THE GUILTY versus THE INNOCENT: Vices that the Gaza conflict exposed.

Proverbs 17:15  Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent— the LORD detests them both. 

To make sense of the senseless events in Gaza, there has to be a guilty party.  So, they say!

Israel simply had no choice but to hit back and hit back hard at Hamas after the brutal events that took place on 7 October.  Hamas was guilty and had to be punished and eliminated.  So, they say!

Yes, but what about the continued desecration of the third holiest Mosque within Islam, The Al Aqsa Mosque, and 50 years of occupation, discrimination and oppression.  Hamas had no option.  Israel is the guilty party.  So, they say!

The sin of both these arguments is the suffering of the innocent.   According to the Bible, the terrible harm that is currently inflicted on the innocent is as detestable to the Lord as acquitting the guilty^.[1]

The reality of the world that we live in is that in order to make sense of conflicts, there needs to be a scapegoat.  Instead of finding redemptive answers, we engage in the blame game.  We seek the guilty, and the guilt bearers will mostly be determined by our own confirmation biases.  It is inconceivable that my enemy might be right and my allies wrong.  It is equally unthinkable that both parties might have a share in the conflict.  To the best of our abilities, we stick with our allies and place the full blame on those whom we have predetermined to be our enemy.

For most Christians in the Western world, it seems like Israel just cannot be guilty of any atrocities.  Their response to the post-7 October attacks on Gaza was that it was justified and that Israel had the right to defend themselves.  It seemed like being pro-Israel also means that you only see them for their good points and ignore the genocide that is inflicted on millions of innocent bystanders.  The relationship with the Jewish people is therefore based on certain romanticism and biblical fundamentalism.

This obviously applies to the Palestinian cause as well.  Muslims find it difficult to condemn the 7 October attacks and feel Israel is to be blamed for anything that comes their way.  Neither of these approaches are conducive to peace

Sadly, any argument seeking a scapegoat will make it more difficult to weep for the victims.  This is detestable before the Lord

SCAPEGOAT THEOLOGY

Scapegoating refers to the act of blaming a person or group for something bad that has happened.  The term “scapegoat” originates from the Bible.  In the book of Leviticus, the Israelites conduct a ceremony in which they direct their sins onto an “escape goat.” Afterward, they set the goat free into the wilderness to metaphorically cleanse the wickedness from their community. The scapegoat, then, bears the burden of taking on the misdeeds of a tribe, community, or family.

As Western believers, we have created a Scapegoat theology. It’s possible to justify almost any unbiblical action as long as we can find a scapegoat to take the blame.  The terrible sin of killing innocent Jews and abducting women and children can be justified by Hamas because Israel is really the scapegoat in this scenario.  Equally sinful is the genocide now being exercised by Israel with more than 15,000 Gazans being killed, more than 6,000 of them being children.  Scapegoating therefore creates the illusion of pardoning.   Send the goat into the wilderness to absolve them from their wickedness because, after all, as terrorists they deserve it.  Scapegoating became the sin that resulted in the deaths of thousands.  And Jews, Christians and Muslims are defending this with equal passion on both sides of the wall

There must be a guilty party that we can identify, expose and then demonise. Once we have someone to blame for our actions, we are satisfied that the Lord will look at it differently.  But He doesn’t

It’s amazing how we neglect to practice this one simple truth:  It’s not about WHO’S right, it about WHAT’S right. In this regard, the Bible is quite clear.  The blame game – who is right and who is wrong -replaced the heart of a God who weeps for the innocent. God didn’t stop weeping after the attack on Israel and he didn’t only start weeping when the first bomb fell in Gaza. He never stopped weeping and he kept on weeping.

As followers of Christ, we are assigned to find redemptive solutions, for ALL involved, and refrain from playing the blame game

[1] Pro 17:15  Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent— the LORD detests them both.