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NASB | Psalm 137:9 How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Psalm 137:9 How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock. |
Subject: Baby Smashing? |
Bible Note: Hi Steve. Thanks for your message. Part of me agrees with what you have said.... Part of me sees things another way. So, humbly, I submit these thoughts: 1) There is more than one category of violence, I guess. Sorry for my original blanket statement. So what kind of violence do we see in verse 9? The kind that "keeps political peace"? 2) The Israelites, surely, were called to different standards than the surrounding cultures. 3) Christians are free to ask for God's vengeance --- but are we to ENACT it? The radical nature of the gospel is that we are to submit, immitating Christ's submission. See the instruction to slaves suffering unjust treatment (1Peter 2:18-23). The Church is built by the blood of its martyrs --- literally and figuratively. It is interesting that the Isaiah text that mentions the smashing of babies has the Medes doing the dirty work (Isaiah 13:17), not God's chosen people. 4) God's judgement must come against nations and individuals alike. With Sodom and Gomorrah, the innocent were evacuated before the destruction. In Canaan, "Rahab the prostitute did not perish with the disobedient" (Hebrews 11:31) Surely, then, the justice of Ezek 18 can still apply. Although, perhaps this wasn't understood at the time Psalm 137 was written? It seems Ezekiel 18 was written as a counterpoint to the interpretation of other scriptures (where descendants are punished for their parents' actions). 5) Certainly, "Jerusalem was where God made his name and presence to dwell". But the exile began to pose some problems for this theology ---- even after the exile, they remained an occupied people. Even with the Maccabean uprising --- the dynasty that followed was far from faithful. Thus, the picture of what the "kingdom of God" should look like never really happened. It is this unfulfilled expectation that adds such drama to Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As Christians, we depoliticize "Jerusalem", understanding this merging of politics and faith to be about heaven. We are still, of course, politally active --- but "Jerusalem" becomes a symbol of our ultimate home. We can look back at Psalm 137, and see the view of Jerusalem as a distortion of God's plan. (Of course, how could they have known? But how can we read it without hindsight? How do we read without anachronism?) 6) Can you imagine Jesus smashing the baby's heads? A naive (and, again anachronistic) question, but I'll ask it anyway. Yours, JRM |