Here’s Step 2 of how you can read the Bible: Always look at every Bible verse through the Lens of Jesus. (I discussed Step 1 last week.)

If you don’t do that, you might end up worshipping a vengeful, murderous, and genocidal God.

Vengeful God

Let me read a few “vengeful” passages, which are very disturbing…

  • I will take vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations that have not obeyed me. (Micah 5:15 NIV)
  • The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies. (Nahum 1:2 NIV)
  • I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I take vengeance on them. (Ezekiel 25:17 NIV)

 

When I was a kid, I grew up with my Mom telling me, “Revenge is bad.” And then I read verses like this—that God takes revenge—so that confused me a lot.

Murderous God

And then there are these horrible commands from God…

  • Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. (Exodus 21:17 NIV)
  • For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death. (Exodus 35:2 NIV)
  • If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21 NIV)

 

Aren’t you thankful you weren’t alive at that time? Or we would have been dead at 16.

Genocidal God

And finally, how can we worship a God that ordains the massacre of nations—men, women, and children?

  • When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors. (Deuteronomy 2:32-34 NIV)
  • The Lord said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hands, along with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites….” At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them…. We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city—men, women and children. (Deuteronomy 3:2, 4, 6 NIV)
  • They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. (Joshua 6:21 NIV)
  • Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai…, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. (Joshua 8:1, 24-25 NIV)

Special mention here is a verse that people actually prayed…

  • Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks! (Psalms 137:9 NLT)

Jesus Is The Word

The only way to understand these passages is acknowledge three words: Revelation is Progressive. The Bible records the entire process of understanding God, from its primitive stage all the way to Jesus. Jesus is the Final Revelation. The “Word” is not the written words in the Bible—ultimately, the Word is Jesus Himself. (See John 1:1-14)

It’s only Jesus that will make sense of this journey.

Let’s go back to the vengeful, murderous, and genocidal verses—and ask this question: What would Jesus do?

Read again the “Vengeful” Verses. But was Jesus vengeful? No. He taught us to forgive 70 times 7.

Read again the verses about stoning people—even your misbehaving kids. Will Jesus ask you to do that? No. He even saved a woman caught in adultery from stoning and said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7 KJV)

Read again the genocide verses. Will Jesus ask Joshua to kill men, women, and children?

No. He came to save the world.

Always read the Bible using Jesus as your lens.

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez