And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and og the king of bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at edrei. And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land.

When we read that God ordained the destruction of an entire people, it makes us feel very uncomfotable; especially in the light of the events in Germany about seventy years ago (or at least, I hope it does). So there is a very real temptation to try and discount it in some way. And yet God is always righteous, and every thing which he wills is righteous, whilst, on the other hand, all things contrary to his will are (by definition) evil.

If we today needed a scriptural justification for dismissing as a madman any “prophet”, claiming to possess a divine commision for genocide, I suppose we could find it in Numbers 12.6-8:

And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold:

Obviously the nature of Moses’s relationship to God was quite unique (although not as unique as that of Christ). Even so, the passage at the top of this post is a reminder, if any were needed, that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways (to quote Isaiah). Furthermore, it is not for us to judge God.

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If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

Following the fall the world, en masse, is in rebellion against God. Unless he chose some out of the world, and called them to himself, none would be saved. That seems to be what is implied in the above verses. Jesus’ entry into the world brought with it a two edged sword. One edge bringing salvation to those whom the Father has chosen, but the other edge bringing into full view the world’s hatred of both Jesus and his Father.

There is no sense in which the will of God can be frustrated by men, and the only rational thing for them to do is to bend themselves to it. But such is the corruption of sin, that we refuse God the worship which is his due.

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How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’s. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD. They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

The Bible is given for our learning, and contains endless warnings about the consequences of idolatry. In fact, I think I have made more posts about those passages than anything else. But such is our endemic sinfulness that now, as back then, we ignore those warnings, and carry on with our various forms of idolatry. The warnings cannot be dismissed, as is sometimes done with other parts of the Bible, as being “just the Old Testament” – accompanied by the unspoken notion that God changed his ways in New Testament times, and is now much more loving (i.e. indulgent of sin). That, of course, is nonsense, and anybody who does not offer God the exclusive worship which is his due, and put their faith in Christ, will stand condemned. Which makes it all the more urgent that we avoid the idols that are so pervasive in this present day. Easily said.

The idol which is almost universally worshipped in the West is (needless to say) material prosperity, and doubtless Asia will soon be joining the West in that. To which the new atheists add a deified science as their next most favourite idol. That second idol adds pride to avarice as one of our most besetting sins. Like the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, we too will probably fail to fully repent, until our civilisation is brought to collapse, or to the brink of collapse.

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And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Amongst other things, these verses give us a reason for salvation not being universal. Namely that God’s victory over his enemies will be part of both motive and substance for the worship of God in heaven. Of course, that might give rise to the perennial complaint that predestination is unfair. But that misses the point that we were not created for our own sake, but in order to serve God’s purposes, and it also misses the point that predestination does not negate human responsibility – when we are judged we will not be able to claim that responsibility for sin is not ours. The universe was created so that God could be thereby glorified, and it is governed with that end in view. All men, all women, and all things, will serve that purpose.

Irrespective of our eternal destiny we all have an unconditional obligation to worship our creator. A refusal to do that, possibly as the result of pride, could be said to function as an indicator of whether or not somebody is amongst God’s elect. If somebody is resentful of God, who is their Lord and reigns over them, and if they steadfastly refuse him their worship, they are hardly fitted to live eternally in his presence. Although what necessarily follows is sometimes described as eternal punishment, it is really something which they will have brought upon themselves – even though it is also something preordained by God for his own glory.

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“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.”

It might reasonably be supposed that one day a similar lament to that of the merchants will be heard from all people who have spent their lives in pursuit of material prosperity, and their own will, rather than the will of God – and of course that means everybody.

It is difficult to overstate the extent of man’s dpravity, who will always live for himself, rather than for the God who is his Lord and creator. Without Christ there could be no salvation.

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