If God is the Lord of hosts, then God’s Son is the Prince of Peace (Part II)

I received a letter asking this very interesting question,¹ which is also pertinent for the times we are living in now. I will share the answer in three parts due to the extension of this. (To read Part I click here) 

On the one hand, there is a group of believers who maintain that God indeed ordered each of the wars described in the biblical text, with all their barbarities, attacks, children dashed against rocks, etc. Most of those who defend this idea explain that God manifested himself in one way in the Hebrew Bible and in a different way in the New Testament, being the same God, but with different plans for each moment in history (in some Christian groups this is known as Dispensationalism, in others as the Sovereignty of God).

Nevertheless, some re-readings invite us to reflect and question all these difficult texts… What if God stayed away from what contemporary culture dictated in those times? What if the biblical author, upon seeing an expected answer to their prayer, understood that it was God who really wanted them to act that way? What if the Scriptures are speaking to us through the narrative, giving us a message from God behind all these events?

Because just as Bell says, the texts were written by real people in real time and tell real stories. Let me Julio give you an example, please.

Nowadays, there are people who have needs of all kinds. Some of them make promises to God asking for help in one or another situation. If that help comes, then the promise must be fulfilled. Let me give you an example within the example, as well as in the movie Inception. Let’s pretend there is a guy called Miguel, who says a prayer: God, if you help me with my college entrance exam, I will quit video games forever. It turns out that Miguel received his admission to the university and, as a consequence, he was convinced, by the prayer he prayed days ago, that it was God Godself who helped him with his exam and—thanks to that—he would be able to start the program.

Then Miguel, very excited, tells his girlfriend everything that happened, including his determination to abandon video games forever. A promise should not be easily broken, especially when it has been made to God.

As the weeks go by, Miguel’s girlfriend has a family meeting in which the topic comes up and she tells everyone that Miguel, by God’s command, left video games because they distracted him so he could enter university, and consequently, God backed him up in his exam. An aunt of Miguel’s girlfriend hears the story and reinforces it by telling her own son, “See?” God hates video games, so you should quit them once and for all.

In this way, a wish that had been born in Miguel’s heart as a promise, was transformed into a command in the mouth of Miguel’s girlfriend and, in turn, into an object of condemnation according to the vision of Miguel’s girlfriend’s aunt. Miguel’s girlfriend’s cousin then wrote an essay and in it he wrote that God hates video games. His writing was found hundreds of years later and the Faith Community of Healthy and Organic Living took this idea as the foundation of its doctrine.

What if something similar happened with those violent biblical stories in which the authors claim that God Godself gave an order? This possibility may sound too progressive, and even heretical to some. However, we could well consider that, since the Hebrew biblical text is the result of oral traditions of hundreds of thousands of years.

Let me illustrate this a little further. To do this, I would like to invite to our conversation the Chilean theologian Ulises Oyarzún, who explains that at the time in which the Judeo-Christian Scriptures were written, science did not exist. Not at least in the way we know it today. Have you noticed, Julio, that currently, meteorological services can predict the weather and whether it will rain or not? Well, in the days described in the biblical stories, this was not possible and rain was essential for crops and livestock. Literally so that the clans or towns would not die of hunger.

So when a house planted a plot and time passed without receiving rain, desperation began to reign. Then, since the members of this clan did not know when it might arrive, they performed all kinds of rituals so that the gods, or in the Jewish case, God, would send the rain. Upon receiving an affirmative response, this house was convinced that what they had done (rites) was good and pleased Divinity. Exactly the same thing happened with battles and wars. When they won, it was because God had fought for them, since the people had acted correctly. When they lost, it was because at some point they had acted wrong.

In this way, the image of the God of heaven begins to be built; omnipotent, warrior, provider, master of heaven and earth, owner of gold and silver, powerful God, king, conqueror, etc.

To be continued…

Warmly,

Ps. David Gaitan