The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ does not send people to steal, kill and destroy.
Is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ behind the wars, massacres and genocide of the Jews in the Old Testament? Certainly not! God says “love your enemies;” he does not say annihilate them. Jesus’ Father is merciful; and he does not change (Malachi 3:6).
Just as “the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18); even so the bible provides progressive revelations of the character of God. However, in the person of Jesus, we finally have the true full expression. Jesus says: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Prince of peace
The Father of Jesus does not teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight (Psalms 144:1). On the contrary, Jesus insists citizens of the kingdom of God do not fight (John 18:36). They do not even resist evil people (Matthew 5:39). God did not intend the Israelites to have an army. Moses told them initially: “The LORD will fight for you” (Exodus 14:14). But soon, they were the ones fighting for the Lord.
This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). Accordingly, God’s plan was to give the Promised Land to Israel without a fight by sending hornets to drive out the inhabitants little by little (Exodus 23:28-30). But the Israelites preferred to be war-mongers like other nations. Therefore, they pursued their own agenda. Judges says: “When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates” (Judges 5:8).
Indeed, many biblical stories of Jewish conquests were mere fabrications. Victims of Jewish genocide did not stay in the grave. Moses allegedly exterminated the Midianites (Numbers 31:14-18); but they resurrected (Judges 6:1-2). He also ostensibly annihilated the Amalekites twice; but each time they came back to life (Exodus 17:14; Deuteronomy 25:19).
Furthermore, the ruthless wars of ethnic-cleansing of Canaan were just Jewish fables. Wars said to have been successfully concluded under Joshua only started after his death (Judges 1:1-2). In most cases, the Israelites could not dislodge the original inhabitants (Judges 1:19-36).
Thieves and robbers
The prophets were against Jewish glorification of blood-letting. Habakkuk declares woe on he “who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!” (Habakkuk 2:12). Isaiah maintains: “The indignation of the LORD is against all nations, and his fury against all their armies” (Isaiah 34:2). It is the blind who lead the blind to war. When the earth is finally full of the knowledge of God; “nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4; 11:9).
In this regard, Moses sometimes misrepresented God. He told the Israelites: “Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately. But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls” (Numbers 31:17-18). Such evil directives cannot come from the God revealed in Christ as love.
Jesus repudiates Moses’ vengeful doctrine of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Matthew 5:38-39). He insists the bread Moses gave to the Israelites in the wilderness is not the true bread of heaven (John 6:32-33).
Jesus confounds the whole biblical folklore of Jewish massacres and land-expropriation. He says: “All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them” (John 10:7-8). According to Jesus, God does not send people to steal, kill and destroy, as Moses alleges. Instead, he is the resurrection and the giver of life (John 10:10; John 11:25).
When James and John wanted to command fire from heaven like Elijah to consume a Samaritan village that denied them free passage, Jesus rebuked them. He told them the Holy Spirit is not the destructive spirit of Elijah. God is not out to destroy men’s lives but to save them (Luke 9:55-56).
True bread
Before Jesus, men essentially second-guessed God and became prophets of their own prejudices. Some Israelites thought they were sons of Abraham, but Jesus insists their evil actions indicate the devil was actually their father (John 8:44). The Father of Jesus is God of all, and not merely the tribal Lord God of the Hebrews (Exodus 3:18).
Jesus says: “No one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Luke 10:22). Therefore, only after Jesus’ faithful witness could we come to the real knowledge of God. Only then could the true God also be our God.
Thus, on his resurrection, Jesus said to Mary: “Go to my brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God’” (John 20:17).