our loving Father, our eternal well wisher who grants us almost unlimited freedom! Within the confines that we establish He then offers us everlasting good. The Israelite/Jewish people are a major implement of His blessings. To curse them is to curse the world entire.
When people curse Israel (people Israel or the nation of Israel) they are cursing themselves as well and calling forth chaos. Israel and Israel's Moshiach are the ONLY hope the world has. Through Israel God is redeeming (presence tense) the world. It is foolish to resist God's Love.
As for Why:
Consider the last few chapters of the Book of Job. For instance:
CJB: Iyov (Job) 38:1 Then ADONAI answered Iyov out of the storm:
2 "Who is this, darkening my plans with his ignorant words?
3 Stand up like a man, and brace yourself; I will ask questions; and you, give the answers!
4 "Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.
5 Do you know who determined its dimensions or who stretched the measuring line across it?
6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 "Who shut up the sea behind closed doors when it gushed forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its blanket and dense fog its swaddling cloth,
10 when I made the breakers its boundary set its gates and bars,
11 and said, 'You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop'?
12 "Have you ever in your life called up the dawn and made the morning know its place,
13 so that it could take hold of the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?
14 Then the earth is changed like clay under a seal, until its colors are fixed like those of a garment.
15 But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm raised [to strike] is broken.
16 "Have you gone down to the springs of the sea or explored the limits of the deep? ....We can and should ponder what God does but in the end who are we to question His rulings?
HaShem is the Potter, we are the clay.
His ways are far far beyond us.
CJB: Iyov 42:1 Then [at last,] Iyov gave ADONAI this answer:
2 "I know that you can do everything, that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 "[You asked,] 'Who is this, hiding counsel, without having knowledge?'Yes, I spoke, without understanding, of wonders far beyond me, which I didn't know.
4 "Please listen, and I will speak. [You said,] 'I will ask questions; and you, give me answers'-
5 I had heard about you with my ears, but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I detest [myself] and repent in dust and ashes."Our choice has always been the same: Accept the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Y'shua etc. or reject the only true God and stand with His enemies.
CJB: Joshua 24:15 If it seems bad to you to serve ADONAI, then choose today whom you are going to serve! Will it be the gods your ancestors served beyond the River? or the gods of the Emori, in whose land you are living? As for me and my household, we will serve ADONAI!"You're Gonna Serve Somebody Isn't It More Wise To Choose?
Bob Dylan on YouTube
JewToo.org JewToo Blog Yeshiva Beth HaShem Temple Beth HaShem Yochanan's YouTube Yochanan's Facebook Contact Yochanan
