silentreader wrote:That's true about Samuel, but notice that he did second-guess God's first instruction and it was then that God gave him an 'out'. What would have happened if he would have just gone and done it? Would God have allowed Saul to kill Samuel because Samuel was unquestioningly obedient?
Maybe.
I find it really helpful to assume there's a lot I don't know. There are quite a few times in the Old Testament where God commands people to do things that are not consistent with New Testament Christianity. I don't really have great explanations for that, but I do think we should be especial careful about directly applying Old Testament passages without a New Testament filter.
I mean, what do you do with commands like this?
Numbers 31:17-18 wrote:Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves.
Or this?
2 Kings 23:20-25 wrote:He executed the priests of the pagan shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them…. He did this in obedience to all the laws written in the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the LORD’s Temple. Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.
Or this?
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 wrote:If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die.
Is it biblical? Is it Christlike? Is it loving? Is it true? How can I find out?