Forget the Crusades

What’s up with the Old Testament?

I’m still not up to the point in my year long encounter with the Bible, but Sunday school yesterday took me to a section of the Pentateuch that had my wife and me scratching our heads:

While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the LORD commanded Moses. (Numbers 15:32-36 ESV)

You don’t even need the ESV’s handy subheading, “Sabbath Breaker Executed,” to wonder if with all the discussion of ISIS’ executions and President Obama’s references to the Crusades has neglected the Hebrew Scriptures.

Of course, Christians and Jews generally do not kill any more in the name of their religion anymore (though what Zionism does to the blessings of the modern nation-state and Israel’s position in the world order is another question). But if Christians and Jews do pay attention to their Bibles, they encounter texts like this one that remind them that the God of Abraham, Isaac, David, and Paul revealed himself in ways that that bear a resemblance to the Qur’an.

Is this an argument for moral equivalency or the beginnings of a position on what foreign policy should be regarding ISIS? No.

Is it, however, a warning that Christians and Jews may not want to get on their sanctified or kosher high horse about Islam? Yes.

(Image: Moses on Mt. Sinai)