Faced with another case of annihilation, Gods judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham said, will not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25). Unfortunately, you discover this isnt a one-time occurrence. Shes also produced a free eBook, A God-Centered Life: 10 Faith-Based Practices When Youre Feeling Anxious, Grumpy, or Stressed. Why are Christians pro-life when it comes to abortion while at the same time in favor of the death penalty and supportive of war. Either God was going to create a nation or he was not. The Amalekites annihilated by Saul (1 Samuel 15). Other enemies were known tyrants who viciously oppressed and exploited people. If Jesus Was in Prison, Would You Visit Him. Its not only enemies who experienced such wrath. More can be said, and I suggest you consider getting a copy of Paul Copans book God is not a Moral Monster. He is quite thorough in covering this topic. Many have asked the intriguing question, Why was it right for God to slaughter women and children in the Old WebThe slaughter of Israels enemies at the command of God may seem inconsistent with a loving God, but it was really an act of love for Israel and others due to the moral condition One attempt to overcome this difficulty is the suggestion that God allowed His name to be associated with these mass killings because His love for Israel was so great that He was willing to have His reputation tarnished for the sake of His relationship with them. Site Policy & Cookies Contact us, Thumbnail source: Freeimages.com/Jorc Navarro, https://www.bethinking.org/bible/old-testament-mass-killings. Even the most godly affirm that over and over. God allows the death and destruction of humanity as He did with the flood in Genesis and bloody wars against the Canaanites detailed in Deuteronomy. "But in this particular case with the Canaanites, there's several things going on there, but one of those things was the wickedness of the people which was well documented child sacrifices to Moloch and others, and bestiality and a lot wickedness. God rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 for their flagrant and wanton sins. Scripture tells us theLordsanger burned against Uzzah because Uzzah touched His holy ark, considered an irreverent, disrespectful, and disobedient action. The New Testament is the record of grace applied to people lost in sin and rebellion. Fire raining down from heaven at a single command. Although I find this plan not to fit well with my modern sensibilities, I do not feel it is my place to question God about his plan to save humanity from destruction. That's why at the beginning of Genesis 6 He even says 'My spirit will not always abide in man forever for he is flesh. What can we learn from the Titan tragedy? Only God can make this kind of judgement, since He alone possesses all knowledge and wisdom. Web2. Sign up to our monthly email to get the latest resources to help you grow as a thinking Christian delivered straight to your inbox. From Cains jealous slaughter of his brother Abel (Genesis 4) to a massive flood that wiped out nearly every living thing on the planet (Genesis 6-7), the Bible starts with a violent bang. Home Bible Resources Frequently Asked Questions Why so much war in the Old Testament? We seldom hear the term sin anymore, but instead a dozen much milder words are employed. Hope youll give us another try and check out some other articles. The entire Bible from beginning to end never deviates from this standard of justice as well as grace. This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. And, as elaborated in Deuteronomy 20:16, Do not leave alive anything that breathes.. He wasn't as And not just soldiers, but women and childreneven animals? It is sinful to take the life of another in anger, out of greed or selfishness, but it is not necessarily sinful to take a life in war. This is particularly obvious when we look at the concept of God as three in one, commonly referred to as the doctrine of the Trinity. I say no. He prefers that His people repent and live. WebOr consider Joshua 11:20, For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without For more on the wicked practices of many ancient Near Eastern peoples, see Richard Hess, War in the Hebrew Bible: An Overview, in. The societal values that produced these detestable acts were the target of Gods actions. Howe sums, "The flood story presents the severity of God, but it also presents the loving kindness of God in saving mankind from complete destruction by not destroying Noah and his family along with the rest of humanity. For example, see Deuteronomy 12:31, Nahum 3, and Amos 1. ", Morrow says his sound bite answer is: "These passages are about judgment; they're not about genocide. How can you explain all the killing in the Old Testament by Gods people? If this is the origin of our disquiet then it will lead us to a deep concern for those who do not know God and a commitment to mission both at home and abroad. Idol worship was rife and the society wholly contaminated. So, this was not so much a case of genocide (the extermination of an ethnic group) but rather forced removal from the land of Canaan. This kind of justice values the lives of victims by acting on their behalf, and it values the lives of offenders by taking their actions seriously and dealing with them in the context of their place in human society.5. WebDo not forget! (Deuteronomy 25:18-19) Here we see that God had passed judgment on the Amalekites at a much earlier time. In the case of Amelek and other Canaanites, both Gods love and his justice demandedthat something be done. To God, the enemy is not death. But still Gods grace shines through. Therefore, the issue boils down to our view of the authority of Scripture. Probably it was about zero. To God the enemy is sin and rebellion. So, then, the ultimate challenge of the Old Testament mass killings is to realise that Gods judgement on sin is a reality, and that we are now in a period where the opportunity to repent and be saved is open to us. God often gave wicked nations several generations to repent of their wrongdoings before he passed judgment, and he extended mercy to those who did (e.g., the city of Nineveh in the book of Jonah). As we read through Joshua and Judges this appears to be born out, as the extermination of the Canaanites is never fully implemented. It is from1 Samuel 15:2-3This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I witnessed what the Amelekites did to the Israelites when they opposed them along the way as they were coming out of Egypt. God will judge fairly once again God initiates the judgement, but in this case the outcome will be more than physical death. This is an ageless and eternal story, persisting into this new millennium. God commands his chosen people to kill thousands of other people? The Awkward Moments Children's Bible contrasts some of the Bible's most controversial, strange, and violent verses alongside cheerfully jarring and dramatic pictures. While the violence peppered throughout the Old Testament can be troubling and confusing to believers, we are to take heart and know that God loves us. The law that God gave to Moses also instructed the Israelites to offer peace before attacking a city.8 God even told Abraham that he would not destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if there were as few as ten righteous people living there.9 And when Jesus came to make Gods character and message most fully known, he preached about love and forgiveness, then demonstrated those values toward his own enemies.10, The issue of God and war is complex. The consequences will be either eternal punishment or eternal blessing (Revelation 20:11-15). What Does the Bible Say about Visiting Graves? I mean it's like God gave man a time frame. However, even at the time of Joshua, the Canaanites had heard about what God had done for the Israelites in delivering them from Egypt and giving them victory over the Amorite kings east of the Jordan (Joshua 2:8-12), yet they did not repent and turn to God. These scribes supposedly concluded that it would have been better if Israel had eradicated the Canaanites when they first settled among them and so included commands from God in their official history of Israel. the ultimate challenge of the Old Testament mass killings is to realise that Gods judgement on sin is a reality. God struck down Uzzah, and he died (2 Samuel 6:7). Kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.. Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox! To suggest that Gods love is unknown in the Old Testament would be completely false. In Gods enduring justice, he never simply blinks casually at sin. "When the faith is challenged we're supposed to give a reason for the hope that lies within us with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15) so we're supposed to give an answer. The book of Habakkuk focuses on this concern in the context of the impending invasion of Judah by the Babylonians. Our finite minds are incapable of understanding every dimension of such a dilemma. These truths would be burned deeply on their consciousness as they remembered the annihilation they had been involved in. This simple advice will help you answer tricky questions about what the Bible says. Many accounts in Joshua end with statements like this: They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in itmen and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.2. Such accounts certainly are not to be used in any modern context in Although few professing Christians today would go that far, these parts of the Old Testament surely cause significant discomfort and embarrassment to many. The evil surrounding us seems to be growing and moral apathy seeps in everywhere. In fact, the judgement faced after death (Hebrews 9:27) is much more serious than any judgement resulting in physical death because it determines the eternal destiny of the person. After leaving his medical career, he worked for six years for a church in Belfast and now lectures full time for Belfast Bible College. The wrath of God against sin and His righteous judgement of sinners are important biblical principles. According to Scripture, all sin must be judged and every person deserves death and eternal punishment. Man is created in Gods own image ( Genesis 1:27 ). While some of the violence in the Old Testament was done by Gods people, some of it appears to have been called for by God Himself. Until we understand the wrath of God against sin (Romans 1:18) and the fact that this wrath must find expression in judgement (Romans 2:5), we cannot appreciate the wonder of Gods love displayed in the cross of Christ (Romans 5:8) or why His death was necessary to demonstrate Gods justice and avert Gods wrath from us (Romans 3:25). This is why it was so vital to God that Israel start off their life in the Land without the influence of false religions that would lead them away from Him. Let them talk about it some so you can better understand because that's the goal. Full-city massacres. "Non-Christians capitalize on this and attempt to undermine our faith by calling into question either the goodness of God or even His existence.". Lets take this seriously by quoting a few verses that seem repugnant to us. How could our Good Father the God of life, creation, compassion, and mercy not only allow but encourage some of the brutality depicted? The misconception that killing and murder are But the plan was and is indescribably marvelous. Christians are not promised an earthly kingdom or a land and Christ commanded mission to all nations rather than judgement on some. Death is an enemy to us as human beings, to be sure. The Egyptian firstborn sons during the Passover (Exodus 11-12) 4. He is passionate about the word of God, the local church and relating the Bibles message to contemporary culture. Deuteronomy 12:31 says: You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshipping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. Once again, this point is unlikely to remove every concern from the mind of the modern reader, but we must add another dimension to this issue. Copyright 2002-2023 Got Questions Ministries. What should we do with passages like this? The very thought seems so foreign to our experience of life in Western Europe in the early twenty-firstcentury, and reports of massacres in recent decades in countries including Sudan and Bosnia are abhorrent to us. This view also necessitates an understanding of Scripture as the opinion of human beings rather than the true word of God or even an accurate record of historical events. When Christ returns, Gods judgement will come and no one will be able to escape from it. It was only with the coming of Christ that a profound truth like this could finally be made clear and that Gods character and the extent of His love could fully be revealed. If God is going to have a people, then such people must have a physical land and must have an army. He told Jonah to go preach His word to the city of Nineveh, warning the people God was going to overthrow their city because of their awful wrongdoings. We might wonder why God utilized such methods to accomplish his will. Indeed, reading the Old Testament with an eye on the New Testament, and Gods ultimate plan through our Savior Jesus, indicates another perspective about the violence throughout earths earlier days. Despite all that has been said in this article, many readers are likely to remain deeply troubled by the thought of the mass killing of the Canaanites, as in fact this author is. After all, we know Gods full plan involves teaching and ultimately rescuing His people from evil through His Son, Jesus Christ. How are we to square this in a way that allows us to still believe that the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.11. Copy and paste the code below into your website. Some of these clearly speak of extermination, but others speak of driving them out (see Deuteronomy 7). WebAtheists basically argue that the God in the Old Testament killed many innocent people beginning from the flood that destroyed the earth to the people in Sodom & Gomorrah and Tolerance is presented as the great religious value. The modern, Western idea of Christianity talks a lot about the love of God, as it should, but we tend to cover up and ignore Gods holiness and his justice. In fact the teaching of Jesus and the apostles makes no sense at all without the background of the Old Testament we cannot understand the significance of Christs life, death and resurrection except according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). In fact, the book of Joshua, which relates how the Israelites settled in the Promised Land, tells all kinds of similar stories. For example, the 9th Century BC Moabite Stone records King Mesha's boast that he had destroyed all the inhabitants of Ataroth as a sacrifice to his god. Before we judge Gods character based on a few verses, there are other factors to consider. God has every right to do as he wills. Children were sacrificed to pagan gods. Someone is saved in each case except (apparently) the Amalekites. This evil was contagious and Gods people were in danger of being infected as well. God is righteous, he is powerful, he is just and he is good. Gods plan to bless humanity through Jesus trumps all else. It was only when their sin reached a certain level of severity that God decided to use the Israelites to bring judgement on them. God did indeed often use warfare as an instrument of justice. This is fully in line with what God ordered through Moses in Deuteronomy 7:1-2 that when Gods people entered the Promised Land they were to destroy them totally. Even in the accounts of mass killings in the Old Testament we see both the justice and grace of God as His judgement falls on the rebellious but those who have faith are saved. In essence, God wasnt glorifying violence but rather destroying intolerable evil, a necessity, and, perhaps, a last resort. Gods prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume two separate groups of men who came to speak to him on behalf of KingAhaziah and would have torched a third had they not begged for their lives (2 Kings 1). Perhaps God utilized the currency of that culturewarfareto make himself known to the people of that time. This alone does not solve the problem, but it certainly mitigates it. Copyright 2022 . His love persists. Salvation through faith people who had faith in God and were innocent before Him were always provided with a means of salvation. The average population of each walled city at the time was probably around 1000-3000, with many cities having no more than around 700 people. Well, I already started on this point, but let it be repeated. Often the mass killing of the Canaanites is described as genocide or a 'massacre', and critics of the Old Testament describe the Israelites as blood-thirsty, jingoistic psychopaths who were completely out of control. Perhaps the church today can learn a lesson from these twin dangers that may lead to a failure to be effective in mission. The reason given for this delay is because the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. The violence of the Old Testament purifies the people of God. Yet he explains, "We all have seen people who have been taken advantage of and that makes us angry [because] we love them. Because of their lack of faithfulness to God, which meant that they lost their distinctiveness b. In Exodus, God blanketed Egypt with widespread plagues, including the killing of all firstborn children (Exodus 12:29). More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! We are, however, still left with the unavoidable fact that according to the Old Testament texts the God of Israel ordered the annihilation of a whole culture. Your response? ", "The Bible teaches clearly that all people are sinful and in rebellion, kind of living in open rebellion against God, and God is just to judge anyone," says Morrow. Effective mission depends both on distinctiveness and cultural engagement. If he says it is time for judgment to come on the Amelekites, no matter how hard this is for us to swallow emotionally, God has a right to judge those he created. The suggestion is made that Israel at the time of Joshua had a limited understanding of God and that they wrongly thought that their God, Yahweh, expected the same kind of sacrifice. One thing we must remember is that death is not the end. She has a weekly YouTube devotional, too. These same principles also apply to what the New Testament says about the final judgement: a. The Flood (Genesis 6-8) 2. We fight spiritual battles, no physical ones, and our enemies are spiritual, but for Israel there was a physical place and there were physical enemies. "I would ask them, you know, it sounds like this is a pretty emotional question for you, why is that. His faith in God should have been a witness to the Canaanites. How can that ever be right? See, for example. They had no standing army and their ability to wage warfare was always to be extremely limited. As already mentioned, when the Israelites adopted the religious practices of the Canaanites, God judged them just as He had done the Canaanites. Let me start by quoting from what may be the best example of a passage from the Old Testament which brings up your question. Gods obvious desire is that sinners should repent and live. The spread of wickedness was so pervasive that immorality, degradation, and barbarity invaded every facet of life. It involved fighting physical battles to gain a physical place. Even for people who are convinced that the Bible is true and represents Gods revelation of Himself these accounts can be deeply troubling, especially when one thinks about the death of innocent children. Abraham lived among them and was a wealthy and powerful man (he was even able to rescue Lot from the united forces of four kings according to Genesis 14). Even as we consider this, however, we are on dangerous ground. Now, go and attach the Amelekites, and completely destroy everything they have. The extreme sin of the Canaanites was connected with their religious practices. WebGod did not order the extermination of these people to be cruel, but to prevent even greater evil from occurring in the future. Murder, rape, and dismemberment. Please explain why Nahum (Nah 1:4-6) and Habakkuk (Hab 3:14-15) borrowed from Canaanite/Ugaritic descriptions of Baal. One way in which biblical scholars have attempted to resolve the problem of the mass killing of the Canaanites is to suggest that God never commanded it. Battle language can be extreme, after all. Presumably if Canaanites had left Canaan they would then have been treated like all other nations and the Israelites could have made treaties with them and would have been bound by the more general codes of conduct in warfare given in Deuteronomy 20 (see 1. above). WebAccording to Keil-Delitzsch (Commentary on the Old Testament), the Israelites didn't have the correct attitude before the first two battles. This line of reasoning raises serious questions about the nature of God, in particular whether or not He is able to make Himself clearly understood and whether or not He would allow such blatant disobedience to go unchallenged. Time to repent they are all preceded by long periods of opportunity to repent. Does the Bible condone slavery at the very least by not condemning it? Instructions given specifically to the nation of Israel three thousand years ago must be understood as limited to that time, place, and context. ", Howe explains, "God acts in judgment against all those who oppose Him. Many of these people may have fled before the Israelites attacked, but even if we assume they were all killed, this is only around 3.5 per cent of the likely population of Canaan (the Canaanites were more populous than Israel according to Deuteronomy 7:1-7, and the Israelites numbered around 1.6 million, so we can assume that there must have been at least two million Canaanites). Three further questions arise: Why did God use people as the agent of His judgement? He can do as he wills and, as Paul put it rather bluntly, Who are you, O man, to talk back to God. (Romans 9:20) Bottom line, it is Gods prerogative as Creator and ruler of the universe to pronounce judgement on who he will. Biblical Commentary on the Old I suggest you read 1 Cor 15:42-58 for Gods perspective on those who die. Hosea had an illicit affair, Ezekiel used filthy language and Isaiah made false prophecies. All these descriptions of God depict him as unwavering in retribution on evil, though he takes no delight in it, and also unwavering in love and encouragement toward those hearts are turned toward him. The mass killings of the Old Testament can teach us much about Gods judgement. In Genesis 15:13-16, God tells Abraham that his descendants will be slaves in a foreign country for 400 years but that they will return to the land of Canaan after four generations. Gods judgement was not based on the ethnicity of the Canaanites, but on their religious practices and the extent to which sin pervaded their culture. Why the contradiction? And yet God preserved Noah and his family. Undoubtedly these points are unlikely to remove concerns from the mind of the modern reader after all is religious cleansing any better than genocide and is it really justified to condemn a whole culture and wipe out a whole community based on their religion? At this point it is vital to say that this case in Scripture is quite unique and that there is absolutely no Scriptural basis for any justification of similar actions today. For example, the aforementioned Amalekites had attacked the Israelites in an especially atrocious way. The Jews were the best enemy one could have in warfare. God does not wish for any to perish. Throughout the New Testament epistles this perfect unity of justice and love in the character of God is consistently seen, so that John could say in his first epistle that God is both light (meaning truth) and love (see 1 John 1:5 and 4:16). It seems that over the period from Abraham to Joshua, the Canaanites had gradually rejected what they knew about God and moved deeper into sin. As difficult as the scene of judgement in 1 Samuel 15 is, we need to bear in mind that God is the Creator of the entire universe and that, as our Creator, he also has the right to judge.