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It seems to not matter to God that the Israelites took over the promised land by force, rather than by diplomatic means. How can a person rationalize that?  

Lorraine, since you are asking how to rationalize God's actions with diplomatic means, you are assuming that diplomatic means are the standard by which to measure actions. For many who dislike war, diplomatic means have come to be the preferred choice for settling disputes.  However, in the Bible, many disputes were settled by war, as unpleasant as that is.  It is not something to rationalize, but to accept.  Hitler was unstoppable by diplomatic means.  He was only stopped by force.  After WW II, there has been a growing hope that future disputes could be stopped by diplomatic means.  However, it has had very little success in the past half century.

God commanded the Israelites to take over the land by force and to make no diplomatic treaties with anyone.  In fact, the victories that Israel won were direct gifts from God, not just what He allowed or overlooked.  I hate war, and the ideal is always peace, such as Solomon enjoyed throughout his reign.  However, I must accept that doing things by force is legitimate, since God Himself ordered it.

Every time we where ordered to take over land, we had to offer peace first, to the inhabitants who still could live there under conditions. This was allready in the fist 5 books of Moses like this... Do I miss something maybe?

In the times that there was no specific prophecy we had to form commities, talk to the King, and offer other Kings etc. peace first.
Also in after the first worldwar till 1920 there where all kind of diplomatic talks, how Britisch Palestine would become Jewish, and Irak and Syria Muslim, and Libanon Muslim/Christian etc. All diplomatic also via the leage of Nations regocnized...
That ''Jordanians'' took illegaly against the leage of Nations rulings land, nobody seems to speak about those undiplomatic stolen land.
Israel wanted and wrote to live in peace with the Arabs/Turks/Palestinians/Druze people who lived inside Israeli borders. All kind of talks where before 1948.   Even during the English, the Palestinians ruled democratically that Jews where not allowed to immigrate, and after Auschwitz etc. over 40.000 Jews did end up in an English wired up-camp in Cyprus for 3 years because they where not allowed to immigrate into Israel... A lot went democratically and with ''peace''-talks...
Or can you tell me more specific what you mean. Is the question about a certain text?

Greetings.

Lorraine, Shalom.
God owns this Planet, including the Universe, around it.  He gave it to Israel as their own land, forever, no matter who might be 'squatting' there, when He did so.

If you desire to me upset about this, try remembering that the Land of Israel will be complete at the Euphrates River, not at the present Dead Sea.

We do not sit in Judgment of Him, but He sits in Judgment of us, since God, also, owns us (with a twist).

Please accept the truth.  Mortality, with God's Blessing, is so much more fun.

In Messiah, welcome to the Forum.  Arley

Shalom, and welcome, Lorraine.

God owns the land, and gave it to Israel, from the Mediterranean Sea, to the Euphrates River (includes Jordan, Iraq, and other territory).

I, for one, rationalize the method of taking possession as following the command of God, who not only owns the land, but also the people (all of us).  God rationalizes, we follow His directives.   That may be a bit oversimplified, but none the less accurate.

In Messiah.  Arley

PS: This is my second attempt, so if you see another post from me, tell it I wasn't ready to give it that much freedom.  Ha. //as//

Thanks, those who replied to my vague query.  You have given me "food for thought".  

Hi Lorraine, now I reread your question I see the matter



The answer is actually quite simple:

Because THE ALMIGHTY ordered HIMSELF the Israelites to take over the land (also by force if needed), it was His matter, and he did matter.

So as I wrote before often we had to do it with diplomatic means. That's why we still have a lot of ''peace-talks'' eventhough we know that it not always helps.  But we where also commanded to try diplomatic ways first.

Even leaving out of Egypt and out of Slavery was first tried with a lot of diplomatic talks to the Pharao, for all kind of reasons.
But If the Almighty decides that it is time to leave by force, or to take back by force than it is time to do so.

So was it realy taking over the promissed land, or taking back the promissed land?