And it doesn't stop there! Ten times the refrain "You must purge the evil from among you" is used (13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:13, 19; 21:9, 21; 22:21, 24; 24:7). How do you purge evil? SIMPLE. You put evil people to death! So what are these evil people doing? Well, in Deuteronomy 19:18-19 a person was "purged" for simply LYING! Ouch! Does lying really necessitate the death penalty?
This harsh depiction has created a public relations mess for God and has made Him very unappealing to many people. After all, where's the love in this "purging"? And where's the justice in killing innocent babies [on account of their parent's evil behavior]? Nobody wants to hang out with a God who seems to have anger management problems. And truth be told, these depictions of God have infected many people with a crisis of faith. But there is a remedy. And I believe the remedy is found in forming an accurate understanding of the entire book of Deuteronomy. In other words, we need to see God's harsh instructions in full context. When we do this, I believe much of this PR mess will be cleaned up. So let's get to it and find some answers together!
THE STRUCTURE
The first step in cleaning up this PR mess is understanding the main point of the book of Deuteronomy. The chiastic structure of the book helps us with this. A chiastic structure is simply a writing style that helps to emphasize certain portions of a text through the way the text is organized. And so in Deuteronomy, the text is organized as follows:
A 1-3: A Look Backward
B 4-11: A FIRST Call to Covenant Obedience [Blessings]
C 12-26: Covenant Obligations
B' 27-30: A SECOND Call to Covenant Obedience [Curses]
A' 31-34: A Look Forward
C is the INNER CORE of the book and is where the author places the main emphasis. The outer portions (A, A' and B, B') provide background and nuanced meaning to the INNER CORE (C). Additionally, in Deuteronomy A and A' parallel each other and read like a seamless and continuous story [Read 1-3 and 31-34 together and you'll see what I mean]. The same is true with B and B'.
So what does this tell us? The INNER CORE (C) makes it clear that the main point of Deuteronomy is to clarify the people's covenant obligations and to call them to obedience. To do this, in chapters 12-26 the author elaborates in general on the Ten Commandments. Here's what appears to be his outline:
Deut. 12-16 'Love God' teachings [commandments 1-4]So then how do A, A' and B, B' nuance the meaning of the Ten Commandments? First, A and A' forewarn God's people about the challenges they will face in trying to faithfully live out God's instructions. Second, B and B' provide the motivation for following God's teaching: "that it may go well with you." Put these together and you get a portrait of the main point of the entire book of Deuteronomy.
Deut. 17-18 Enforcers of the teachings [prophet, priest, king]
Deut. 19-26 'Love Others' teachings [commandments 5-10]
THE 'GOOD' LAND
The second step in cleaning up this PR mess is understanding the main purpose of the book of Deuteronomy. The main purpose is given in the phrase "that it may go well with you" (Deut. 4:40; 5:16, 29; 6:3, 18; 8:16; 12:25, 28; 19:13; 22:7). The Hebrew verb (yi-tove) translated here as "go well" is derived from the Hebrew word (tove) which means "good." What does this tell us? God wants things to be "good" again. This fact is reinforced through the author's constant references to the "good land" (Deut. 1:25, 35; 3:25; 4:21, 22; 6:18; 8:7, 10; 9:6; 11:17). Simply put, God desires to give His people a good land that will bring goodness back to their lives.
Where have we heard this before? Does Genesis 1 ring a bell? And so the author is communicating in Deuteronomy that God wants His people to return to an Eden-like existence! This is why the author's descriptions of the land are reminiscent of descriptions of Eden. For instance, in the garden, God did most of the work (Genesis 2:4-9). He planted the trees. He watered the trees. And He made the trees grow. Similarly, in the land, God will do most of the work (Deut. 6:10-11; 7:12-15; 8:6-9; 11:13-15, 22-25). Deuteronomy 6:10-11 makes this clear:
"When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you - a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant - be careful that you do not forget the Lord."THE PURGING OF EVIL
But how can this goodness exist when God's people are surrounded by evil? This is where God's instructions to completely destroy the evil nations within the Promise Land and to "purge the evil from among you" come into the picture. You see, the only way that good can be completely restored is if evil is completely removed. In other words, justice needs to be reestablished and maintained on the earth if an Eden-like existence is to be recreated. And so God uses His people to distribute justice and maintain His perfect creation order so that "it may go well with them."
But where's the love in this? Well, God wants to show love to the victims of evil by protecting and vindicating them. I mean, would it be loving for God to turn a blind eye to the victims of the Holocaust by not punishing Hitler? I don't think so. And so you see, by bringing evil to justice, God is showing love to the victims of evil.
But how is it fair that God allows innocent babies to be destroyed because of the evil deeds of their parents? The first thing to understand is that blessing was made available and offered to ALL nations since the time when God made His covenant with Abraham. You might remember that God promised to bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse Abraham. And God gave the nations plenty of time to take up His offer of blessing (four generations to be exact). He didn't bring curse in Abraham's time because He was waited until "the sin of the Amorites reached its full measure"(Genesis 15:16). However, after four generations, things didn't get any better. The Amorites (and all the people in the land) were still as evil as ever!
The fact that nothing changed even after four generations shows that future generations would continue to perpetuate evil in God's world. And because of this, God gave the instructions to completely destroy the evil people in the Promise Land (including next generation babies). In all of this, God knew that to completely restore good back to His world, evil would need to be completely removed.
THE BOTTOM LINE
So how does this speak to our lives? Let me first make it clear that God is not telling you to become militant and start a crusade to rid the world of evil people. However, God is instructing us to fight against the evil forces and influences that are ruining God's good world. We do this by overcoming hatred with LOVE, replacing TRUTH with lies, and speaking ENCOURAGEMENT instead of slander. This is why Jesus has called His people to be 'salt' in this corrupting world (Matthew 5:13). We are to function as preservatives for good in God's world. And in fact, this hasn't changed from the time of Deuteronomy 4:5-8. Listen to this,
"See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?"Now may you be salt to the world around you! May you live such an attractive life that people are drawn back to God's goodness!
Someone asked me today, "Do babies go to heaven?" The Bible never directly tells us. BUT it does hint at an answer in 2 Samuel 12:23 when David says after his baby dies, "But he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." David will one day "go to the baby" which seems to imply that David will see his son one day in the future.
ReplyDeleteSome believe that this passage is simply saying, "David will die one day just like my baby son." It is true that the verb used here ("go") can be translated "die". However, if the word is translated "die" then the verse would read, "I shall die to him." This doesn't make much sense. And so the preposition "to" would have to be translated "like" to make sense. BUT this preposition NEVER has the meaning "like" in the Bible. There is a specific preposition that has the meaning "like" and it is not used here. With all this said, the best understanding of the verse is the way it is translated in ALL of the Bible versions.
So does 2 Samuel 12:23 conclusively teach that babies go to heaven? NO. It only hints that babies MIGHT go to heaven. At the end of the day we need to rest in the fact that God is perfectly just. He will fairly judge the fate of babies. God's perfect fairness coupled with 2 Samuel 12:23 should provide comfort to anyone who has lost a baby and is wondering about the baby's eternal destiny!