“Can your 8- to 12-year-olds read the bulk of God’s Word in one year? You bet!”
So says the advertising copy for The One Year Bible for Kids, a publication of the Christian publication company Tyndale House. In its introductory material, The One Year Bible for Kids explains that it’s good to get to know God’s character by learning all about God:
“How do you get to know someone? Probably by spending time with the person and talking with him or her, right? The same is true with getting to know God. If you want to know what God is like and what he wants you to do, you have to spend time with him. One of the best ways to do that is by reading his special message to you — the Bible. And the cool truth is that as you spend time with God, you will see how he works in your life and helps you change in ways you never thought possible!… There is a way for you to read through the Bible in one year and understand what God is saying to you. Keep reading!”
But in the Bible passages the book makes available for children to read so they can learn about God’s character, there are odd gaps. Take, for instance, the Book of Samuel. Here’s the book’s reading plan for the end of March:
There’s 1 Samuel 13, and 1 Samuel 14, and 1 Samuel 16, and 1 Samuel 17, and 1 Samuel 18…
… wait a minute. Where’s 1 Samuel 15? Why doesn’t the plan call for kids to read 1 Samuel 15? After all, the more kids read, the more they’ll know God, right? After all, the introduction calls of kids to “keep reading,” doesn’t it? Why doesn’t the One Year Bible for Kids want kids to “keep reading” in this instance?
Let’s read 1 Samuel 15 in the New Living Translation (the version preferred by Tyndale House publishers):
One day Samuel said to Saul, “It was the Lord who told me to anoint you as king of his people, Israel. Now listen to this message from the Lord! This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I have decided to settle accounts with the nation of Amalek for opposing Israel when they came from Egypt. Now go and completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation — men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.”
So Saul mobilized his army at Telaim. There were 200,000 soldiers from Israel and 10,000 men from Judah. Then Saul and his army went to a town of the Amalekites and lay in wait in the valley. Saul sent this warning to the Kenites: “Move away from where the Amalekites live, or you will die with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up from Egypt.” So the Kenites packed up and left.
Then Saul slaughtered the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, east of Egypt. He captured Agag, the Amalekite king, but completely destroyed everyone else.
The Lord God commands that all men, women, children and babies of the Amalekite nation be slaughtered because 400 years prior, those people’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents gave the Israelites a hard time.
Even in the Lego version of the scene (via the ever-helpful Brick Testament, this just doesn’t look good:
If kids read that part of the Bible, they’d learn that this God character demands the merciless killing of babies who have done nothing wrong because of something that their far-distant ancestors once did.
Why doesn’t Tyndale House want kids to get to know this side of God? You know the answer.