Question
Hello Father Angelo,
My name is Luca and I would like to ask you a question.
Reading the Bible, in particular the Old Testament, you find that Jews would fight against several recurrent enemies such as Moabites, Edomites etc. but if you read carefully, they actually fought against their own cousins.
For example, Moabites and Ammonites were direct descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew.
Amalekites and Edomites were direct descendants of Esau, Jacob’s twin brother.
And here a question arises : it is not at all true that God placed all the Jewish people under his protection, but only a branch of a family, in particular the Abraham / Isaac / Jacob dynastic line.
If they could exterminate all other cousins and distant relatives, according to God’s orders, it was so much the better.
Can you tell me more about whether my interpretation is wrong?
Thanks,
Luca
Priest’s answer
Dear Luca,
1. Under God’s tutelage there are not only Jews , but all men, even those who have been enemies of Jews on duty.
Christ died for everybody.
His sacrifice had a retroactive effect for everyone.
2. . Certainly , with Israel He wanted to accomplish his work of Salvation more prominently. He wanted everything that happened to these people for better or for worse , to be a teaching for us and a path to Christ.
3. If in the Holy Scriptures you read about commands of extermination towards other people, it does not mean that God did not want them to be saved.
4. Certain irreparable misfortunes happened to them because they escaped that natural law which was written by God in the heart of everyone and they did abominable things.
It is not that God chastised them, although the anthropomorphic language really sounds like that .
They themselves deliberately broke down those defensive measures God had given them and so they were victims of their own impiety.
5. It is well-documented in the Holy Scripture, in the Old Testament itself, particularly in the Book of Wisdom, that God loved them too. Here you can read: “Therefore you gradually correct those who make mistakes and admonish , and remind them of the sins they are committing,so that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!” (Book of Wisdom 12:2).
The reference is to the Egyptians, for whom God had promised they would be struck by several calamities so that they could overcome their harshness and repent.
6. Blessed Giuseppe Girotti, Martyr in Dachau, wrote in his commentary: “The rule that God observes in punishing the wandering souls is crucial in the guidance of souls. It shows us that you must not have to demand to win over everything with imperative authority and the rigour of a Jewish Law; indeed, you need to tolerate at length and conceal a lot; also when you actually have to correct, you need to temper the correction according to the different circumstances of time, place and people, and use it like a doctor who has to heal someone rather than a master who wants to command” (Commentary to The Book of Wisdom, 12:2)[1].
7. After describing God’s behaviour towards the Egyptians, The Book of Wisdom goes on to describe the one towards the Canaanites, who were those who had lived in that land
This is what you read about them: “For truly, the ancient inhabitants of your holy land, whom you hated for deeds most odious – Works of witchcraft and impious sacrifices; a cannibal feast of human flesh and of blood, from the midst of. . . – These merciless murderers of children, and parents who took with their own hands defenseless lives, You wanted to destroy by the hands of our fathers, so that the land that is dearest of all to you might receive a worthy colony of God’s children.
But even these, as they were men, you spared, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army that they might exterminate them by degrees. (The Book of Wisdom 12:3-8).
One interesting annotation: “But even these, as they were men, you spared”, because God is “a friend of humanity” (The Book of Wisdom 7:23).
Noteworthy: because God is “a friend of humanity”!
Not only of Jews, but of every man, of everyone.
8. The fact of having been warned is to be found in Exodus 23-28: “I will send hornets among your enemies. I will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites as you advance”.
God behaved in the same way with them too.
The reason is: because He is a friend of humanity.
Therefore “He admonished them little by little”.
9. As you see, dear friend, you do not have to stop at a biblical verse extrapolating it from the text, the context, the anthropomorphic language with which God himself manifested himself to the Israelites.
10. In this extermination which whole populations were destined to (populations who practiced sacrifices of innocent children and then ate their entrails), how can you not see a pretty eloquent message towards those who currently make money and enrich by doing similar things?
Also in the New Testament you can find a similar language: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy” (1 Corinthians 3:17).
God’s temple are human beings and above all children, kids and young people.
They are destroyed by pornography, which is a real industry for those who produce, commercialize it and make a living from it while having fun.
What a terrible admonition!
The worst thing is that they do not think about it at all and maybe they think they found a good solution to their desire for accommodation.
I wish you will learn to read the Holy Scripture, and particularly the Old Testament, as a healthy life lesson.
As it is easy to condemn God carelessly , whereas God just wants, through the narrated events, that we do everything in order to be saved for eternity.
Besides this wish, I add my prayer too.
I bless you.
Father Angelo
Translated by Irene Visciano
[1] Translated by the Translator; “Commento a Sapienza 12:2” by Giuseppe Girotti.
“Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!”.
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