Hello there, I would like to know your opinions on these verses:
1 Samuel 15:3
Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
Ever since
Exodus 17:14 to 16 it has been known that the Amalekites would meet their end. Because God had chosen Israel to be His people, in order to enact His ultimate plan of saving the human race, God needed to protect them and preserve them. Because Amalek and his descendants were direct enemies of God and His people, representing everything that God hates, in order to prevent their corrupt practices from spreading to the Israelites, they needed to be eliminated like an infectious disease.
There is deep context to this verse. It doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Pslam 137
Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us / He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks."
There is also context to this verse that should not be overlooked. This is Hebrew poetry. It is a song, and a sad song to be honest. It is about the Israelite people, having been taken captive, their home destroyed, and are asked by their captors to sing a happy song about the city that was destroyed. It's like the Nazis asking their captives to sing a happy song about their home, to which the psalmist writes, "Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us / He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks." It is an honest expression of the kind of anger one feels when they are taunted by enemies who committed such terrible acts against them.
Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.” (1 Peter 2:18)
The word "slaves" causes everyone to think of american slavery, which is not the slavery mentioned in the bible. However, even in the context of american slavery, a slave who obeys God, serving God in the midst of slavery, is the essence of the Christian life. If you are a slave to man, serve God in the midst of it. If you are free, be a slave to Christ and submit yourself to His rule. We are all slaves to something, therefore serve Christ in whatever position you are in. If you are a slave, if your master is cruel, be the most useful person to them and their cruelty hurt themselves the most.
She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. Ezekiel 23:20 NIV
This disgusting imagery only reflects the reality of what God sees when His people indulge in their lustful perversions.
Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves. Numbers 31:17-18
The Midianites sent their women to seduce the Israelite men, which lead to a plague, which resulted in tens of thousands of dead Israelites. God told them to kill the men and women in response to their crimes, the male children so as to discontinue their inheritance, and the virgin girls were divided up and given to the tabernacle and the soldiers' families, not to be abused, but to be assimilated.
When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. Leviticus 15: 19-20When men fight with one another, and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Deuteronomy 25:11-12
When reading Leviticus, the word "unclean" is used a lot. In the case of menstrual blood, the woman is not impure in the moral sense, she is impure in the ceremonial sense. Their physical behaviors reflected a spiritual pattern of living. Sure there are points to be made concerning hygiene, but my point is simply to stear people away from the thought that these verses reflect the moral character of the woman.
Regarding the verses in Deuteronomy, a mans genitals allow them to have children that will continue the family inheritance to the next generation. The bible takes inheritance very seriously. Cutting off a hand is harsh in today's world, but in a world in which God is using the Israelite families to one day bring forth a messiah, you wouldn't want to accidentally prevent a man from passing on his family name.
Verses like these are often sited in order to persuade people that the God of the bible, specifically the old testament is of poor moral character. The same people will question why God doesn't destroy evil given the fact that He is all-powerful and all-good. God completely destroying humanity in a flood because they were evil is often criticized because God appears to be committing evil despite the fact that He is acting in opposition to evil. If God allows evil to persist He is evil, and if He eliminates evil He is a tyrant. If men can choose evil God is blamed and if men cannot choose evil they are robots. But because God would rather you exist with the potential of choosing evil than to not exist at all, all we can blame God for is our existence itself.