God's Intention of Driving out
진멸하는 하나님의 의도
신명기(Deu) 7장
6. 너는 여호와 네 하나님의 성민이라 네 하나님 여호와께서 지상 만민 중에서 너를 자기 기업의 백성으로 택하셨나니
6. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
16. 네 하나님 여호와께서 네게 넘겨주신 모든 민족을 네 눈이 긍휼히 여기지 말고 진멸하며 그들의 신을 섬기지 말라 그것이 네게 올무가 되리라
16. You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
21. 너는 그들을 두려워하지 말라 너희의 하나님 여호와 곧 크고 두려운 하나님이 너희 중에 계심이니라
21. Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.
There were 7 nations in the land of Canaan and God was ordering the Israelites to destroy all of them, including all kinds of idols and even silver and gold on them, not at once, but little by little, completely even burning them in the fire because they are set apart for destruction, so they should utterly abhor and destest it all.
These scenes look so cruel and terrible and it doesn't seem to make sense as they should kill all the people and animals of other nations and wasn't allowed to take anything good for themselves, including the jewelries which are women's favorites. It must be not easy to accept and follow it even though i had lived at that time.
Then, why is awesome and mighty God asking these kinds of commands to them or even to us? How could we kill others in the name of God, which usually has been happening on earth throughout the human history and nowadays?
It doesn't make sense at all even to me, one of Christians who believe that God has chosen and call me His treasured possession. And I would never kill or harm anyone who is against God at all by any chance or by any purpose. Then, why is generous God ordering us to do theses kinds of seemingly bad acts?
In my view point, it is not easy to understand Him, but in His view, He must have needed His own people to make His own nation as all the humans are perverse, wicked and corrupt, so He must have used this kind of method, which didn't bring any good results, ending up their destruction as well as the other nations.
Therefore, He had to send so-called His own son, Jesus, because there was no other way of saving people from spiritual darkness and slavery. His only interest is saving His own people whose ears and eyes are open to their good shepherd, who is also Creator, comforter, and supporter as well.
In a nutshell, I can say that God is not the one who is telling us to kill our neighbors, rather He is the one who is telling us to love our neighbors. Utterly, what we should abhor and detest is our sinful nature of opposing against God and leading our souls into the pit of spiritual death. This is the lesson and the key point that God was and is telling me to know for sure that it is more important to have eternal life than my life, my pet, and my possessions.
