The vast majority of those claiming to be Christian believe the God of the Bible to be omnipotent or all-powerful. By definition, there is nothing that God cannot do. But while many Christians believe this to be true about God, does the Bible support this concept? Does the Bible teach that the God of the Bible is all-powerful and, thus, is capable of accomplishing all of his will here upon planet earth?
There are a few interesting verses that we can consider. For example, in Genesis chapter eighteen, we find Sarah laughing at the prospect of her having a child in her old age ... something that was impossible for her and her husband Abraham. God, who was visiting Abraham, knew of Sarah's thoughts and why she laughed and countered them by stating, "Is any thing too hard for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:13). The implication was that Sarah should not have laughed ... that God can do anything and, as a result, providing a baby for Sarah in her old age was a relatively simple task.
Jesus himself bears witness to the omnipotence of God in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter nineteen and verse twenty-six:
"But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
The word of the Christ is that there is nothing that God cannot do. If it is impossible with men, then it is not impossible with God.
The prophet, Daniel, would agree with Christ. In the Book of Daniel (chapter four, verse thirty-five) we read:
"And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?"
The Apostle Paul also concurs:
"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:" - Ephesians 1:11
God, according to the Bible, is all-powerful and nothing impedes the enforcement of his will on planet earth. If this is the case, then what do we do if we find an example where the will of God is indeed thwarted? What if there is a situation in which God's desire is overturned? Such a case is found in the Book of Judges.
Let's look at the verse. It is found in Judges, chapter one and verse nineteen:
"And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."
The first few verses of the Book of Judges tell us that Joshua, the son of Nun, had died and that Israel was looking among its tribes to determine who would carry on the fight with the Canaanites that still dwelt in the land. As they were looking, the Lord himself declared that it would be the tribe of Judah (Joshuah 1:2) and the all-powerful God declared that he had delivered the land into Judah's hand. After several great victories, Judah continues his battle against the Canaanites that dwelt in the mountains and in the valleys (verse 9). Victory after victory is described. It certainly appeared that God was with the children of Judah and that his will was being enforced among men. But then we come to verse nineteen.
In this verse we are first reminded that God was with Judah. God's intention (his will) as stated earlier in the chapter (verse 2), was to deliver the land into his (Judah's) hand. All seemed to be going well until they ran into those that inhabited the valley. Why? Because they had chariots of iron.
According to verse nineteen, the chariots of iron possessed by the Canaanites of the valley were too powerful for Judah. But did not God state that his intention, his will, was to deliver the land into Judah's hand? Was God not with Judah? If nothing is impossible with God, then should iron chariots pose a problem to him?
In fairness, some English renditions of this verse will translate it a bit differently. For example, the NASB (New American Standard Bible) renders the verse this way:
Now the LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots."
The idea behind translations like this is to place the emphasis of the failure on Judah and not on God. It was Judah who could not prevail against the iron chariots. However, this fails. Again, according to verse two of the same chapter, it was God's intention, God's will, that the inhabitants of the land be delivered into the hand of Judah, whom God himself had selected and enabled for the task. Remember what the prophet Daniel had said about God and the affairs of men:
"And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?"
No one should be able to thwart the will of God on earth, not according to Daniel. Even so, the inhabitants of the valley did just that with their iron chariots. They were able to prevail against Judah, God's selected and empowered champion. God's will of driving out the inhabitants of the land was not accomplished. Some may speculate that there was sin in the camp and, thus, God allowed defeat to teach the children of Judah, and of Israel, a lesson. This seems to be the main thrust of the book of Judges ... that disobedience turns away the favor of God. However, there is no indication in the first chapter that this is the case. Verse nineteen just comes out and states that, despite all of Judah's victories and despite the fact that God was determined to drive out the inhabitants of the land through his chosen vessel, they failed in the valley because of the technological advantage of the inhabitants.
What do we do with such a verse? Do we simply ignore it? Or do we consider it and factor it into the equation. And if we consider it, what does this say about the God of the Bible? Is he or is he not all-powerful?
The conclusion of Judges 1:19 is clear: God was not able to drive out all the inhabitants of the land, despite this being his will. Daniel was not correct and neither was Jesus. The technical superiority of the inhabitants of the valley proved too much for the children of Judah and for the God that enabled them.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
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6 comments:
Some other tricks God used to get rid of people he didn't like was sending swarms of hornets, or whatever, to drive them out. Hornets don't normally have problems with iron chariots, I wouldn't think. Another trick God used effectively, and that would work regardless of iron chariots, was to bait the enemy into a lake and then let them all drown. That's what reportedly happened to the Egyptians at the Red Sea. Or, if there was no lake nearby to drown them in, he could have just opened the earth and swallowed them whole like he did that batch of Israelites (Cora and followers?) who rebelled against Moses in the wilderness.
God, or the writer of that particular passage, seems to have been unusually lacking in creativity regarding the people of the valley and their chariots of iron. Unless, of course, there is a basis in history that required an explanation. Possibly there were people who could not be defeated and this lame explanation was the best the writer could come up with. I haven't a clue.
I'm not sure how good an argument this is. I never heard any sermons or teachings on this passage. I was not aware of this story until I was reading atheist and exChristian forums. The fact of the matter is, I can't quite get my head around the fact that a so-called almighty God was stumped by iron chariots when today such technology would be a laughable defense in the face of routine weaponry. I'm guessing one bomb dropped by an atheist would have done the job. And God almighty couldn't do it??? Of course, he would have to exist...
Then, of course, there are those parts of the bible where something is obviously missing... left unsaid. Take Deuteronomy, for example...
23:12 And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith,
23:13 and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee: For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp...
(unsaid...)
23:13(a) and skulketh amongst thee unseen in the wee hours, like unto a freakin' prowler;
23:13(b) and verily, it honketh him off mightily when he trompeth upon a steaming pile of thine poop, and it squisheth up warmly betwixt his toes.
However, noone in Judah at this point is reported killed or wounded. Judah was unprepared for the new technology (iron chariots) in the valley. They had just been successful in the hill country. Here we have one of many unwritten purposes of God within Scripture. By the way, as I write this, Israel is taking back Gaza - the country she took in Judges 1:18!
I like to point out that the Israelites, scratch that, they were actually exiled Hyskos from Egypt, were mainly Light Infantry who relied ontactical withdrawals to draw the Chariots into terrain that negates their effectiveness.
In Judges 1:19 the enemy commander wisely did not take the bait resulting in a draw and operational victory.
I don't really get the problem. Judah was the one not able to defeat them, not God (as almost every translation makes clear).
The only real question is why God didn't give them victory. This is answered in just a few sentences later in 2:1-3.:
'I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.
The article seems to presume God’s will is presented in scripture as Israel’s unconditional victory at every turn. Scripture, of course teaches no such thing. God’s “will” for Israel was always tied to Israel’s covenant-faithfulness throughout the Old Testament. On the one hand it was His will for them to take the land. On the other hand it was His will they be driven from the land if they didn’t walk in the covenant. The article focuses on the former as “God’s will” whereas Judges considers both sides, as in Judges 2:2-3: “But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”
While it is true that God’s will for Israel was victory, it was not his unconditional will, but His will for Israel only insofar as Israel was faithful to the covenant as laid out in the law of Moses.
The article rightly points out that God was said to be with Judah, who took Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron. But Judah could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland. Naturally the author of the article does not share the same perspective on the author of these passages in Judges, for whom the events in question certainly presented no crisis of faith or doubt the God whose salvation-history he himself was narrating was covenant-faithful. As God’s will extends across generations, God in fact used the inhabitants of the lowland with their iron chariots to punish the soon wayward nation until the time of Deborah. This too, the book of Judges presents, was a part of God’s will no less than the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon was the will of God centuries later. It will not do to simply suggest the Bible promised Israel unconditional victory in each and every battle, show that this doesn’t happen, and conclude the narrative presents a self-contradictory story its own authors apparently were blissfully unaware of but that enlightened skeptics in the 21st century can see in an unbiased fashion, because that isn’t how the biblical narrators present biblical history in the first place, but a distortion of the biblical story.
Should iron chariots present a problem for God? The article fairly presents that the Hebrew text can be understood to say Judah could not drive the chariots out in Judges 1:9 rather than that God could not. What the article does not tell us is that the book of Judges does not end at 1:9, and that the forces employing chariots of iron in their defense were in fact defeated later in the book: “And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron and for twenty years he had oppressed the children of Israel… And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword (Judges 4:3, 15). Of the forces of Sisera, the song of Deborah says “The torrent of Kishon swept them away…” (Judges 5:3) Lewis explains: “Normally foot soldiers would have no chance of defeating war horses and charioteers… but a rainstorm flooded the valley… the enemy soldiers had to abandon their chariots and run” (Lewis, Judges, p. 41).
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