The Old Testament Roots of Nonviolence: Abraham's Personal Faith, Moses' Social Vision, Jesus' Fulfillment, and God's Work Today

The Old Testament Roots of Nonviolence

Abraham’s Personal Faith,

Moses’ Social Vision,

Jesus’ Fulfillment,

and God’s Work Today

Philip E. Friesen

The Old testament roots of nonviolence Abraham’s Personal Faith, Moses’ Social Vision, Jesus’ Fulfillment, and God’s Work Today

Copyright © 2010 Philip E. Friesen. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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The Seed, Root, and

Flower

Of Peace

In the Soil of Injustice

With Seeds of Hope

For Today

The inspiration for the outline comes from thirty years of ministry to and friendship with Asian Buddhist relatives and friends. In the Far East, the lotus often represents the pain and beauty of life. The picture is of a beautiful flower growing out of the muck and mud of swamp water, for me a marvelous picture of grace, revealing the beauty God can bring out of the suffering of our lives. As a Christian, I see Jesus to be the flower of peace bringing fragrance to our lives when our roots go down beneath life’s tragedy and suffering into the depths of God’s grace, giving us new life in Jesus Christ.

Preface

My paternal grandparents came to Minnesota as children of German-speaking Mennonite immigrants from the Ukraine. They left land, wealth, and comfort in Russia for the sake of conscience, and the issue was military conscription. What they did not fully understand was the reality they were buying stolen property when they came to Minnesota. They bought land taken violently from the Dakota Sioux. History was repeating itself, because one hundred years earlier my grandparents’ ancestors had accepted land from the Russian Czar taken by conquest from Muslims. Were my ancestors naïve and lucky, or were they people of great faith? Did the resurrection of Christ defeat the violence of the system once for all and make it unnecessary, as my Mennonite ancestors believed, or were they simply clever enough to reap the spoils of war without having to fight?

When I first discovered the library in third grade, I wasn’t thinking about these questions. My childhood heroes soon became the frontiersmen, Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass, and James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok. I greatly admired James Hickok for his work as an honest lawman in a lawless world, a man who sought to bring about, as he described, a government of laws and not of men.

At the same time I listened to my maternal grandfather’s stories of growing up across the creek from the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota, and the kindnesses his family received from them, despite the ethnic cleansing that had placed the Indians on a reservation. The government of laws my hero helped establish had been a lawless intrusion into the lives of the native peoples, but this was a disconnect my education taught me to accept as normal.

As time went on this disconnect widened. On one hand I learned pacifism from my Mennonite parents with an ethic of peace, promising freedom from sin and bringing fellowship with each other. On the other hand in public school I learned the glory of battle and patriotic heroism that brought political freedom from tyrants and kings.

In the mid-1960’s I attended a Christian College where military training was a required class for all freshman males. During this period this disconnect became for me unavoidable. How could the same indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ so clearly lead my spiritual ancestors to prison and death rather than participate in war, and at the same time lead my spiritual mentors at school in the opposite direction? Could both be following the same Spirit?

After graduation the most difficult moment of my youth was facing my own father to declare I no longer shared his convictions about war. His response exceeded my wildest hopes. In essence he said, I gave you to God and you belong to him. You follow him wherever the Holy Spirit leads and I will support you. With these words he set me free from mere religious tradition.

In 1967 the Vietnam War was raging, and all young men my age were being drafted. Had I actually been drafted I would have gone, but just at that time I was invited to serve as a missionary teacher in East Africa, and when I accepted the invitation an exemption from military service was quite miraculously granted. There was no clever calculation on my part to avoid military service. It was clear God had something else for me to do. Like my forbearers who left Germany in the 18th Century and again left Russia in the 19th Century, God had a different place for me.

It took another forty years of study and experience before the disconnect in my mind over the war issue had been bridged. Yes, the Spirit of God does lead his servants in opposite directions at times, but there are reasons of culture and situation that govern. The Biblical story I tell deals with God and human social institutions—institutions built upon violence with God’s permission for a time, but which are passing away, as John’s first letter tells us. I invite my readers to cross the bridge by faith from what is temporary to what is permanent, because the current social order is passing away. The government of laws will be obsolete when love for Jesus rules the hearts of all.

Acknowledgments

In a book by a pacifist about peace, it is appropriate to acknowledge those persons who have worn the military uniform and who have also contributed to my spiritual growth in some way or supported me in mission. This includes friends, relatives, and prayer partners, but one colleague in particular stands out.

Dr. Morris Inch, my Bible teacher at Wheaton College in the fall of 1962, invited me to pray with him in his office. In his prayer for me, an eighteen-year-old freshman, he referred to me as God’s servant, sent by God to study with him. This shocked me to the core of my being, giving me a new perspective. I knew Dr. Inch was God’s servant, but I had never thought of myself in that way, and I never forgot the honor he bestowed upon me in his prayer. Dr. Inch served in what was called the Army Air Force in Italy during World War II.

I thank my wife, Kim, and children, Michelle and Josiah, for their support of my ministry, study, and writing, especially my wife whose industry and frugality made possible the quantity of unpaid time I was able to invest in this project. I also acknowledge the inspiration and stimulation of fresh ideas and creative insights contributed by my Galilean Fellows partners, Dr. William Monsma, founder of MacLaurin Institute and the Galilean Center, Dr. Michael Brands, and John Spaulding, Th.M.

Especially, thank you to Dr. Steven Schweitzer, my advisor on this project when I did sabbatical research in 2007 at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. Dr. Schweitzer is currently Academic Dean at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Indiana.

Finally I must acknowledge my copy editor, Claire Davis, who has saved me from a host of errors.

List of Abbreviations

ANET: Ancient Near Eastern Texts

NICOT: New International Commentary Old Testament

KJV: King James Version

NASB: New American Standard Bible

NIV: New International Version

NRSV: New Revised Standard Version

Introduction

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever. (Revelation

11

:

25

KJV)

On a sunny day in 2001 , the World Trade Center in New York was completely demolished. Those who flew the planes and those who sent them did so, as they claimed, in the name of God. More than three thousand years ago, the city of Jericho was similarly destroyed and devoted in destruction to God. What was the difference between these two events?

Four thousand years ago Abraham devoted his son to God and took him up Mount Moriah to kill him. A millenium later, Hannah devoted her son to God, but instead of trying to kill him, she took him to the Tabernacle to live his life in service to the Lord. What made the difference?

In the sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham did what would be normal in his society. Isaac’s birth had happened in answer to Abraham’s deepest prayers, and Abraham felt he should devote that son to God. He proceeded to do so in the only way a man of his time knew to do. By the time of Hannah there was another option. According to Hebrews 11:19, Abraham believed God could raise Isaac from death, and Abraham’s faith precipitated a new revelation and a new era. Beginning with Abraham, Israel began to learn that human sacrifice in worship was unacceptable to God, and Hannah lived in this new tradition.

What Abraham did would not be right for Hannah. What Joshua did would not be right for us. God’s offer of his son to die and Jesus’ resurrection from death has precipitated an entirely new set of options that are better than what Joshua did. Those who destroyed the World Trade Center were living with Joshua’s understanding of God. Islam brought Arabia forward in the rejection of polytheism, but Mohammad stumbled where the world consistently stumbles, at the scandal of the cross. Unless we have learned to live the life of the resurrection in the light of the cross, we will operate at best, as Mohammad did, in the light of an Old Testament understanding.

Peace comes at a price. When the price is not paid, there will be war. But the price is not military preparedness; rather, it is faith and obedience. The persistent inability to get along with neighbors is proof that one isn’t getting along with God. Proverbs 16:7 makes this observation, When the ways of people please the Lord, he causes even their enemies to be at peace with them. The stories in Judges reveal the negative side of this truth.

In Judges 2:1 a messenger of the Lord brought Israel the announcement of impending war. Israel had failed to expel the tribes whose lease on God’s land had expired, and instead had turned those natives into slaves (Judges 1:28–35.) The former Hebrew slaves from Egypt now had slaves of their own, and God didn’t like it. Failure to obey God had cost them God’s protection, and they found themselves defenseless.

Throughout the story told by Judges, each time Israel’s relationship with God grew cold and distant, conflict arose with neighbors, and Israel lost its liberty. Each episode of subjugation was followed by repentance, and then by deliverance from God who sent Judges. Each episode of deliverance was miraculous, not dependent upon superior, human, military strength. This was the way God ordained for Israel to go to war.

During the time of Samuel, Israel demanded to have a king like other nations in order to prepare a better military defense; and after Israel had a king like other nations, they no longer felt so vulnerable as before. But to have a king like other nations was not God’s plan, and those who understood Moses’ teaching always insisted there should be no king but Yahweh. Unfortunately, the military establishment effectively replaced dependence upon God. People now depended upon the ruler