Some religious critics regard Christadelphians as fundamentalists because of our confidence in the Bible as a revelation to us by our Creator, from the beginning, of His character, purpose, and actions. They assume that we believe that God intends us to understand every Bible passage in absolutely literal terms and as being of equal weight and importance. They suggest that we regard every command of God from Genesis to Revelation as equally binding on us today. Some differentiate between the “harsh” God of the Old Testament and the “loving” God of the New Testament.
However, we know there are many lovely examples of God’s love, forgiveness, and gracious actions in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament are thrilling prophecies about His work with people through His Son, and about the climax of that work in His Son’s ruling the world in righteousness. In the Old Testament, God is revealed again and again to be both holy and a savior. He is totally unlike the cruel heathen gods of man’s imagination — gods who demand appeasement and degrading, immoral worship, and who act as humans do.
No believing and mature reader of the Old Testament regards its every word to be of equal weight. Blasphemous words, like those of King Sennacherib of Assyria, are recorded in historical accounts; wrong ideas about God are expressed by Job’s friends in the poetic book of Job; the words and actions of fools are recorded in some psalms and proverbs. Mature and sensible discernment enables us to distinguish between blasphemy and foolish, wrong words, on the one hand, and truth on the other.
Portions of Old Testament psalms and prophets are poetic — using similes, metaphors, imagery, personification and parables. In his teaching Jesus uses many parables to illustrate his message in simple, powerful ways and to separate the genuine seekers of truth from casual, lazy, and hostile listeners. Parables do take honest, prayerful efforts to understand and to apply.
Some Old Testament and New Testament prophecies about the future use symbols. These are not intended to be taken literally, but to be used with the keys to their understanding that are provided in that book itself, or in other parts of the Bible. These symbolic portions of Scripture are often used improperly and even dishonestly to prove human ideas that contradict the plain teaching of Scripture.
In the Bible, all of the fundamental teachings about God and His saving purpose for us in Christ are stated plainly in various places. When we encounter symbolic teaching, then we must interpret the symbols in accord with the fundamentals of the gospel.
The ten commandments of God’s covenant with Israel are also found in the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. However, the other laws that formed Israel’s civil code were wise, yet not ideal. As Jesus says in response to a question about the lawfulness of divorce for any cause, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matt. 19:3-12). So also, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” limited retaliation and the cities of refuge prevented vengeance. But they were not the ideal.
In the Lord Jesus’ life and words we have the true ideal. “God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has spoken to us by His Son… the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person… upholding all things by the word of His power…” (Heb. 1:1-4). There is a qualitative difference between some of the laws given by Moses to govern Israel (under its imperfect rulers) and the instruction of the Lord Jesus. The law was limited to external actions that could be judged by Israel’s human judges. Jesus teaches us how to fulfill, or “fill full”, the real intent of the law. He shows us the true standard for our attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions.
In Matthew 5:43-45, in striking contrast to the Jewish traditions about the law (“You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy”), the Lord Jesus says to us, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”
This is a difficult command to obey when other people show enmity towards us and hurt us. However, when we understand love as defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4 7, we realize that we can still practice love in patience and kindness to unlovable people who hurt us. By love, we reject jealousy, rudeness, and thinking evil of them. We believe and hope the best of them and for them. If we consciously try to think and act in that way towards people whom we don’t like or who hurt us, and if we pray for them, then they may no longer seem to us to be our enemies.
This new commandment of the Lord Jesus is in harmony with how we see God working with many sinful people in the Old Testament. Yet, it seems to be very different from the attitudes expressed by some inspired writers in the Psalms and prophets. In his book Exploring The Psalms, Bro. Mark Vincent explains that prayers for the destruction of enemies in the Psalms are often in a context where they are the enemies of God, of His anointed king, and of His people.1
The inspired words of Psalm 137 — where God’s people in exile in Babylon say, “Happy shall be he who repays you as you have served us! Happy shall he be who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock” — sound like human, vengeful feelings. But disciples of the Lord Jesus ought not to say that. These words are there so that we can appreciate the depth of longing for Jerusalem, and the anger and grief over the loss of their children that these people of God felt.
Disciples of the Lord Jesus through the centuries and in our day have suffered and are suffering in a similar way. We can empathize with the feelings of God’s people in this psalm. However, the Lord Jesus has set us a higher standard in his life and in his words, as the Apostle Peter reminds us (1 Pet. 2:23; 4:19).
In Jeremiah 18:18-23, the prophet — so much abused and persecuted by his own people for speaking words meant to save them — prays in a very human way. He prays that those who conspired to hurt him should be overthrown, that their children should die by famine and the sword, their wives widowed, their young men slain, and that God should not forgive them. It is not the Lord’s will that we should follow these words today. They are there to show us the depth of this faithful prophet’s suffering and hurt in his lonely struggle. They enable us to feel for Jeremiah, to appreciate the faith and courage it took to speak for God — faith and courage we need, too. However, the Lord Jesus teaches us a higher standard of behavior toward our enemies. We are to pray for them.
Similarly, the spirit of Psalm 149 seems to be in stark contrast to the teaching of the Lord Jesus. It is often used as a basis of rejoicing that, in the kingdom, glorified and immortalized disciples of the Lord will use two-edged swords to cut unbelievers in pieces. This sounds as if we are saying, ‘While we turn the cheek to insults and blows now, in the kingdom it will be our turn to hit back.’
Is that the attitude that the Lord Jesus is teaching us? Is this what our present training in His way is preparing us to do? What is this passage actually saying? What does it mean? How does the context of the passage and of the Scriptures as a whole help us to answer those questions?
The Hebrew word “chasid”, translated as “saint” in Psalm 149 [“this honour have all his saints”: v. 9], is translated as “saint” in thirteen other psalms, all in the sense of mortal people who are faithful to God:
(a) “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psa. 116:15).
(b) “He preserves the lives of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked” (Psa. 97:10).
The saints in all these psalms are mortal people who use the sword at God’s command.
From the time of Abraham’s rescue of his nephew Lot (Gen. 14) to the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem led by Nehemiah, the people of God used the sword. By God’s help and with the sword, they conquered the land of promise and defended God’s people from His enemies over many centuries. However, the words of David, Israel’s warrior king, teach us that this is not the ideal. David explains that he was not allowed to build a house for the LORD because he had shed much blood and had made great wars (1 Chron. 22:6-10). The Lord Jesus teaches his disciples a different way.
In the day of his return, and with his Father’s power and the aid of the mighty angels, Christ will measure out upon the nations judgments of fire, earthquake, pestilence, and great hailstones (cf. 2 Thes. 1:6-10; 2 Pet 3:10-13; Isa. 2:12-21; Ezek. 38 and 39). Thus all nations will see God’s glory and judgments and — along with His people Israel — will know that He is the LORD. Yes, in the symbolic vision of the Lord Jesus coming in judgment in Revelation 19, we see him clothed with a robe dipped in blood and the armies of heaven following him. There is, however, only one symbolic sword and it comes out of his mouth.2
We know that we should not base any important teaching on one Bible passage. Here, attention to the meaning of “saints”, to the context in which the Psalms are written, and to the rest of the Bible enables us to understand Psalm 149.
- For a similar view on such prayers in the Psalms, see the following note on “The Imprecatory Psalms”.
- Whether the immortal saints wield literal swords or not, there will of course be terrible judgments upon the mortal nations — and armies — that set themselves against the LORD and against His Anointed. Beyond doubt, the immortal saints will — and should — rejoice in these judgments when they come, for such judgments will be righteous.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One