Putting To the Ban Part 2

# 201 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 15:2,3 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 'Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'" (1 Sam 15:2,3) I want to continue the discussion of God's commands to wholesale annihilation found in the Old Testament because Christians struggle with the idea that a loving God could order such wholesale destruction and atheists use these incidents as excuses to dismiss any reason to put their trust in a god. I'm not here to defend God. He doesn't need to be defended, (He is God) but Christians do need a better understanding of this policy called “putting to the ban” found in Lev. 27:29. The command to annihilate an entire population does not reflect a primitive concept of God which gives way to a more humane New Testament God. God is immutable, He doesn't change. He still PERMITS natural and man-made catastrophe's that wipe out masses of people without discrimination of age or sex. Think of the attempts of genocide and victims of natural disasters that we have seen throughout the New Testament age in which we live. Genocide is horrific and no human agent can claim divine AUTHORIZATION for such actions because no human agent is in the position of God's Old Testament people. The Old Testament incidents were unique, never to be duplicated situations that God used as examples for us today. 2Pe 2:6 says, “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; Remember, the ULTIMATE purpose of disasters rests in God's will and providence. No human speculation about the nature of God should attempt to give any other answer. God is God and He knows what He is doing. Even believers are victims in these disasters and attempts at genocide, but God knows the heart, and the innocent victims, (those in Christ) are taken up to be with Him and the guilty are “put to the ban” in hell. When disaster of any kind strikes Jesus tells us how to rightly view it as He commented on the time the tower of Siloam fell and killed 18 people He said in Lu 13:5b “unless you repent you will all likewise perish." (Be put to the ban) The suddenness and total destruction prevalent in disasters and calamities are reminders to all, to be ready. Therefore, repent!