The Old Testament Katie Byars

I like this week`s reading. I think I like it a lot because St. Thomas Aquinas is short and to the point. He needs little flowery words to entice people in just the statement of his ideas. He, like Augustine, uses scripture to make his point. I agreed with Aquinas`s statements about war. I think that war can be justified and that there must be guidelines that can tell you if the war is justified, but I am surprised that Aquinas does not try and make a better argument for war based on scripture. He only uses two examples from the old testament to argue his case. I understand that there needs to be examples from the new testament, but there are dozens of examples of wars in the old testament that shows the right way to declare and wage war. God used war several times in the old testament to punish Isreal for their sins. God even wants the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites and also told King Saul "I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go and attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men, women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys." (1 Samuel 15:3) In both of these examples, everyone failed to listen to the Lord. The Israelites did not totally wipe out the Canaanites and Saul did not completely kill the Amalekites, and in both cases, this leads to their doom. This does not mean that all the wars the Israelites were in were sanctioned by God. In Judges, the Danites attack Laish who God had not commanded to kill and this attack stand as an example of how twisted the Israelites were at the time. I am also surprised at how Aquinas does not include the examples of the war that Israel made allies with Egypt despite God telling them many years before not to and of how Israel lost battles when they did not consult God but won them when they listened to Him. These are clear examples of how to wage war and how not to. Anyway sorry for the rant. I really enjoy reading the Old Testament and seeing what can be learned from the Isaeralit`s mistakes. 

I commented on Zane`s and Eliza`s posts.