The Bible in a Year – 20 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

20 September. 1 Chronicles chapters 18-20

Following on from the rejoicing of previous chapters, we are suddenly plunged back into the bloodiness of the warfare that was a constant feature of the ancient near east.  God’s promise to David that he would make him the leader of a great nations seems to be coming true, as one tribe after another (Philisitines, Moabites, Arameans, Edomites and Ammonites) falls to the armies of Israel.   Since the time of Joshua this had been an ongoing process, and even after David’s victories, the other peoples were not completely eliminated.

The tactics they employ are sometimes clever strategies, at other times sheer force of numbers.  But what links these victories is the concept they have of God being with them and granting them victory for his sake.  The purpose of Israel’s territorial control being enlarged was not merely to give God’s people room to expand, but to eradicate the idolatrous religions that went with the inhabitants of the land.

Sadly, we can see this worldview today in the actions of the present state of Israel is forcing Jewish settlements on land that according to international agreement belongs to the Palestinians.  The same process of driving out the “peoples of the land” by military force, by settlement in large numbers, by seizure of farmland, by controlling water supplies, and so on, is justified (in the eyes of some Jews at least) by the actions of David and other kings in their ancient history.  Without wishing to see the extinction of the Jewish faith and culture, one has to be critical of the way they are going about preserving them.