(March 9, 2015 at 11:23 am)robvalue Wrote: God does have a limitation. He admits it in his own book.
Judges 1:19, King James
Quote:And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
Whoops! Even omnipotent gods have their kleenex. I mean kryptonite.
This is a classic example of abusing the limitations imposed by the language barrier to serve your own argument.
For one, if I simply wanted to try to fry you on a technicality of the language, I could say that "he" doesn't even refer to the Lord, but to Judah. It very well might, of course, but when the language is ambiguous, we're most likely better served by Young's Literal Translation. It's not easy to read, but it does excise all assumption from the equation, the primary component that has corrupted so many translations. Here it is:
"...and Jehovah is with Judah, and he occupieth the hill-country, but not to dispossess the inhabitants of the valley, for they have chariots of iron."
Now we know that, if "he" refers to the Lord, that it wasn't because He couldn't, but because they had chariots of iron.
You're trying to make the case that the Lord was literally there swinging a sword alongside the troops. There are plenty of instances in the Bible, and this happens to be one of them (much like the entire conquest of Canaan, excluding perhaps the siege of Jericho), where God performs no overt miracles. This is because He demanded faith, at least to an extent, from His people. It's a theme that is inherent throughout the entire book from Abraham forward.
Plus, the Israelites not driving everyone out instantly and completely was foretold:
Exodus 23:29-30
I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 30"I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.…
The bottom line is, if God wanted them to take the land, He would've made it happen.
