I see such massive resistance against complying with God’s will in the world today. This resistance greatly troubles me.
There is an incredible amount of conflict in the world even when God intervenes to make sure His will is done. The Israeli-Hamas war is a good example. It has opened widespread controversy in human opinion.
My two most recent articles urged people to let God settle this issue himself. After all, He already revealed, over 2,000 years ago, that He would find a suitable place of settlement for Jewish people. And it actually was God who permitted the scattering of Jews out of their homeland later on, when their leaders foolishly rejected Jesus and encouraged Rome to crucify Him.
The Israelites Refused to Obey
The traditional Jewish promised land was originally settled by pagan tribes living there, but it appears that they had not served God properly. Perhaps God simply gave up on them.
When the Israelites entered the Promised Land (the area that is now the state of Israel and Palestine), they found these pagan nations already settled there. And these nations seemed too powerful to conquer. So the Israelites were afraid to initiate war. They returned to the desert without trying to do so.
But when they returned to the desert they were confronted by an angry Moses, representing an angry God, who told them that none of them were worthy of entering the promised land. Each of them would spend the rest of their lives wandering in the desert and God would send their sons to do what they refused to do.
God pretty much told Moses ‘these people in Palestine have offended Me very much and I have decided to wipe them out and have you replace them’ (Leviticus 18:24-28 and Leviticus 20:22-24). So God told Moses to have the Israelites conquer the tribes living there, killing every human being and all their livestock, and possess the land. But the Israelites did not obey Him at first.
God’s Will
It is strange that God would require His people to commit what amounts to genocide. I searched the Internet and confirmed that most commentators affirm this, but none have an explanation for it. Since nobody has explained this, and it is important to know, I will venture my private interpretation. What I am about to suggest is not Catholic dogma. It is simply my own opinion.
God was angry with the inhabitants of the promised land, but He was also angry with the Israelites because they refused to fully comply with His Will. So God told Moses to take the Israelites and march them into Palestine and conquer the tribes living there, killing every human being and all their livestock, and possess the land. And finally they did so.
This is somewhat reminiscent of the flood story. But instead of a flood wiping out the entire human race the Israelites were chosen to eradicate select nations that had offended God.
We cannot know for sure why God did this. But we do know that His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways His ways (Isaiah 55:8). And we should know better than to question Him.
Everyone should understand that God originally created the human race immortal. They would be able to live their lives as physical beings forever as immortal beings. God took away immortality as a punishment for our first parent’s defiance of His command ‘Thou shall not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.’ Death entered into the human experience ever since. And perhaps sometimes God decrees death as punishment for the wicked.
Unrighteous Parades
Imagine you are high in the sky and are looking down upon the wicked in this world. They don’t display much love for God nor are thy eager to obey him. Instead. They parade around in demonstrations critical of God. Some even claim He is a male chauvinist and non-respecter of human rights.
But God is not open to humans deciding their own gender identity, participating in homosexual lifestyles, or killing unborn babies.
Now many are even protesting the Israeli-Hamas war all over the world. They insist on their will when God has already revealed His will.
Righteous Parades
On the other hand, you can also look down on the many public displays of righteous souls trying to honor God by their display of obedience. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and visitors, for instance, gather together to celebrate Our Lady of Fatima each year. And many more march each year for the Right To Life.
Jesus Christ really is the Eternal Son of God, having taken on a complete human body. If any of us forgets who Jesus is, we will never understand His loving care for us and how He works behind the scenes to help us experience the most productive life possible. So, we should obey the author of human life.
Why do we humans always choose not to cooperate with God when all He wants is what’s best for us?
Some Thoughts Derived from YouTube
YouTube has some ‘walks in the park’ videos that last a couple of hours. I like them. They give me the idea that this is the way creation looked right after God created it. The videos show birds and some small animals, but no humans. I’m getting the idea that these videos show the universe right after it was created.
Other videos on YouTube show what humans have done with God’s creation especially after the many wars our planet has seen. What a sad accounting we humans have made of our interaction with God’s creation’
All He wants from us is our love, our acceptance of His Gospel and our determination to obey His moral laws all our lives. What a sorrowful record we have left with the many things we’ve done wrong.
19 thoughts on “The World is Divided”
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Excellent article. Discerning God’s will begins by following His commandments instead of fighting them. Love thy neighbour as thyself. Yet divorce rockets. Perhaps we love ourselves more than the other and Our own wills more than love, which is God. What a mess we make, increasingly destructive and moving further away from His will.
Hello Lianne,
Thank you for reading my article and thank you for the comment
sincerely
Maurice A. Williams
To Maurice:
I think that your article is well-written and informative. How true it is that “we cannot completely understand the mind of God,” nor is it necessary for us to do so. When we don’t understand “the mind” of our Lord, we must (should for our own good) continue to trust Him in all things.
MAURICE A. WILLIAMS
Your early history in your reply to me is correct, however, the Philistines never called themselves “Palestinians”, it is a Roman word, that was coined much later in time.
EDIT
It was the PHILISTINES who must be the descendants of the Cretan people who migrated to the shore and became the PHILISTINE people after the Santorini tsunami in B.C. 1500. Before the Phoenician people arrived. this land was held by Jewish people.
Hello Captcrisis,
Thank you for your second comment on my article, When God permitted the Jews to be scattered out of their homeland, I stressed that it was a a punishment for their killing of the Messiah.
Wow, is that ever an antisemitic mistake. You really do believe in the “blood libel” that was repudiated by Vatican II.
Mr. Williams—Your post is, I’m afraid, rather muddled; but you verge on a reality that the orthodox Christian must accept. Before I go further I strongly suggest that you seriously reread the book of Romans (something, to be blunt, I suspect that you Roman Catholics rarely do). The teaching of Paul in Romans makes it abundantly clear that while the Jews were at one time the Chosen People of God, they are no longer; by rejecting the Messiah they rejected the Messiah’s salvation. This is not anti-semitism: it is reality, and present events show it. Thanks for your attention.–Bob Emery
The Old Testament tales of Israel “completely wiping out” various other tribes and nations are clearly hyperbole. Several times we find the very same trives and nations mentioned centuries later as still making trouble for Israel.
Similarly, the native histories of other ancient Middle East nations claim that they “completely wiped out” the nation of Israel!
True! Jesus confronted the Canaanite woman at the well
However, those same nations were never big enough or strong enough to war with Israel again. There are always some that will manage to get away or are already away in other countries at the time.
Deut 20:17
17But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
You cannot say “God is Love” and also admit that God commanded genocide.
If God commanded you to strangle babies in their cribs (as he did to Joshua), would you do it?
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PALESTINE?!?!?
There was no place called “Palestine” until after the Romans conquered Israel and called it that, as an insult to the Jews! Previously, before the Jews conquered the land, it was called ‘Canaa’ after the Canaanites who lived there.
HOW THE “PALESTINIANS” WERE INVENTED
The origin of the word Palestine comes from the Hebrew word Plishtim, which means Invaders. “Palestine” was the Roman word for “Philistine” a known enemy of the Hebrews. Not all of the Old Yishuv had left Israel, from the time of the Roman Conquest until today!
The Romans started calling Israel as ‘Palestine’ as an insult to the Jews that Rome had conquered.
There has NEVER been a NON-JEWISH country called ‘Palestine’ and a NON-JEWISH people called ‘Palestinians’ until after 1964!
The ‘so-called’ Palestinians whom the world cries out for… are simply an invented people… a people made-up to aid Yasser Arafat (an Egyptian) in his PLO endeavors. In fact, the term ‘Palestinian People’ was first used in the preamble of the 1964 PLO Charter drafted in Moscow, and included a statement calling for the destruction of the State of Israel… a statement that even today has NOT been removed from the said charter. And only after this charter was affirmed by the first 422 members of the Palestinian National Council… by members handpicked by the KGB… did the term ‘Palestinians’ became part of the media jargon.
If the Palestinians wanted Peace, there would be Peace. If Israel wanted War, then so-called ‘Palestinians’ would not exist!
There is no such country in history as “Palestine”. Find an ARAB or Mozlem Palestinian Flag or coin, made prior to 1945… you CAN’T!
However, you CAN find a flag labeled as “Palestine” that is blue and white with a gold Star of David!
Just guess what the 1939 Flag of “Palestine” looked like?
According to the 1939 French LarRousse Dictionary, the flag of Palestine was one-half white, one-half blue with a gold Star of David. This was the official flag for the international region of Palestine since at least 1924 up until 1939.
Hello David,
Thank you for reading my article and thanks for the comments
If this is true; then the Palestinians must be the descendants of Cretan people who migrated to the shore and became the Phoenician people after the Santorini tsunami in B.C. 1500. Before the Phoenician people arrived. this land was held by Jewish people,
My advice is for people to give in to God’s desire After all nobody can force their own will onto God. They can comply with God’s will and we all be happy they did.
Sincerely,
Maurice A, Williams
You have got to stop saying that Jews are at fault for all the misery that’s happened to them.
He;;o Captchrisist,
That is exactly what I am NOT saying.
Sincerely
Maurice A. Willems
“And it actually was God who permitted the scattering of Jews out of their homeland later on, when their leaders foolishly rejected Jesus and encouraged Rome to crucify Him.”
This is a strange use of the word “permitted”. Are you really saying the Jews pleaded to God that their nation might be destroyed and he said, “O.K.”? And I certainly don’t think it was as a consequence of “their” actions re: Jesus, but you obviously do.