APL, it seems like you just confirmed what I wrote, namely:


I hear you saying - Jesus commanded the Jews to kill every man, woman, and child, not because it was His will, but because they wanted to. They demanded it so He commanded it.

Were any laws broken? Did they sin when they obeyed Jesus' command?

IF you teenage daughter wants to have sex, would you give her instruction on how to do it "safely" to minimize the damage? By doing so, are you condoning her choice? Will she suffer if she does not adhere to your advice? This is the same with Israel. God NEVER wanted Israel to fight, something I do note you adamantly deny. EG White tells us they wanted to fight because they were terribly blinded. They had no need to fight. God never wanted divorce. God never wanted polygamy. God however gave instructions to minimize the damage. IF you really want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Do you believe this? Proverbs 25:21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:

In your example, did the father "command" his teenaged daughter to have sex?

You believe Jesus commanded the Jews to kill every man, woman, and child, not because it was His will, but because they wanted to - they demanded it so He commanded it. Were any laws broken? Did they sin when they obeyed Jesus' command?

Caleb believed the Jews were well able to take the Promised Land: But God had promised the land to Israel. "Let us go up at once and possess it," urged Caleb; "for we are well able to overcome it." {PP 388.3}

The Canaanites would be an easy prey for the Jews: The Canaanites had filled up the measure of their iniquity, and the Lord would no longer bear with them. His protection being removed, they would be an easy prey. {PP 390.1}

Jesus smote the ten unfaithful spies with a plague: The ten unfaithful spies, divinely smitten by the plague, perished before the eyes of all Israel; and in their fate the people read their own doom. {PP 391.3}

Jesus commanded the Jews to go up and take the Promised Land, but they were cowards and did not believe they were able to do it; Jesus commanded them to treat, but they refused to obey: They resolved to redeem their cowardice. When God had bidden them go up and take the land, they had refused; and now when He directed them to retreat they were equally rebellious. They determined to seize upon the land and possess it; it might be that God would accept their work and change His purpose toward them. {PP 392.2}

Jesus promised to empower the Jews to take possession of the Promised Land; they refused; He commanded them to retreat; they refused; they fought without divine aid: He did not command them to fight: Satan had gained his object in preventing them from entering Canaan; and now he urged them on to do the very thing, in the face of the divine prohibition, which they had refused to do when God required it. Thus the great deceiver gained the victory by leading them to rebellion the second time. They had distrusted the power of God to work with their efforts in gaining possession of Canaan; yet now they presumed upon their own strength to accomplish the work independent of divine aid. "We have sinned against the Lord," they cried; "we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us." Deuteronomy 1:41. So terribly blinded had they become by transgression. The Lord had never commanded them to "go up and fight." It was not His purpose that they should gain the land by warfare, but by strict obedience to His commands. {PP 392.3}

The father never told the child to have sex outside of marriage, refusing that, the father gave rules of how to minimize the damage. God never commanded the children of Israel to fight. Refusing that, God gave rules to minimize the damage. God never wanted divorce. Refusing that, God gave rules to minimize the damage. God does not want polygamy, etc. And note that the people may or may not follow even these rules. Is the perfect will of God found in the rules to minimize the damage? No. And in fact, following them and not seeing the truth will not lead to life.

Read Ezekiel 20. Excerpts: Ezekiel 20:11-14 And I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. 12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. 13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them. 14 But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. Ezekiel 20:24-25 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols. 25 Why I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

Never?



You do not speak the truth as it is in the Bible, APL.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Green - - God never commanded the people to fight their way into Canaan, but you I'm sure don't believe that even though EGW confirms. They were NEVER to fight. But they did fight, and God worked with them still. As EGW writes, So terribly blinded had they become by transgression. The Lord had never commanded them to "go up and fight." It was not His purpose that they should gain the land by warfare

Have you read Ezekiel 20? When was the time of Joshua? Yep, right in the time spoken about in Ezekiel 20. Did Joshua follow God in all things?

Are you also blinded?

My Bible says that God gave the command "Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites."

Do you believe God never said this?

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

You are so narrow in your reading and understanding. You can't integrate what I said above and put it together. Read the whole, don't take an isolated verse. Did God command the people to Fight their way out of Egypt? No. Did God command the people to fight to take the land of Canaan IN THE BEGINNING of the exodus? NO. But did the people fight? Did they walk in all of God's statutes? NO. They went backwards not forwards, to quote scripture. The people picked up arms and they had NO NEED OF ANY WEAPONS. They rejected God's covenant. Right in Exodus 20 they rejected the covenant. Did God then abandon them? NO.

Green - open your eyes. Put it all together.

APL,

Your eyes are wandering. You try to look at the bright side with one eye and ignore the dark side with the other. The fact is, justice and mercy are two sides of the coin of God's love. You do not have the option of just mercy and mercy.

You try to say that the people should not have fought. Very well. But your basic premise is not helped, for that leaves the perfect, loving, Creator God to do the fighting for them. Why would God fight? That is the essence of this entire question.

I, personally, care little for whether God fights or asks us to do so. It is clear that at least one of them was a requirement of God. But you, with wandering eyes, cannot focus on this...you see only what you want to see.

If God did all the fighting for Israel, and if Israel had not fought a bit, your basic picture would not be helped--for you still have the dilemma of a God who is a "man of war," as say the Scriptures.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.