Brutal

So Joshua defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings; he left no one remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded. -Joshua 10:40

I am having difficulty reading the book of Joshua. It is seriously brutal. And it is all done in God's name because God commanded it. Go ahead, read Joshua, chapter 10. This is not a god I would worship if this is all I knew about him.

This is the danger of thinking the Bible is a "how to" book on living. If we want to just point out examples of what God commanded in the Old Testament to defend actions of today, Christians could become terrorists. Hmmm... does that mean if some groups  become too fundamental and extremist about its holy writings, they may become terrorists?  We see it with extremist Muslims today.  We have seen it in the history of the Christian church.

As I ponder this brutal book of the history of God's people, I can't help but believe God could have certainly found a better way. Yes, maybe it had to do with the early time in history and how things were done. And it probably had a lot to do with how the author of the book of Joshua viewed that history. Joshua and his army could never be viewed as the "good guys" if they didn't blame their actions on God.

Thankfully, God can work through anything. God knew what would happen and how it would happen and he used it for the good of us all.  The bible is meant to be read as the sweeping story of God's love for all of us and for all creation.  There is a lot of mess in that story, and some of it is very hard to look at. But the whole point is that God is there among us and with us in the very nastiest places that we find ourselves.

God of Our Nastiest Messes,

Thank you for loving us no matter what. Amen.