Richard Brand: Maybe we had better speak more humbly?


Maybe you just have to see it in person to feel the real import of what happens. That seems to be the case in domestic violence in the NFL. The videos of the beheadings by the terrorists have made us sick at our stomaches and outraged. Obama claimed at the UN that “no God would condone” this kind of action. Well, maybe.

A friend of my just sent me an email and said that he had been reading the story of Samson. Samson who pulled the pillars down and killed himself and all those in the building. My friend said it sound to him like Samson was the first suicide bomber.

The evidence gets worse if you have really read your Bible. In II Kings the 10th chapter, there is a story of king Jehu. Jehu is conducting a minor revolution. King Ahab is old and Jehu is about to throw him out as king. Jehu is plotting to become the new King. Jehu tells the leaders of community, if they want to be loyal to him they need to round up all of Ahab’s kin and behead them. The citizens took the 70 sons and children of Ahab and cut off their heads and sent them in a basket to Jehu. Jehu then invited all the people who worshipped Baal to come to the place of worship. Everybody who worshipped Baal was urged to attend. When they all gathered for worship, Jehu had his soldiers kill them all.

All of this was supposed to be in accordance with God’s judgement as given by Elisha the prophet.

That is beheadings, killing of those who do not convert or who worship the wrong God. This is all approved by the God of the Old Testament which is the God of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. “(v. 30 “The Lord said to Jehu: Because you’ve done well by doing what is right in my eyes, treating Ahab’s family as I wished….”)

Reading about it in the Old Testament maybe it doesn’t seem so horrible, but seeing one man get beheaded in real life is shocking. But before we get too high up on our high horse, maybe we better read our Bible and see that something of the same thing was done in the name of Jahweh, God. “ It is easier to talk to other side of an issue when you do not try to be morally superior to them.