I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth. I will sweep away man and beast. I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. I will overthrow the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth. I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will punish the officials and the kings’ sons. And I will punish those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud.

That’s hardly the kind of talk our children hear in Sunday church school. What a torrent of outrage and anger! What a volcanic eruption of vitriol! The devastation is to be complete, nothing and no one is to be spared. God will pass judgment on all that he has made. God will make a sacrifice of people. For Israel, sacrifice was no dictionar…