The Book of Joshua
Rehab betrays her people....is rewarded by having her life saved.
(Moral: Treachery is ok if done against God's enemies.)
Now I know why Christians always have double standards. They learn that from
their Bibles.
Then:
God instructs Joshua to murder every inhabitant of Jericho... every man, old
man, woman, girl, child, baby, even every animal, lest they should corrupt
his people. However, God already knows that the Israelites will be corrupted
later, anyway.
Achan secretly steals some treasure. God is offended. Since God's blessing is
no longer with Israel, they lose on the battlefield and 37 innocent soldiers
die. God is responsible, since God does not warn Joshua in advance that
someone has offended him, but lets him find out the hard way, at the cost of
men's lives.
Who cares, huh? What's a few lives, compared to the terrible tragedy that
some poor obscure man stole a little booty from the captured city? That
really ticked God off, seeing one of his people taking a liking to a bit of
treasure, when he should have been out skewering animals, babies and little
girls like he was told to.
Well, Joshua suspects Achan and asks Achan to confess. Achan does. Joshua
then has him stoned.
Achan's innocent family, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and
sheep are stoned along with Achan, for what Achan did. Their crime was
choosing the wrong father, I guess. What the crime of the animals was, Lord
only knows.
The stoning appeased the Lord, and he was no longer angry. Maybe He enjoyed
the suffering of the animals.
In any event, He next told Joshua to take the city of Ai and burn it, and to
kill everyone like they did at Jericho. This time, the Israelites could spare
the animals and keep them.
They captured the King of Ai. Then they hung him.
They captured five other kings. They hung them, too. No Geneva Convention
with God.
They took Makkedah, and killed everyone
They took Libnah, and killed everyone
They took Lachish, and killed everyone
They took Libnah, and killed everyone
They took Eglon, and killed everyone
They took Hebron and killed everyone.
They took Debir and killed everyone.
They took Hazor and killed everyone.
Of course, all these people deserved to die:
"For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against
Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without
mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses." Joshua 11:20
Besides, these people were living on land that Yahweh had decided was to be
given to "his people". That sounds like a good reason for genocide. It must
be, Hitler said the same thing in justifying his attack against the eastern
Europeans. He said Germans needed "living space" (Lebensraum) and you
couldn't have other peoples hanging around, they would corrupt the Aryan race
with their inferior ways and blood.
There are so many aspects of the Bible that Christians just ignore. They like
to pretend they have some feel-good, moral, happy-making relationship with
this infinitely loving God.
Who just happens to be a closet axe murderer.
A cosmic sadist, who's answer to "Don't you love me?" makes the Spanish
Inquisition seem like peanuts. Which it was, they were a pale imitation of
what they worship.
"Let the little children come to me..." Mark 10:14
Don't look too closely at the Lord, kiddies.
You might not like what you see.
Misbehave and he will pull
your toenails off.
Forever.
Izz