Words of Wisdom

For the past several weeks at church we’ve been working our way through a sermon series on the book of Joshua, in accordance with one of the most un-Christlike programs found within our denomination, Lads to Leaders, which we silently protest by keeping our children at home on Sunday nights…but that’s another blog entry for another time.

The book of Joshua is one that I find to be incredibly problematic in the scope of scripture. It is here that we find the conquest of the promised land, in which the people of Israel are commanded by God to lay waste to the cities in the land, killing all – men, women, and even children – who reside there. This divinely ordained genocide seems to fly directly in the face of the words of Jesus, an embodiment of God, when he said things like, “Love your enemy.” I find it impossible to reconcile these things in my mind and none of the easy, pat answers that are so likely to be given will suffice.

I tend to have a different view on Biblical inspiration, one that would most likely cause many in my denomination’s heritage to label me as a heretic…and they may be right, but that’s a chance I’m willing to take. When looking at the book of Joshua, I see a wartime history of a conquering army, a military force that went to any means necessary to capture the land away from those making their homes there. The years of conquest and genocide proved to be successful, so when composing the record of their victorious invasion, it was stated that this was in accordance with the will of God.

Through the years this same reasoning has been applied over and over again, from the Crusades, to hundreds of years of Islamic conflicts, to the extermination of native Americans, to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and I can’t help but wonder what message we send by focusing on these difficult passages. The words of one of the great prophets of our time come to mind and I think it may do us all some good to think on these things:

With God on Our Side
by Bob Dylan

Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side.

In a many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war.