“So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men died.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
So, let me get this straight: David did a census of his nation that God didn’t like, and He killed 70,000 people for it? What in the world are we supposed to do with this?
Read the rest
“David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.”” (ESV – Read the chapter)
These are two of the hardest verses I’ve yet encountered in this slow walk through the history books of the Hebrew Bible. In the first part of this note I began sharing about what has given me such trouble. I started out fairly easy. Here I will get into the real problem for me (and possibly you too). As I said before, here goes… Read the rest…
“Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
(ESV – Read the chapter)
And here I’d thought we had dealt with all of this nonsense in the narrative of Joshua leading the people to inhabit the Promised Land. How can we trust as good a God who issues a command like this? Read the rest…
“So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
I’ve said it before and let me say it again here: If we don’t get the character of God right, we won’t be able to make sense out of the Scriptures. This is important all the time, but it is especially important in the narrative of Joshua where we find this verse, which, along with the other verses similar to it in this chapter and the next, gives people more trouble than just about any other portion of the Old Testament. Read the rest…
The Nexus 