The Conquest of the Promised Land and the Moral Tension It Creates (Exodus 23)
Last week, we examined Jesus’ teaching concerning “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
This passage is often referred to as the Lex Talionis and is first mentioned in Exodus 21. From Jesus explanation, we learned that Jesus modeled and taught radical restraint, love, and grace toward one’s enemies. This week, just a few pages and chapters later, we read about God authorizing a violent conquest of the Canaanites. So, how do we reconcile these two pictures of God? One is completely nonviolent while the other is violent. For many Christ followers, the conquest seems to be completely out of character for God. But is it? Dive into this sermon from Exodus 23 to find some answers to some hard questions about the nature of God.
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