Yet he did not put the children of the assassins to death, in accordance with what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses where the LORD commanded: “Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.” – 2 Kings 14:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 26, 2019): 2 Kings 14

The alien cultures presented to us in the Star Trek Universe are not all that alien. These cultures are based on a Western understanding of Earth's civilizations. For instance, the Romulan culture is based on that of ancient Rome, right down to the hierarchy of command. Klingon culture began as a reflection of the Soviet Union in almost a cartoon sort of way.  Later, Klingon culture morphed into a representation of a Western-influenced interpretation of Japanese culture that placed honor above everything else. Within the Star Trek Universe, a change took place with Klingon alliances. The Soviet based Klingons were enemies of the Federation, the political unit that linked together Kirk and Spock and the others on the Starship Enterprise. But the Japanese version of the Klingons became allies of the Federation of Planets. Although the new partners of the Klingons usually failed to understand the concept of honor.

In Klingon culture, honor and dishonor were passed down from parent to child. In one episode, Worf, a Klingon serving on the Enterprise, learns that his father may not have died in the Khitomer Massacre, a Romulan attack on a Klingon outpost. Instead, Worf is told that the Romulans took his father prisoner. But this is not good news for Worf. The idea that his father did not “die gloriously in battle” meant that he had been dishonored, and that dishonor was translated down to him as the son of the father. In the episode, Worf travels to find the prisoners and realizes that his dad is not among them, but he begins to see the prisoners with Western eyes. In an unexpected moment, one prisoner comments that if their children did find them, she hoped – and here there is a pause in the dialogue. What did she hope? That their children would view them much as Worf had learned to, understanding their dishonor. But those were not the words that emerge from the Klingon lips. The prisoner’s hope was not to be released from her prison and welcomed back into Klingon society. Instead, she hoped that their children would have the courage to kill them, finally releasing them from their dishonor.

In the real world, the problem with honor-based cultures is that honor, but more specifically dishonor, is passed down from generation to generation. The result is that an insult to one generation can be responded to by the next. So the only safe response to honor is to kill both the parent and the child; to extinguish the guilty and the innocent at the same time. That is the safe response, but not a God-fearing one. Moses outlines this expectation of God clearly in his closing addresses found in Deuteronomy. “Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin” (Deuteronomy 14:16). So Amaziah does what is appropriate under the law. He punishes those who murdered his father, while protecting the children of the murderers. But while Amaziah’s focused response was God-honoring, it was unusual in a culture that would have argued that the children must die as well. If the children were left to live, they might rise to avenge the deaths of their fathers.

A similar argument took place at the close of World War II as the United States weighed whether or not they should use atomic weapons against Japan. Joseph Grew, the ambassador to Japan whose warnings about Pearl Harbor were ignored, argued in favor of the use of weapons of mass destruction.

I know Japan; I lived there for ten years. I know the Japanese intimately. The Japanese will not crack. They will not crack morally or psychologically or economically, even when eventual defeat stares them in the face. They will pull in their belts another notch, reduce their rations from a bowl to a half bowl of rice, and fight to the bitter end. Only by utter physical destruction or utter exhaustion of their men and materials can they be defeated.

Grew argued that Japan’s defeat needed to be total. Both combatants and non-combatants had to die. It was the only way that honor could be defeated. Because if just the guilty were punished, honor would drive the innocent to pick up a weapon and continue the fight.

It was those very sentiments that Amaziah rejected, firmly believing in God. Amaziah knew that his God had ordered that only the guilty should die. And so, Amaziah dismissed what was pragmatic and followed the dictates of the God to whom he prayed.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 25