Before I was going to post this OP, I was quite surprised to see this old thread pop up.(Can UR trump the Myth of Redemptive Violence?). Because what I have to say is rather related. I only read the first few pages of it and I was tempted to just add to that that thread, but I believe that the angle in which I will attack the subject deserves it’s own thread.
The Fire of God
I came across the passage where Solomon dedicated the Temple in II Chronicles 7 and something caught my attention:
“Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’s house.” - II Chronicles 7:1-2
Nothing really surprising here. The dedication of the Temple was a glorious event. Except that I was interested in why the fire came down from heaven at that moment. What was it in the prayer of Solomon that cause God to act? And what was the sacrifice that was consumed?
So I went back to the previous chapters and found this:
“Also king Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for multitude.” - II Chronicles 5:6
THIS was the sacrifice that was consumed. Now think about it for a moment. A sacrifice that could not be told numbered nor numbered for multitude. That is a huge sacrifice. And I am assuming that each sacrifice represented each person or maybe each family that was present.
Bear with me for a moment. I then went to the Prayer of Solomon in chapter 6, and let me highlight just a few verses from there:
*"And said, O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts:…
Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive.
If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;
Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness.
And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house;
Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.
When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them;
Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance…
Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house;
Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that **the stranger **calleth to thee for; that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.
Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.
Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness.
O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant." - II Chronicle 6:14, 21-23, 32-33, 40-42*
With the addition of “the stranger”, which are all those who are not Jewish, i.e. Gentiles who worship the God of Israel, what we have here is a Universal Prayer, for all those willing to take part. The Lord’s House is open to ALL.
So after this prayer is when the Fire of God came down to consume the innumerable sacrifices.
I SAID ALL THAT TO SAY THIS: For some reason, in my thoughts I had this vision of an old movie based on a Stephen King novel called “The Firestarter”, which was about this girl named Charley (played by a young Drew Barrymore) who had these pyrokinetic powers (the book was better, BTW). Anyway, there was a point in the movie where she was captured by this organization call simply “The Shop” and was being tested to the extent of her powers. She was placed in a fireproof room facing a wall of cinderblock for which she was expected to destroy with flames. BUT THEY ALSO PLACED A BUCKET OF ICE WATER IN THE SAME ROOM. The reason for this is because she couldn’t always control her powers once she let loose and unleased her fury of fire she needed a way to calm it down, lest all hell break loose. So when she finished destroying the cinder blkock wall, she directed her attention to the ice bucket, saying to the flames, “Back off! just back off!” Then the bucket of ice water started boiling and steaming LETTING HER POWERS SUBSIDE as she cooled off.
Now we talk about God being a Consuming Fire because His Holiness is so great that anything that is not of God will be consumed. I Corinthians 3:11-15 tells us that whatever works of ours that are like precious stones, gold, and silver will survive, while the wood, stubble, and hay will be consumed, and lastly, WE OURSELVES will be saved as through fire.
What if His Holiness appears as Wrath, from our perspective, being a Righteous Anger against sin. Ane that Righteous Anger HAS TO MANIFEST ITSELF IN SOME WAY whenever God has to pronounce judgment to…WHATEVER.
In the case of Israel in the forementioned passage, the sins of the people which God has to judge rightly needs to be dealt with. That Holiness of God has got to manifest itself in some form or faction, for a JUST GOD cannot allow unrighteousness get a pass. Else righteous judgment will not be realized. *The Holy and Righteous Anger *(from what we see) of God has to find someplace to go. In the case of the Dedication of the Temple, the Fire of God consumes the innumerable sacrifices. It’s the only place it can go, lest it consumes the people itself.
The Love of God is manifested in His Mercy in finding a way for His Righteousness to be directed and deflected, if you will in another direction. Not only because we are deserving of Judgment, but because His Holiness is such that He is unapproachable without that Holiness being tempered somehow, filtered through a barrier lest it consumes us.
Since Israel is the Apple of God’s Eye, all the violence seen from God in judgment is necessary for the survival of Israel, both internally and externally. Judgment MUST be carried out, or otherwise God is not Just and God is not Holy. (I realize I’m sounding like a Calvinist, but hear me out.)
Externally, God’s judgment is on anything that threatens His Work when it is related to Israel, for whatever reason His desire is to have a Covenant with Israel. Anything that comes against this is in danger of being destoyed FOR THE SAKE OF ISRAEL.
So when we read of God destroying nations wholescale, what seems to us as genocide is really having to do with the preservation of Israel, for whatever purpose He has for them. His Holiness, then, WILL be shown in the form of Righteous Wrath toward nations not of Israel, or not in alliance with Israel. All those nations who were in the Promised Land are considered defiled. This is the land promised to Abraham, and the surrounding nations KNEW this because of the history they had with Abraham when he conquered the land back in Genesis. They dwelt where they were not supposed to be and didn’t leave when they were supposed to. They knew the history of the land and that one day the nation from the lions of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would one day return. They should have remembered their history in relation to the promise given to Abraham.
Internally, whenever there were those that opposed God, like those that built and worshiped the Golden Calf, or those who aligned with Korah, God, for the sake of Israel, acted in Righteous Anger to destroy that which threatened the whole of Israel.
No, we can’t get around the violence of God in the OT. But if we realize the purposes of God in relation to Israel, even though time after time Israel rebelled, we have to understand that ultimately in bringing Christ into the World, those things were*** necessary*** to God’s plan.
Back to the Sacrifices. Sin is a threat to God’s plan. Sin in the camp of Israel is a threat to God’s plan for Israel. For a Righteous and Holy God to operate, that sin has to be dealt with. The Fire of His Holiness must be directed to something. Sin of the people will consume them if God’s Holiness is not met somehow. In consuming the sacrifices, just as Charley in the Firestarter cooled off with the Bucket, God’s Holiness is cooled off in the sacrifices for sin.
The Ultimate Sacrifice is, of course, Jesus. Jesus, being God in the flesh, took the role of the cooling bucket for us. That by his Holiness we are not consumed. God uses the sacrifices to cool off, and Jesus allowed God to use Him as that Cooling Bucket of God. It is only because Jesus IS God that He could handle the Fire of God. That instead of the fire of indignation that His Holiness requires, it is the Love of God manifested instead, through the filter of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross.
I see this little different than Penal Atonement. I see it more as the ability of God to bring His Righteousness to us without consuming us with His Holiness, which will either appear as the Fire of God’s Wrath or the Glory of God’s Love.
