ThinkAboutIt:
You said,
You’ve no doubt come by his a number of times. Let’s be earnest about how it makes us feel to be placed into the verse [1 Samuel 15:2-3] - In my inflated opinion, the most unsettling verse in the entire bible (though it’s difficult to choose):
Then you asked us the following questions:
Whether or not the wrath is excessive
Does it remind us of God’s perfection, or is it a source of intellectual difficulty?
Is it ever right to lay waste to an entire nation?
Is it ever right to murder infants?
Then you further invited comments on the following:
Whether it would be of moral virture to model our behaviour after God’s
Whether we would contend that God’s ways are perfect if our relationship with him was still as it was in the OT
If the bible did not eventually extend beyond barbarism (as perhaps it does in the NT), would you think it a good book, holy and perfect?
Let me take a stab at it.
Whether or not the wrath is excessive
I don’t think so. Not in the least bit.
Of course, one who is a self-avowed “
SocialDarwinismEatingBabiesImmoralityTotalitarianismAtheism” might not quite understand this, so let me explain why I am not at all disturbed by this.
First of all, this destruction was not out of the Blue. God gave Moses this command (a long time before Saul):
17 "Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and cut off at your rear all who lagged behind you; and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget. (Deuteronomy (RSV) 25)
Secondly, I think one should look at things from a “God’s eye” view from time to time. The few decades here on earth are but a blink of an eye (so to speak) from God’s point of view. The Amalekites have eternity: one place or another. If there were any who did live justly when Saul eradicated them, God could always show mercy. Consider what happened to the Kenites in this same instance:
6 And Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. (1Samuel (RSV) 15)
Next, you ask
Does it remind us of God’s perfection, or is it a source of intellectual difficulty?
My answer: neither come to mind particularly with this. What this calls to mind is God’s justice.
You continue, asking,
Is it ever right to lay waste to an entire nation?
My answer: not by man’s will. And, since the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ has made salvation available to all the nations, I would sincerely doubt that God would ever issue that type of directive at this point in time. But, one should consider what will happen as described in the Apocalypse of St. John.
You then ask:
Is it ever right to murder infants?
My answer: No, not to
murder them.
In your next set of questions, you ask:
Whether it would be of moral virture to model our behaviour after God’s
It is moral to model our behavior after Christ incarnate’s behavior. In other words, how Christ acted towards others while on the earth.
It is impossible for us to model our behavior after God. We are neither omniscient, nor omnipresent, nor omnipotent. It would be the height of arrogance to think that we could do so in any way.
You continue,
Whether we would contend that God’s ways are perfect if our relationship with him was still as it was in the OT
God’s ways are perfect. We may not be smart enough to comprehend His ways though. For man to judge God is like the Ford automobile judging Henry (and even that is a
very imperfect analogy).
Finally, you ask:
If the bible did not eventually extend beyond barbarism (as perhaps it does in the NT), would you think it a good book, holy and perfect?
The Bible does not cover barbarism. Your understanding, though, may be a bit barbaric.
What would have been potentially more “barbaric” would have been if God would have utterly destroyed His creation when Adam sinned. He would have been justified in doing so, as His creation rebelled. What would have been more “barbaric” is if God would have not created us, but rather annihilated everything when Lucifer and 1/3 of the angels rebelled. Again, that would have been the totally just thing to do.
Rather than that, God, in His Mercy, allowed His creation to proceed and provided a means throughout the entire history of man to give us a savior. Thus redeeming us from the ultimate penalty that we deserve based on the sin of Adam (for had God acted solely out of justice not tempered with divine mercy, none of us would have ever been born). Mercy, which was constantly shown throughout the Old Testament, is not a trait that is typically associated with barbarism.
