https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=Cxmv2WAmqrY
Alright, so Drew McMahon asks, Hi Jonathan, in discussing Christianity with a friend, I was asked how I can worship a God who seemingly condones or even orders terrible things like mass genocide or rape. Can you help me work through this question? A few sample verses in question. As the people of Israel passed through the wilderness and drew near the land promised to the ancestors, God commanded them to slaughter the Canaanites who dwelt there. You must destroy them totally, God demanded, make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. There are a few things about that. It relates to what we said before. The one is the harsher one. The first one is something like, it is possible for things to get so bad that they can’t come back from it. And so we have to remember that it’s the Canaanites, right? They’re the children of the curse from Noah and they’re also in many ways they are the descendants of the giants in the story. They’re the descendants of the Nephilim. That’s the context. And so the idea is that the curse after the flood, the curse of Noah has continued until now and is now, right? There has to be a new world. A new world has to begin. And so in order for the new world to begin, the remainder of the old world has to be removed for the new world to begin. Now I think that if you want to understand it in the best way, the best way to understand it is to understand the structure, to understand that that’s what’s going on, right? And if you want to be able to apply it, then you have to understand that it applies to you. It applies to your life. So the church fathers, they tend to see this inside. They tend to see this inside you, like saying, you know, whatever happened at that time, now because of Christ, that is now applied inside you. And so the thoughts, the desires, the passions that have festered inside you, the little intrusions, the little thoughts, those all have to be eliminated. The old man, the old world, the world of sin has to be eradicated inside you in order for the seed, the new seed, right? Your baptism, the new seed to flourish and to have fruits. As you can see that it’s the same structure. Now it’s bothersome. I understand why people read that and they’re like, well, God’s saying to eradicate the Canaanites. Now, if you want to understand the finality of that, you have to understand that this verse, particular verse, the one you just said, gets dealt with in the gospel and the incarnation shows you the finality of this in the gospel. The Canaanite woman comes to see Christ, right? And she asks Christ to heal her daughter. I think that’s it. I hope that’s it. And Christ’s first reaction is to remind her who she is, which is tough, man. It’s a tough thing. He’s like, you know, don’t give to dogs. The master’s bread or whatever. And the Canaanite woman, because of her faith, transforms Christ’s rigor into clemency because she accepts her position. And she says, right, only even the dog receives the crumbs that fall off the table of the master. And so because of that, she becomes a vehicle for Christ’s grace. And so that’s the end of that story. The end of that story is Christ interacting with the Canaanite woman in the gospel. And in some ways, it kind of reveals what Christ is doing in the final story, like how Christ is in some ways mending some of the difficult things that happened in the Old Testament. So Susan Wilcock says, I’m concerned that European settlers in North America were tempted to justify slaughtering natives based on this directive in the Old Testament. And so that’s possible. But like I said, you know, Christ changes that. I don’t know what to tell you. Christ’s interaction with strangers is completely different. And so I think that using an Old Testament verse without considering Christ to justify such an action is wrong and is wrong explicitly and easily, it’s easily possible to show that this is wrong based on the New Testament. Think again, think about the way that Christ deals with the strangers and with the monsters. It’s like… Alright, let me give you a secret. Zacchaeus is a monster. Zacchaeus is a dwarf. Not just is he a dwarf, but he’s a dwarf that is a tax collector for those that will destroy Jerusalem. He’s a tax collector for the ultimate enemy of Israel. And how is it that Christ deals with him, you know? What about the Ethiopian eunuch? It’s the same thing. The Ethiopian eunuch is a castrated man. He’s an ambiguous man. He’s not a man or a woman. He is in between categories. And how is it that Christ deals with him? So if you don’t take into account Christ, then the Old Testament is difficult to fully understand. If you take into account the way that Christ reflects back on the Old Testament, then you’ll see a different story, a different picture. And Ivan Engel says Zacchaeus wanted to see Christ. Yeah, that’s true. And the same with the Ethiopian eunuch.