Brutality

THURS., JUNE 25, 1992, 6:37 AM
FARM, STUDY

One of the apparently negative aspects of earth life is brutality… persons harming or killing others in brutal ways. While the show you watched last evening featured a hero, who survived as he was involved in brutal acts, it still was a pictured story of inhuman acts, from your perspective. Though the hero was fighting for the right, or so it was portrayed, he did so in quite brutal ways. An early summer day has begun, but let it go no farther without some words from Me about brutality in My earth.

You can assume that the first story of brothers, Cain and Abel, was one that ended with a brutal murder… “Cain rose up and slew Abel, his brother.” How was I, as the Creator God, involved? Your perception is that I provoked Cain by rejecting his gift to Me while accepting Abel’s (in effect, rejecting the vegetarian alternative). So perhaps I did start violence, just as I had started the “think for yourself in terms of good and evil” experience.

You also are aware that one of My favorite servants, David, became embroiled, as a youth, in a one on one battle with Goliath. He killed the giant warrior in a fairly gentle way, but then brutally cut off his head to show that the victory was indeed his. Was this really necessary? Did this youth who played the lyre and later wrote beautiful psalms have this streak of brutality that I did not rebuke. His story is one of more brutality, which he manages to survive, which means that others did not.

The Samson story is one of mutual brutality. Delilah weakens him so that he is captured and brutally blinded. As his strength returns he uses it to brutally bring revenge on his captors, he perishing with them. Is this an important story of faithfulness to Me? Does one brutality merit another? So it seems.

Some of My people, Israel, were treated brutally in Egypt, and thus I commissioned Moses to bring them out. Moses was not a warrior, even as he had brutally killed an Egyptian earlier in his life. He lead the people out, and I gave him the power to part the Red Sea so that they could leave the country for the Sinai wilderness. But then came an act of “natural brutality,” when the waters of the sea rolled down upon the Egyptian pursuers. It has been remembered in your heritage as an exhibition of My power over nature and My power to save My people. It could also be remembered as a final brutal act against the people of Egypt, certainly part of My creation.

It also required brutality, that I arranged and sponsored, to give My people their “Promised Land,” killing and driving out the people who occupied that territory… also part of My creation. You also are aware that the reestablishment of Israel after World War II came about because of the brutality of the Germans in killing Jews as a part of that war. And again a people, so called Palestinians, have been displaced because of this desire of Mine.

So, should you be shocked by brutality? Or should you be thrilled, as you sometimes are, by brutality for the “right”… for a just cause? Or should you ignore this, as long as it doesn’t affect you personally?

My answer is balance. You are not one who is naturally brutal, though you consider that you could be, in certain circumstances. Admire some obvious brutality for the good it accomplishes, including the upholding of honor. Yet you also should abhor violence and brutality that is part of the criminal scene – drug dealing, robbery, assaults, rape, and murder. These are unfortunate aspects of the earth because I allow certain freedoms.