Among those who faced the
wrong edge of the sword during the first legs, only Dynamo Kyiv nurture some hope of advancing to the next round by registering a win of any margin in Portugal.
But to top it all off, you choose to follow a god that was forced to your ancestors at
the edge of a sword.
Deut 20:12 - 16 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with
the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
And when the LORD thy God delivereth it into thy hand, thou shalt smite every male thereof with
the edge of the sword; shalt thou take for a prey unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
This articulates
the edge of the sword that attempts to separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff, the true believer from the false.
... every man they smote with
the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.
The Book of Joshua makes it clear that the Israelites get to the murderous work of genocide and become quite efficient at it: And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with
the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.
They will fall by
the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
And he [Saul] took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with
the edge of the sword.
When I was a kid, we sang Sunday School songs about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho that never mentioned the fact that the Israelites «utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with
the edge of the sword.»
In many cases, this meant they got
the edge of the sword for disobedience.
Entire cities full of men, women, and children were slaughtered at
the edge of the sword.
Conversion at
the edge of a sword or under threat of drowning is no better than what any fanatic religious terrorist group is doing.
When the Israelites were facing an enemy that was set on killing them all at
the edge of the sword, the Israelites could not fathom any other way out of the situation than by warfare (and frankly, neither can I!)