Containment - Old Testament Mercy

It was Jesus who defeated the enemy.  So what was God up to prior to Jesus?

There are many purposes served by Israel, God's chosen people, but for the purpose of this post I want to look at localization.  What I mean by that is that the Old Testament is centered around a single people or nation.  God chose them above all other people.  But why just one people?  Why just a single Promised Land?  Why did He give them The Law and Prophets and not, say, China?

We can't know fully what went on in the mind of God when He reached out to Abram.  Were there perhaps others God considered who were slightly less faithful than Abram?  Maybe.  But God wanted to choose a single person out of whom to create a single nation to be His.  Again, there are many reasons for this.  I don't want to get into all the types and shadows and various purposes for Israel right now.  What I want to focus on is the singularity of Israel and the localization of God's attention on the tiny plot of land called the land of Canaan (later to become Israel).  Yes, I realize that scripture also tells us that God loved Egypt and Syria along with Israel but again they are adjacent to Israel both topographically and ethnically.

So, why choose a single nation?  Consider the policy that the first Bush administration had on Sadaam Husein in the early '90's.  They called it "containment".  They realized that Sadaam represented a unique threat that was too costly to deal with head on and too costly to ignore.  The idea behind containment was to allow Sadaam's regime to be however vicious and vile as they wanted provided it was within the borders of Iraq.  As we've seen since we toppled Sadaam's regime, a direct confrontation results in the cancer of his corrupt regime spreading and finding footholds in other locations.  While Sadaam was alive and in control, the cancer was....contained.

Now, consider Israel between the time they are given The Law at Mt. Sinai and the time that Jesus came.  They seemed to be in near constant turmoil.  They were locked in a constant ware/peace/genocide cycle in a single region of earth.  It was Israel versus the world over and over.  And time and again God commanded them, "Kill everything  you find.  Every man, woman, child, and animal."  How seemingly cruel!!  But what was really going on here?

To answer that question, we need to go back in time a bit further.  Sin entered the world through Adam.  Every man since, except Jesus, was born into Adam's blood line.  We have a sin nature as soon as we enter this world.  Cain was no exception.  Cain was the world's first murderer yet how did God deal with him?  He put a mark on him and sent him away.  The reason for this is another topic for another time but suffice it to say that God has mercy on Cain.

Well, not long after Cain, Lamech comes along:

Gen 4:23-24
23 Then Lamech said to his wives:
" Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech!
For I have killed a man for wounding me,
Even a young man for hurting me.
24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy- sevenfold."

Notice that in verse 24 Lamech is speaking, not God.  Lamech compared himself to Cain:  "If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold..."  Not only did he judge himself worthy of protection for having killed someone, as God did with Cain, he upped the ante and judged that since it was a murder motivated by self-defense it was far more worthy of protection than Can's--seventy-sevenfold to be exact.  This is the first example of morality as determined by man and not God.  This is how that dynamic is most clearly stated in the New Testament:

2Co 10:12
12 For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

Comparing ourselves to each other as a method of determining our worth, righteousness, or anything else instead of to God's holy standard leads to a moral decline.  This is the very definition of the proverbial "slippery slope".  It starts small with a single person like Cain who has the audacity to do something completely contrary to good sense (wisdom) and over time it becomes a societal norm.

Let me ask you a question:  when did foul language on television become acceptable?  Can you remember a time when it wasn't?  That may seem like a lame example but it fits nicely.  It also trended upward in time with television violence, sex, cynical story-lines, etc...  How did it happen?  Well, like murder, it started small and grew until it was a societal norm.  The same trend can be seen with literally every societal ill or sin.

It was no different in the time of Noah (not to say we are in the time of Noah, though some would disagree).  What started with Lamech, Cain, and ultimately Adam had spread like a cancer throughout all of humanity.  God was only able to find a single family worth saving!  It was so horrible, in fact, that God was hurt.  The human race, save one family, was beyond redemption.  So God obliterated them.  There was no Jesus at that time to save them.  They could not be born again and redeemed.  In order to save the legacy of love God had started with Adam, He had to save Noah and destroy everyone else.  Sin gave demonic forces a stronghold in sinful people so God wiped out the stronghold.

So things started over with Noah and his family.  But there was still no Jesus yet and Noah was a child of Adam.  Sin still reigned.  Demons were not gone, just pushed back.  It was only a matter of time before things got out of control and God would once again be forced to wipe out humanity in order to give a single worthy family a chance to continue the legacy of love.  Due to the power sin had over us and our propensity to compare ourselves amongst ourselves, this cycle would seemingly have to continue forever.  Demons working with the selfish hearts of men would threaten our species time and again.  But God is smarter than that.

Let's skip ahead to God's next plan to stem the tide of corruption:  The Law.  The Law is amazing.  God came to Israel in power and love to convince them that HE IS and that they can depend on Him.  He established His authority over them and then gave them what The Apostle Paul called "a tutor" or "a guide":  The Law of Moses.  God's intention with the law was to cancel man's habit of comparing himself against his neighbor.  The law clearly states right and wrong and punishes wrong unilaterally.  If you break one statute, you are guilty.  The Law made Israel afraid of God.  It made them listen to Him and regard His councel above their own.  He dealt with them severely to keep them mindful of right and wrong, good and bad, health and sickness.  It's purpose was literally to keep the human race from going off the rails and devolving into another global Soddom.

After many rough starts with the law, Israel found themselves in the region of Canaan.  Suddenly God is telling them to just massacre whole ethnic groups in the region!  Ghastly!  But wait, didn't these people all descend from Noah?  And who were these people groups?  Did any of them end up with demonic blood mixed with Noah's blood?  Yikes.  That sounds scary.  What about their culture?  Did they sacrifice newborn babies to demon gods?  That doesn't sound healthy at all.  Ok, I can see why you'd want to stem the tide of baby-killing culture.  That seems like it will eventually result in the species self-destructing.  But isn't genocide a little harsh?  Couldn't Israel have saved them?  Ultimately Israel did save the pagan cultures through Jesus.  But as I've said before, He wasn't on earth yet.  Why not?  That's another topic for another time.  Let's just say that God could not violate His own word in order to save mankind or the very universe would unravel.

So, like a scalpel God used Israel to excise infected tissue from the region.  This set up a future dynamic of attraction and containment.  Yes, finally containment!  The mixture of the region of Canaan, The Law, and Israelites created what could be considered a demon honey-pot.  Remember that demons are fallen angels who are very angry with God and very jealous of humanity.  They are naturally attracted to whatever God is doing on the earth so that they can try to corrupt it.  God decided what better way to keep the world safe from another age of Noah than to attract the vast majority of demonic activity to a single place on earth and against a single enemy on earth:  Israel.

Demons got into the Somethingites and forged a culture.  Israel slaughtered them.  Time and again a nation would rise up and Israel would slap them down.  Yes, there were plenty of instances where Israel was enslaved, worshipped idols, etc...  The overall effect of God's Law, Judgement, and Wrath was to keep the human race viable for Jesus.  In the fulness of time we see that God kept the enemy busy with Israel long enough for Jesus to pop into the mix and defeat him once and for all.