Devotional Guide for the week of October 23rd

 The Book of Joshua is the most violent book in the Bible. Read Joshua 11. Wouldn’t we call this “genocide” or ethnic cleansing today? Does God sanction violence?

 Note the following when interpreting passages like this one:

A.      Beware the text that makes God out to be less loving than the best person you know.

“If you see God operating at a lesser level than the best person you know, then the text is not authentic revelation. God is never less loving than the most loving person you know.” Richard Rohr

B.      Beware the myth of redemptive violence

With God on our side, our violence becomes necessary and even “redemptive violence.” But there is no such thing as redemptive violence. Violence doesn’t save; it only destroys in both short and long term. Jesus replaced the myth of redemptive violence with the truth of redemptive suffering. He showed us on the cross how to hold the pain and let it transform us, rather than pass it on to the others around us. — Richard Rohr

 C.      How then would you explain these texts where God sanctions violence?

Keep in mind how the texts came to be in written form. These are not eyewitness accounts but a long line of oral history handed down hundreds of years. For example, the events that took place in the Book of Joshua took place around 1200BC, yet the oldest manuscript we have of the Book of Joshua is in the Aleppo Codex that dates to the 10th century or 1000 years ago. The authors of the text clearly have an agenda in this case and are putting words in God’s mouth.