{"id":581,"date":"2011-01-18T20:37:22","date_gmt":"2011-01-19T06:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/?p=581"},"modified":"2011-01-18T20:37:22","modified_gmt":"2011-01-19T06:37:22","slug":"why-would-god-command-violence-toward-the-israelites-in-the-old-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/why-would-god-command-violence-toward-the-israelites-in-the-old-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Why would God command violence toward the Israelites in the Old Testament?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do keep the violence in perspective. God made a covenant with the people  of ancient Israel. The covenant through Moses stated that God would  bless them with his protection and provision if they obeyed him, and  visit them with war, death, diseases, and other judgments if they turned  away from him (Deuteronomy 28:1-68). They knew these conditions in  advance and accepted them.<\/p>\n<p>We make a similar agreement with the laws of our land. If we  murder someone, we can expect punishments in the form of incarceration  or the death penalty. However, we hope the penalties for breaking the  law will deter most people.<\/p>\n<p>Today a new covenant is in effect between God and his people. The  blessings of the old covenant depended on how well the ancient  Israelites obeyed God, and they failed miserably. The new covenant rests  on God&#8217;s faithfulness and promises, neither of which can fail. We enjoy  the blessings of the new covenant when we act in faith toward God.<\/p>\n<p>Why did God treat the nation of Israel so violently? When the  nation of Israel turned its back on trusting God, he afflicted the  nation in various ways according to his agreement with them. When Israel  returned to God, he forgave them as he promised, then brought them  peace and prosperity again. The violence was not capricious, but used  judiciously to encourage them to return to a proper relationship with  their God.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Do You Think?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>a. Do you agree that criminals deserve the violence they  experience in prison? Do you agree that ruthless street criminals  deserve to die when they are killed by a rival street criminals? Why or  why not?<\/p>\n<p>b. Do you agree with the laws of the land that will  result in imprisonment or confiscation of your driver&#8217;s license if you  violate certain state vehicle laws?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do keep the violence in perspective. God made a covenant with the people of ancient Israel. The covenant through Moses stated that God would bless them with his protection and provision if they obeyed him, and visit them with war, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/why-would-god-command-violence-toward-the-israelites-in-the-old-testament\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-violence-and-atrocities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevehusting.com\/doubtbusters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}