Some Thoughts on Biblical Violence

Scripture Verse that caught my attention today: 2 Kings 10:11 So Jehu killed all who were left of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his leaders, close friends, and priests, until he left him no survivor.

Observation: This is a brutal account of violence in our Bible. The Bible not only details some of what happened in ancient days, it also, through its perspective, reveals how ancient people of faith interpreted these events. It’s not always pretty. Chapter 10 of 2 Kings is a particularly difficult read. The Seventy sons of Ahab get their heads cut off. Granted, Ahab was not a good king. But we really don’t know much about his sons. Were they all that bad? What can we learn from all of this?

Application: Over the years well-meaning people have tried many different ways to be faithful. I would like to think that most of the intentions were good, even though, at least to modern sensibilities, some of the methods were bad. The crusades are certainly one of history’s more dramatic examples. But such methods were already in practiced periodically long before that. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine living in the days when kings and their followers were routinely killed. It seems that there was always a power struggle going on and this struggle was often magnified in Biblical accounts due to issues of faith or the lack thereof.

It is often hard to know how best to be faithful. I have clergy colleagues who, based on their understanding of faith, have left the denomination of which I am a part due to their disagreement with various aspects of church policy. Are they being more faithful than those who either see things differently or those who agree but choose to remain in the denomination? I don’t know. I’m grateful that none of us is shedding blood over such matters. And somehow I wish they wouldn’t have shed so much blood in the olden days as well. No matter how much blood was shed, and no matter how it was often presented as justifiable, there was still never anyone, aside from Jesus himself, who ever proved to be completely faithful. And so it would seem that it was only the shedding of one person’s blood that really mattered.

Prayer: Lord, help me never to take myself so seriously as to think that I am the only faithful one and that mine is the only faithful response. Surely your ways are much bigger than that. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included 2 Kings 10, 2 Chronicles 22-23, 1 Timothy 5)