Hell

Oh Hell! 

In the history of Israel, God commands the people when it comes time for Joshua to invade:
Wipe out these seven nations, or they will lead you astray into their corruption! 

Hell if they didn't do it.  Hell if they weren't led right into that corruption time and time again. 

It's my opinion that God is scary.  When it's revealed to someone how HOLY He is, they are usually terrified and deeply introspective.  Shame and fear bubbles up.  No one stands their ground at His rebuke.  The fear of the Lord is not the same as saluting your Dad.  From the get, we don't have a relationship like that with Him anyway.  I'd have no reservations describing it is straight up terror.  He is a Holy, Righteous, Severe God.  All we are is squirming worms of shame trying to hide the fact that we are masturbating under our covers at night.

      So the terrifying God who holds all life in his hands for his good pleasure commands Israel to wipe out seven nations He deems too corrupt to continue.  While death is the ultimate evil and absurdity to us, it is really just the end of every man throughout history, and God holds every man in his hand, declaring when it's time to go.  But why wipe out these nations?  Even though it would be in God's hands to decide their length of days, why the judgment, why Israel? 

In the Law of Moses, one of the phrases that pops up a few times among death penalties is "remove the evil from among you."  There is a type of evil that Jesus describes as leaven.  It grows and infects.  It's not much of a coincidence that there is so much about leprosy and mold in the Law, they are in the same category as these sins which require death or exclusion.  Eventually we will see the Lord describe his people Isreal as a cultivated branch to produce fine grapes.  Apply that metaphor to a nation.  How horrid it must be for a plant to utterly lose branches and leaves, snipped off arbitrarily it seems.  And it is horrible.  When people are condemned to death by the Law, there is sometimes a warning "don't have mercy on them."  Of course we want to! 

But the horror may have a purpose;  In Deuteronomy 13:11 after a command to stone a transgressor we read "And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you." It's really sort of pragmatic. 

So I think Israel might have been commanded to do it, to fear.

For a long time the corruption of these nations was overlooked, and the people were given opportunity to change their ways for hundreds of years.  God mentions their corruption to Abraham, long before Joshua, but tells Abraham that their corruption has not become fully ripe yet. He waits for them to repent of their wickedness!

While it is wise enough to fear God for his Justice, more shockingly strong is his severe sense of compassion and his patience! Read the story of king Ahab's repentance!  Read of Jonah's indignation! 

The corruption of these people culminated in the ritualistic sacrifice of Children (not to mention all the other abominations Israel liked to imitate).  The thought of burning children alive is horrendous, to us and to God.  While you cannot blame the children for their parents (a thing God has commanded should not be done) it is something else when the children grow up to be worse sons of hell than their parents.  That over the course of a few generations these nations actually got WORSE. 

But the history is what it is, and the nations survived. 

In the monarchical history of Israel, these nations can get pretty chummy with the chosen people.  King after king after foolish king will even adopt the very same rituals which were supposed to bring about the destruction of those nations.  One of the kings burns his own son!  And God does indeed send someone with the same punishment in hand!  God raises Babylon to decimate Israel!  Just like Israel was to decimate the 7 nations!

What absolutely blows the mind is the story of when Jesus fed the gentile crowds in the gospels.  When he fed the jewish crowds there were 12 baskets left.  Just like the number of tribes.  When he fed the Gentile crowds, there are seven baskets left.  These are the descendents of the seven nations.  That scandal of Gentile inclusion is one of the biggest topics in the NT.

Talk about mercy, I can just hear Jonah's indignation!

In any case, the place known as Topheth is the spot where the child sacrifices were done, and it was in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, later known as Gehenna or (Oh hell!) HELL.  You see, Ge (gay) is greek for land, henna is hinnom put through greek.  Topheth is the word for fire pit, only the vowels were changed by the Masoretes into the vowels for the word shame.  This was a practice to worship the pagan god Molech, a practice the Israelites adopted from the corrupting influence of one of the nations. Here is the first picture and understanding of that fiery hell (gehenna) Jesus will mention time and time again! 


Isaiah 30:33 
"Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze."

Jeremiah 7:31-32
"They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.  So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.

You want to talk about a fire pit full of the dead? 

Here is what blew my mind recently:  In Jeremiah 31 we see a prediction of the times to come, it it's quoted in the NT.

"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
   after that time,” declares the LORD. I will put my law in their minds
   and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
   and they will be my people."

We are talking about a future event.  What follows is this:

"'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.  The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah.  The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the LORD. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.'”
If this isn't just a prediction of the return from exile, (the later destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 makes me think it can't be) Then we may be looking at a New Jerusalem type of thing.  The food for thought is this: Is Gehenna renewed in the final restoration? 

But there are so many more things to say, and so much more scripture to know!  I wouldn't bet a shekel of dirt on my rantings and ravings!  I've got a lot to learn!