Whatever it takes for holiness

I met a gentleman last year who had lots and lots of questions and doubts about the Bible and Christianity in general. He had been hurt in the past by less than loving people who claimed to be followers of Christ and as a result he undertook his own spiritual journey to find truth. From what I could gather, he allowed his anger and disappointment with people to fuel his frustration with God. He now discounts much of the Bible as unreliable and untrue and one book in general - the book of Joshua - he rejects altogether because in his words it is "barbaric." How could a good and loving God command the slaughter of "innocent" men, women, and children just to promote Himself?

That question in itself is loaded with all sorts of misinformation and raw emotionalism. To infer that people are innocent is to say that they have not sinned against God and therefore deserve His mercy and grace. This does not mean that God simply turns His back on sinners - we know the opposite to be true. But it does mean that none of us have done anything to deserve this mercy and grace that He freely extends to all of us.

Another error in this statement is that God is interested in only promoting Himself. Leviticus 11:44-45 reminds us what God's chief desire is:

For I am the Lord you God, so yo must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any swarming creature that crawls on the ground...so you must be holy because I am holy.

God's desire is for holiness, both His and ours. This is not shameless self-promotion. It is a relentless pursuit for what brings glory to His name above all else. And when God invites us to be partakers with Him in His holiness, then we can be sure that His desire for us is the best possible scenario that we could ever imagine.

But what about all of the carnage laid out in the Old Testament when God's people were entering into the Promised Land and when the Kings like Josiah put to death the false prophets and tore down their idols and shrines (2 Kings 22-23)? Is God cruel to demand those things? To answer that we must remember again the fact that no one is innocent before the eyes of God. Does God take pleasure in seeing the death and destruction of His creation? Ezekiel 18:32 tells us that God takes "no pleasure in anyone's death." When those who are rebellious and haters of God perish because of their sin, it is because they have rejected the grace and the glory of God. That hasn't changed even today. It is our sin that separates us from God for eternity, not the act of an ego maniacal deity.

God is zealous for His holiness and when the false idols were destroyed and their shrines demolished and their false prophets and priests put to death it was all because of the holiness and glory of God. God is still zealous for His holiness today. It doesn't mean that it's always easy for us to accept the lengths to which God will go for His holiness, but it must spur His people on to be just as passionate for His fame and glory to be known throughout the world.