‘Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, those kicks were fast as lightning …’ Carl Douglas 1974. As skilful as Kung Fu may be, we all know those kicks were not quite that quick. Hyperbole, or exaggeration, are part of everyday language used to help paint a picture, to reinforce a point. When used in everyday speech most, if not all, of us identify it for what it is.
My last post took a brief look at the Covenant theme of Scripture. When God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt He again entered into a covenant with them. This is sometimes called the Mosaic covenant. Central to this is the Ten Commandments but it also incorporated a range of other requirements. Again we see the elements of God providing, humanity invited to share in the covenant blessings without regard to moral purity or any other thing they may do, and consequences for disobedience.
In both Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 we see short lists of the blessings the faithful will receive and long lists of the curses that will fall upon them if they go their own way. In this post I want to focus on the negatives.
In Leviticus 26: 14-18 we read:
4 “However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, 15 and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, 16 I will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you—wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them. 17 I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!
18 “And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins
It gets worse. The phrase ‘I will punish you seven times over’ is stated four times, which means the intensity of the last curse would be 2,401 times greater than that above. Is this meant to be taken literally?
Now note those words ‘... if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me …’ In other words, the curses are a warning that the people are heading in the wrong direction and they have the chance to repent. In fact, the appearance of the curses are meant to warn Israel of the need to repent. Graphic perhaps, but overstated to emphasise a point.
Now an extract from Deuteronomy 28:
20 “The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me. 21 The Lord will afflict you with diseases until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These disasters will pursue you until you die. 23 The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain that falls on your land into powder, and dust will pour down from the sky until you are destroyed.
Here, as in Leviticus, the picture is grim. Yet in both places the curses must be seen as a contrast to the blessings that accompany faithfulness. One is a picture of total prosperity, security and abundance. The other fear, hunger and destruction.
Deuteronomy 28 continues:
45 “If you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. 46 These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever. 47 If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, 48 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.
These words raise a couple of questions. First, the phrase ‘until you are completely destroyed.’ If ‘you are completely destroyed’ how can you have descendants? Then there is the word ‘forever.’ History confirms that the descendants of these people, the Jews, have at times throughout history experienced some terrible things. Yet today they still live among us and are not suffering the curses as described in the text. Why?
We see the use of hyperbole in other places that also speak of judgement. For example, in Isaiah 2: 19-21. While some will say this speaks of the Day of Judgement that will come at the end of earth’s history - and no doubt it does - its initial application is to the people of God in the time of the prophet. It warned of their impending judgement for their unfaithfulness to the Covenant.
19 When the Lord rises to shake the earth, his enemies will crawl into holes in the ground.
They will hide in caves in the rocks from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty.
20 On that day of judgment they will abandon the gold and silver idols they made for themselves to worship.They will leave their gods to the rodents and bats,
21 while they crawl away into caverns and hide among the jagged rocks in the cliffs.
They will try to escape the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty as he rises to shake the earth.
Again, while the following may have fulfilment at the end of time, the warning was originally given to the nation of Babylon through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 13: 9-13:
9 For see, the day of the Lord is coming — the terrible day of his fury and fierce anger. The land will be made desolate, and all the sinners destroyed with it.
10 The heavens will be black above them; the stars will give no light. The sun will be dark when it rises,and the moon will provide no light.
11 “I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin. I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty.
12 I will make people scarcer than gold — more rare than the fine gold of Ophir.
13 For I will shake the heavens. The earth will move from its place when the Lord of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath in the day of his fierce anger.”
Then there is this warning for Pharaoh in Ezekiel 32, given at the time of the Divided Kingdom of Israel and Judah:
3 Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will send many people to catch you in my net and haul you out of the water.
4 I will leave you stranded on the land to die. All the birds of the heavens will land on you, and the wild animals of the whole earth will gorge themselves on you.
5 I will scatter your flesh on the hills and fill the valleys with your bones.
6 I will drench the earth with your gushing blood all the way to the mountains, filling the ravines to the brim.
7 When I blot you out, I will veil the heavens and darken the stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give you its light.
8 I will darken the bright stars overhead and cover your land in darkness. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!
If that is to be read literally it includes all the birds and animals of Australasia, the Americas and all the other islands and continents of the world. How many bones would it take to fill the valleys, how much blood to fill the ravines? The language is clearly hyperbolic, used as a literary device to drive home a point. God will bring His judgement on Pharaoh, and Pharaoh will be powerless to stand against Him.
I believe the above helps us to understand Joshua. However, before turning to Joshua I want to spend some more time looking at the covenant God made with Israel and His purpose for them.
Bible quotes from the New Living Translation.
