BEFORE YOU START

MEETING AIM: To give young people the opportunity to voice the questions around why we see so much violence in the Old Testament, which seems to conflict with the loving Father of the New Testament.

BACKGROUND PREPARATION:  Newspapers, Vicky Beeching’s track Everlasting God and a good grasp on the subject of God and violence!

Creating! (15 mins)

As each young person comes into the room, hand them some modeling clay or play dough.

Play quiet background music and give time for each person to make something that represents something important to them (suggestions from a person to an ipod!).

After about ten minutes ask them to get into pairs and explain what they have made to the other person and why it is important. Then ask them to swap objects. Now get them to squish up the other person’s creation!  There should be some pretty hefty objections to this but insist it must be done. 

KEY POINT: Today we are looking at David the Warrior – the master strategist, defender of the people, and destroyer of the enemy.  However, throughout today remember how it felt to have your creation crushed.

We are all God’s creation, whether we acknowledge him or not – just imagine how he feels every time something or someone he has created has been crushed, no matter how ugly or bad or evil they are!

What does the bible say? (30 mins)

Read 2 Samuel 21:15–22. This is just an example of the kind of violence we see in many parts of David’s life and other parts of the Old Testament.

David and his men killed lots of Philistines. What could this possibly have to do with today? In front of us are some newspapers from this week. In smaller groups encourage the young people to go through the papers looking for stories that are about war or violent acts.

Ask each group to share two or three of these stories and then try to put them into the following categories. You can do this very visually by having them in different areas of the room, deciding which category they belong to and getting the group to place the story in that category.

• Someone else has something I want – fighting for something that we didn’t really know we wanted until someone else had it. (Exodus 20:17)
• In self-defence – someone is trying to take what is mine and I don’t want them to have it (Psalm 24:1).
• Power – wanting to rule over people in a particular way – fighting to be the absolute best (Isaiah 40:21-23).
• Revenge – someone has hurt me so I will hurt them back – fighting for our individual rights (Matthew 18:21-22).
• Justice – seeing something that is happening that is “wrong” in your eyes so you fight to put it right (Psalm 75:7).

We can see that violence is part of our nature but this activity should also demonstrate to the young people that most violence has more than one reason to it – and that was the case with David the Warrior. 

The heart of God (5 mins)

David was a strong man and a mighty warrior, but as all of us, he was not perfect, and his motivation for war was not always totally honourable.

He could have said that the Philistines were barbarians and committed such injustice that it was his job to put it right, however he would have also been aware that the Philistines had beat him in battle in the past and getting one over on them was sweet revenge. 

Paint a picture: a girl is screaming hysterically and I slap her face. You may think what a sacrificial thing for me to do because I have gone out of my way to calm her down, however I may know in my heart the reason I slapped her was because her screaming was getting on my nerves! 

KEY POINT: God knows our motivation for what we do and that is what he is interested in – much more so than our actions.

Who is God? (10 mins)

God is not a violent God, he is sad every time something he has created gets destroyed, however, God gave us the ability to make choices. 

David as a man of God prayed about what he did – but we all know he got it wrong as well as getting it right.  We see so much violence in the Old Testament not because God is violent, but because man is violent. To understand the change between the violence of the Old Testament and the love of the New Testament we can only look to Jesus and how he reacted when put under extreme pressure.

Get the group together and brainstorm words that describe God (creator, father, friend, judge, awesome, fear of God etc). As you write them down put them in two columns: Love and Judge.

Response (10 mins)

Using Philippians 4: 4-7 as an introduction, explain that today we have tackled a subject that scholars and theologians have been discussing and debating for years.

It may have raised questions that we now can bring to God (and talk about in the following weeks if appropriate). However, one thing to remember is the never changing nature of God – who is consistent and true in a changing and violent world.

Post the following scriptures around the room: Numbers 23:19; James 1:17; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8. Using Vicky Beeching’s song Everlasting God, encourage the young people to end this session on a positive note in worship – thanking God for his unchanging nature and the peace that only he can bring. 

Close in prayer focussing on God being our solid foundation, our anchor, and our one unchanging thing in this world.

This session will probably create more questions than it answers – be prepared to continue conversations around this topic for months to come!

NOTES FOR ADAPTING: 

For younger groups…Some help may need to be given in the discussion and response time

For older groups…Encourage them to really think about their response to violence.  Their views on wars currently taking place, on revenge and our motivation for doing what we do.

For unchurched young people…This could be a really tough session as they may never really have picked up on the Old Testament stories before – be prepared to change the session and react to their questions and responses to what is being shared

For churched young people…It is all too easy for churched young people to totally accept the Old Testament by dismissing it – however today’s session needs to challenge that as we can see God in all of scripture.  The session needs to be adapted to encourage them to really get to grips with God the judge and creator as well as the father and friend!