Bashin' Bashan

Deuteronomy 3:1-11

This section greatly mirrors those that came before- more recollection of the good ole days of bloody war.  Here Moses reminds them of the incident where they defeated King Og of Bashan.  God says, don't be afraid- do what you did to the Amorites...no worries.

So they do.  Men, women, and children. Dead.

In return they got 60 cities.

Rob Bell suggests that the people in this time were describing the world they knew, that fighting in the name of their god was natural, expected, and commonplace.  He suggests that these ultra-violent passages may illustrate a people not yet evolved culturally enough to recognize that their God is different, that His expectations and desires don't match up to the whims of the gods surrounding them.

And he stresses that this same God put in us the ability to recognize how foreign this violence is to what His will truly is...but this recognition only comes after a gradual cultural evolution.  God guides the people slowly from that barbaric culture and helps it gradually shift to our slightly less but still somewhat barbaric culture.

But it takes many, many, many small steps.  And an amazing Savior.