In common with many classic films of the Western genre (e.g. My Darling Clementine and High Noon), Shane presents violence as a regrettable but necessary means to an end: establishment of a civil and peaceful society. And this is in the wider context of the transitions from generation to generation, and transfer of power and sovereignty from one nation, tribe or ethnic group to the next. Shane explicitly deals with the sequence of the “taming” of the west initially by fur traders, who were succeeded by free-range cattlemen, who were then succeeded by homestead farmers and ranchers. This is part of the larger picture of successive migrations and invasions, whereby one people and their civilization displaces another. And these transitions are usually violent. In OT scripture, this is what occurred in the Israelite occupation of Canaan, where it is represented as an execution of God’s judgment, with the violence serving His purposes.
Do all the other similar violent displacements of one people by another also somehow serve God’s eternal purpose? Is it the necessary means for filling the earth, exercising dominion, eventually filling the earth with His glory through His image-bearers? It is certainly a messy process, this sausage-making; but isn’t it the same kind as what has been occurring in the evolution of species from the beginning of life? There is much violence and destructive “evil” in it, and when it is exercised by humanity the violence is mostly sinful. But isn’t it somehow necessary? The OT teaches that aggressors are often His instruments of wrath, even though they too are held accountable, and each one will be judged according to his motives.
The progressive development of life and of human civilization are part of God’s plan, but progress and development of any kind requires the destruction of the old to make room for the new. This is true on the small scale in the cycle of life and death of individuals, as well as the larger scales of civilizations and species. And it is true of this creation as a whole, which is to be succeeded by the new creation. It is only in the death of the old that there can be a resurrection to the new life of the new creation.
Even though most individual acts of violence are sins, due to their self-serving motives, God, in His sovereignty, is causing it all to work out for the good. One way or another, these continual disruptive and painful transformations must occur. The NT teaches that persecution and suffering are necessary to the development of Christians as individuals, as it is for the church corporately, and as it was for Jesus, in whom we have fellowship in suffering. We cannot opt out of the process – He has not taken us out of the world – but our duty is to be engaged in a way that expresses God’s love. At times, that may place us on the side of either advancing or resisting a particular “invasion”, and may place us in either the role of a warrior or a peacemaker. There is a time and a season for each. But in all cases, we are to act according to faith and according to love, and accept that this painful struggle is a necessary part of this world.