Let me share a few practical thoughts that I take from the careful and painful study in how women were treated in ancient wars and how God implemented incremental, redemptive movement in the midst of ancient abuse and violence.

One question is at the forefront of a series like this. Based on what we have learned from the Bible and the Ancient Near East, how does God want us to handle challenging situations like Haiti, Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. In many ways our culture today is no better than that of the Ancient Near East. In spite of the advances made in the Geneva Conventions, war rape is still practiced today and, in the case of Hamas, it is even a subject of boast, a particular painful way to “even the score” with an enemy.

It is clear from the Scriptures that God does not approve of atrocities of war. He grieves the consequences of actions performed by His own people as well as their enemies. But the God of the Bible is realistic, even He can’t solve it all human injustice with a “snap of the fingers”. God’s actions in this world are constrained by the cosmic conflict. So if you are a person doing all they can to bring peace and reconciliation into this world, don’t blame yourself when things don’t seem improved. Even God does not get everything He wants. Many of our best efforts to make a difference in this world will not succeed and other efforts will result in only minimal success.

I think we can take two major lessons from the above studies. 1) When we do attempt to act redemptively, we are on the winning team, even when there is little visible improvement. God only asks us to do our level best, God will sort it all out in the End. The resolution of all the injustice in this world is not our responsibility. Something better is coming and God is the One who will see to it.

In the meantime, 2) There is something we can DO. Like God, we can work for incremental improvement. These small improvements may be disappointing to us, but they forecast that something better is coming. As an old Jewish proverb says, To save one person is as if you saved the whole world. Doing all that you can to implement change is God’s work. You are doing what God does, you are doing what God would do in your place.

The Bible often presents things that are less than ideal. Human hearts are hard. The Bible indicates that even God must be very patient with the human condition. When we mourn the situation, God mourns with us. When we work to make a difference, God works with us. When things don’t work out quite the way we had hoped, we can be patient, because God is also patient.