Why The Old Testament Feels So Violent

Welcome And The Big Question

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Hello friend, Chaplain Terry Warner here. This will be podcast number twenty-seven. The season will be twenty twenty-six. It air on September the twenty-first, twenty twenty-six at one o'clock in the morning. As always, you can get up early and be first. But I'm going to bed the night before.

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Huh.

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Why is there so much killing in the Old Testament? I get asked that frequently. I was going through the Chaplain's Corner. Well, let me back up. The purpose of this Bible lesson is to expose the background and the other side of the story. Even then it is difficult to explain when compared to our modern day lifestyle. I was going through the chaplain's corner podcast notes and was in Deuteronomy 28, and the Holy Spirit prompted me to investigate what is one of the reasons for all the killing in the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 28 Curses Read Aloud

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Read Deuteronomy 28 and 29. I'm going to read it to you because you need to understand what some of these curses are. This is the curses of the covenant that God made. So, but it will be if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord your God to observe and do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the field. Cursed will be your basket and your kneading trough. Cursed will be the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land, the increase of your herds, and the increase of your flocks. Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out. The Lord will send upon you cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings with which you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the pestilence cleave to you until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go to possess it. The Lord will strike you with an epidemic, with a fever, with an inflammation, with an extreme burning, with a sword, with the blasting wind, with blasting winds, and with mildew. Mildew. Do you know mildew is under the curse? And they will pursue you and will pursue you until you perish. And your heavens I'm a back up. That mildew is in Deuteronomy twenty eight. And verse twenty two. I pick up in twenty three. And your heavens that are over your head will become bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron. The Lord will make the rain on your land powder, and dust it will come down upon you from heaven until you are destroyed. The Lord will cause you to be stricken before your enemies. You will go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways, and will be a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, and your carcass will be meat for all the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and then no man shall scare them away. The Lord will strike you with the bowls of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch. I don't know, that doesn't sound good at all, for which you cannot be healed. The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart, and you will grope at noondays as the blind gropes in darkness, and you will not succeed in your ways, and you will only be oppressed and plundered forevermore. And no man will save you. You will betroth a wife and another man will lie with her. You will build a house and you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard and you will not use the fruit of it. Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be violent violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Let's bring it up to modern times. Your car will be repossessed. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to rescue them. Your songs and your daughter your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will look and fail, with longing for them all the day long, and there will be no God at your hand. A nation which you do not know will eat up the fruit of your land and all your labours, and you will be only oppressed and crushed always, so that you will become mad because of the sight of your eyes, which you will see. The Lord will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil that cannot be healed. How many knee replacements have you made that maybe could have been cured if they'd gone to the Lord? The Lord will bring you and your king and whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other wood and stone gods, and you will be common astonishment a proverb and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you. You will carry much seed out into the field and gather a little in, for the locust will consume it. You will plant vineyards and dress them, but will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms will eat them, and you will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olive will cast its fruit. You will beget sons and daughters, but they will not be with you, for they will go into captivity. The locals will consume all your trees and the fruit of your land. The stranger who is among you will get up very high above you, and you will come down very low. He will lend to you and you will not lend to him. He will be the head and you will be the tail. Moreover, all these curses will come upon you and will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes he commanded you. And then and they will be upon you for a sign and for a wonder, and for upon your seed forever, because you did not serve the Lord, your God with joyfulness, with goodness of heart, for the abundance of all things. Therefore you will serve your enemies, whom I whom the Lord sends against you in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in want of all things, and he will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until he has dis destroyed you. The Lord will bring a trans The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth like the eagle flies, a nation whose tongue you not you will not understand, a nation of fierce and countenance that will not be regarded, the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, and he will eat the fruit of your cattle, the fruit of your land, until you are destroyed. That also will not leave you grain, wine, or oil, or increase or your herd. I can't I can't I just can't read any more of this. This is this is this is terrible. Well, chaplain Terry, you're in the Old Testament. Well hang on. I will back I will scroll on down here to verse sixty eight. The Lord will bring you into Egypt against again with ships by the way, of which I spoke to you. You will see it no more again, and there you will be able to be so you will be sold to your enemies for bondmen and bond women, and no man will bear you. These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made them in Horeb. Now later on it says too that anything that we didn't name or cover, it's in there too. That's the curses.

God’s Character And Agape Love

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Now let's jump over and talk some New Testament. What is God's character? God is a balance of moral perfection, infinite power, and deep relational love. That's uh AI generated internet. In my opinion, God's character is love. The Greek translates it agape love, God's love. The Greek lists several words that translate to love, agape being the highest, deepest, and intense. From the new Oxford Dictionary, Eris, that's Greek mythology, the god of love Roman. In the Romans is Cupid. That's uh you see something sexy erotica. Philia that's denoting fondness, especially for a specified thing. That's where we get our word pedophile out of storage, derogatory person who serves mainly to support or assist others, particularly in doing unpleasant work. Agape. Christian love, especially as distinct from erotica love or emotional affection. First John four, the one who does not love his brother does not know God, because God is love. Love, agape, says it all. So to understand this better, it is necessary to get the whole picture. The Lord has appeared to from afar to me saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness. Jeremiah thirty one three. This is the one new man Bible. Jeremiah thirty one thirty thirty five. The covenant is renewed. Because of God's love, the stranger is welcome too. Isaiah 56 1 through 8. This is really neat. If the stranger wants to come in and obey Jewish laws and customs and so forth, God will God will accept him. That's Isaiah 56, 1 through 8. Psalm 139 1 through 24. That really gets into it. That really gets into it.

Mercy, Warnings, And Israel’s Role

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God used fear to force the Egyptians to let the Israelites go free. Exodus 14 14. Exodus 14 14. Exodus ten fourteen. God promised to send hornets to clear out the land for the Israelites, and in turn this would drive the Canaanites out in one year so the land would not become desolate. Exodus twenty-three twenty five through thirty three. Exodus ten thirteen through fifteen. One need only to read the ancient history accounts to see that God gave chance after chance for disobedient countries to change their ways from evil and opposing God to choosing God as a Savior. Pharaoh went through ten plagues. Rahab, the harlot, saved her whole family from being extinguished at Jericho, and ultimately joined into the family of the line of the Messiah. Joshua 2, verses 1 through 3, Joshua 2, verses 4 through 10 through 24. God speaking to Joshua said, Behold, I am sending you an angel before you to keep you in the way. That way is capitalized. That's what they called the New Testament church, the way. Jesus said, I am the way, the life, and the truth. God speaking to Joshua said, Behold, I am sending an angel before you to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. For my angel will go before you and bring you into the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I will cut them off. You will not bow down to their gods, serve them, or do after their works, but you will truly, utterly overthrow them, and absolutely destroy their images. That's Exodus twenty three twenty and twenty one, Exodus twenty three and twenty four. Read Exodus twenty three twenty through twenty five. Why? Because God said in Genesis twelve three, and I shall bless those who bless you, and curse the one who curses you, and in you all families of the earth will be blessed. Are you bad mouthing Israel? You better stop and think about this a second time. Numbers twenty four nine, Galatians three, eight. Read Exodus twenty three twenty and twenty one and twenty three verse twenty four. Our blessings come from God. Jews were chosen by God to be the beacon of light for the world to live in peace and under God's agopi love that is made up of grace and mercy. God exists in three manifestations, namely the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And imparting, Jesus is God the Son. And the last time I checked, he was Jewish. Jesus was a Jew. Romans 1 16 said, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the way to salvation. Why not start living in the blessing of God today and become the head and not the tail, to lend and not borrow, to have your fruit of your body grow and be uh sin free and and and sickness free. Ask Jesus to come in and live in your heart and make him Lord of your life. Romans ten and ten because if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and you will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For he will he for he believes for himself in his heart and to righteousness and confesses for himself with his mouth unto salvation. Now don't get into the idea that that this is strictly for the Jew or this is Jewish, this is the Old Testament, New Testament. It's all one testament. It's God. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Romans 1 8. First, I indeed give thanks to my God to Yeshua Messiah, concerning you all because your faith is being proclaimed to the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve by my spirit in the good news of his son in the same manner as I am, constantly making remembrance of you always in my prayers.

Free Will, Salvation, And Final Blessing

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Friend, we're getting close to Christ returning. And we have a lot of jokes and offhand remarks and people trying to be cute and everything else, and well, I'll party in hell and I'll do this and I'll do that. And God wants to do this, He'll make me known. God, you have free will and you have the power to choose. God doesn't send anybody to hell. God doesn't send anybody to heaven. You go there by the decision you make with your mouth and believe in your heart. And when you become a Christian and you convin and you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and make him Lord of your life, you become a Christian and then you have eternal life. And then you can get in on the blessings of this earth. When we get to heaven, we won't need all of that. We will already have it. I hope this clears up a little bit. God gave these countries chance after chance after chance after chance, and they absolutely would not agree. All of those uh Its company Jebusites, uh, Amorites, all of them. They would not let Israel go through, even though Israel promised not to use up the land of the water or to pay them for what they did use, would let them go through. That's what you call putting a curse on. Get in the get in the the flow of things, and start working with God and let God work with you. He is waiting on you. He's a gentleman. He will not force you, he will not make you, but he will keep asking and knocking on your heart. You have a blessed day in Jesus' name, and I hopefully I'll see you in heaven. Amen. This has been Chaplain Terry. My podcasts come out every Monday morning at bright and early. I make them once a week. I have a book coming out here in the next few weeks. I keep saying that. It's like uh watching grass grow. But anyway, my book will be out. As soon as it comes out, I'll make it available to you. And get in the word. Get in the word. The word of God is rich, alive. The word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. It divides asunder the joints and the marrow and the soul and the spirit. God loves ya. God loves you. That agape love is from God. He loves you. Again, you have a blessed day in Jesus' name. Amen.