why did god allow killing in the old testament

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). 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. (John 3:36). The Bible tells us that God Himself will judge those who do not So to answer your question, yes. 1. In the cases of the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah and the Egyptian firstborns, God acted directly or through the agency of an angel to bring judgement. So if people are watching this right now, they should feel, "I'm in a window of mercy, and I should embrace it so that I can escape the wrath when it comes again.". Or to kill him. The Canaanite war was the only time in history that God ordered destruction on this scale, and it was to clear the land, make it holy for Israel to live in, and protect the seed. One thing that is vital in understanding why God supported killing in the Old Testament is that, at first, Israel was a theocracya nation ruled directly by God. Yet He demonstrated grace in that sin by ultimately showing the need for a redeemer Jesus Christ. It was a focused, targeted campaign, not an uncontrolled rampage. Second, God did not only allow the Israelites to kill the people, He commanded them to do it. Does God killing people make Him a murderer? So which boat are you in today? b) Rebellion against God for others, the struggle arises from a fundamental objection to the very idea that God can or should judge sinful people. In addition to God's love being so much deeper than our love, God's wrath against sin is also much stronger. And it is hard to consider that everyone perished. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. Yet, we do this with the Old Testament killings. (Acts 16:31). The 31 cities conquered by Joshua probably had a combined population of around 70,000. Pray for those who abuse you. Your IP: Iused to avoid reading the Old Testament because camping out in the New Testament was so much nicer! When I began to see that narrative, the Old Testament made way more sense. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." 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. Were the Israelites somehow morally superior in Gods mind? This will turn off kids mode. Chapter 2 details Gods response to Habakkuk as He vindicates Himself and assures the prophet that in due time he will judge the Babylonians by the same righteous standard that He was now holding against Judah. You can deny their claim. Divine judgement they are all judgements of God against extreme sin. The cities of the plain, including Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19) 3. Recording an action even an action of an otherwise upstanding "hero" of the biblical narrative is not in itself a commendation of that action. (Exodus 20:13) This command forbade any unlawful killing. On one hand, the Lord commanded the Israelites: "You shall not murder." (Exodus 20:13) This command forbade any unlawful killing. So God has his times and seasons for when he shares his authority to take and give life. This approach sees the violence in the context of God's bigger plan and character, climaxing in the cross. Those two approaches seem like polar opposites. The only way to reconcile the Old Testament accounts with this view is to regard the Old Testament as simply Israels record of their perception of their unfolding relationship with Yahweh. And God, it says, let the sins of the Amorites accumulate for 400 years so that they would be full (Genesis 15:16), and then sends his own people in as instruments of judgment. The cross reveals the shift in God's approach under the new covenant. God was the King of Israel for a season, and therefore, its Judge. This full measure of sin was attained by the Canaanites in the generation leading to the Jewish conquest. How would you state it to make the question harder? When you engage in practices like incest, adultery, homosexuality, and bestiality, it is going to provoke your Creator. The spread of wickedness was so pervasive that immorality, degradation, and barbarity invaded every facet of life. Gods salvation has been made ready Christ accomplished it on the cross and He rose again and is alive to save people. It seems like the Israelites killed innocent 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). (Jeremiah 31:3). There is no question that the Lord unleashed His wrath against the sins of the Canaanites. If we ask whether it would be better for God to allow children to grow up in such a perverted culture and religious system or to bring their young lives to an end and gather them to Himself, we begin to see that what happened to them may not have been the worst option. And for those who reject Christ and seem to be skating through life with no consequences, we discover in Scripture that unbelievers are "storing up wrath for the day of God's wrath" as a result of "your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart." The Bible says, Thou shalt not murder, yet God says to Joshua, Go in and clean house, and dont leave anything breathing! people. When Christ returns, Gods judgement will come and no one will be able to escape from it. 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. Help us in our mission to educate, equip, and encourage women in Christian apologetics. because they had rejected God and worshipped idols. In the meantime we can bring our discomfort to God and confess that we cannot lay it to rest, confident that He does not reject our questions so long as they are motivated by a genuine desire to know Him more fully (again Habakkuk serves as a helpful example). This view, however, does not find any support in the relevant Old Testament texts, which clearly state that God commanded the mass killings (Joshua 6:17, 21; Deuteronomy 20:16-17). The problem many people have with these stories of mass killings is that they do not seem to fit the popular conception of the Christian God. A number of cases of mass killings of people, apparently at Gods behest, are recorded in the Old Testament: 1. Thousands of years later, we question Gods goodness in ordering such acts. Does it reflect a lack of faith in God? The violence of the Old Testament preserves the messianic bloodline. This was an example of lawful killing as an act of God's divine judgment against sin. He used the Israelites to judge the people and remove the evil in the land. 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. Abraham correctly understood that the key issue in judgement is the character of God, and his question expressed confidence in Gods righteousness. God's justice demands that lawbreakers be punished, and the Father arranged to have the perfect sacrifice of His Son atone for our sins. God is not beholden to us at all. If you refuse God's gracious pardon through faith in Jesus, you will have no one to blame on Judgment Day but yourself. The first of the Ten Commandments is idolatry, and the Canaanites were infamous for this sin. An example of this happened d, uring the time of the Canaanites. For this reason, this case will be the focus of this study. As we pointed out in lesson 2 of this series, Matthew refers to the Old Testament Scriptures four times in chapter 2. And the nation of Israel was critical in this occurring! Critics of the Old Testament's claim that God ordered the killing of whole tribes in Canaan typically neglect the reason expressly stated in the Old Testament: those tribes were depraved beyond redemption (Gen. 15:16; Lev. The culture of the Canaanites was deeply sinful, to a degree that God decided to act in judgement against them. If you appreciate the resources brought to you by bethinking.org, please consider a gift to help keep this website running. www.desiringgod.org, [ivory-search id="86" title="Default Search Form"]. And what he reads, he reads and he stops at a certain point in Isaiah, just before he gets to the day of judgment and of wrath. The Old Testament is reduced to being a human account of the evolution of monotheistic religion rather than a divine revelation of Gods actions in history. " Then " there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them " ( verse 24 ). In particular, the question is asked how a God of love could allow or even command such brutality. An obvious objection to the idea that God was judging the Canaanites is that it would be unfair for Him to do so if they had no opportunity to repent and be saved. 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). On the contrary, one of the ten commandments is, "You shall not murder." (Exodus 20:13). And everything he does is just and right and good. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." Why is it fair that we dropped a nuclear bomb, killing children along with adults? "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" ( Job 1:21 ). One thing that is vital in understanding why God supported killing in the Old Testament is that, at first, Israel was a theocracya nation ruled directly by God. . Wipe out Jericho.. He read Isaiah, and the day of the Lord is at hand. The only way to explain away the problem of the Old Testament mass killings is to have a low view of Scriptural authority, whereas this study assumes a high view. This principle was applied to the northern kingdom of Israel and to the southern kingdom of Judah because they were evil. Canaanites were polytheists, and their idolatrous practices included incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality. There is an overarching theme happening in Old Testament events that helped usher in the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. We are sickened whenever criminals prey on innocent people, and yet the Bible makes it clear that your sins and my sins are even more repulsive to God. On the . 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. You can either bask in God's love by trusting Christ as your Savior and following Him as your Lord, or you can go through life blaming God for things you don't fully understand or appreciate. Dont leave a donkey, child, woman, old man or old woman breathing. Why Did God Allow the Killing of Old Testament Men and Women? So, its law was much different than our modern-day governing. In the Old Testament the idea that God is three persons yet one is barely hinted at. . And everything he does is just and right and good. God is taking life every day. We dont like to hear that because we minimize sin today. Knowing this should bring comfort that God is ultimately in control. How would you state it to make the question harder? Some say God commanded violence because he is not just defined as lovehe's also holy ( Leviticus 11:44-45) and the God of justice ( Isaiah 30:18 ). All rights reserved. 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. The judgement against Israel, when it came, was not annihilation but exile from the land. Become a WIA volunteer and enjoy the many benefits that come with it! (Hebrews 13:8). c. Gods witness Christians are present now in the world as witnesses to Gods truth and love (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). My answer to that is that there is a point in history, a season in history, where God is the immediate king of a people, Israel, different than the way he is the king over the church, which is from all the peoples of Israel and does not have a political, ethnic dimension to it. 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). "In the flood account mankind had fallen to such a state that the text points out, 'Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day,'" notes Howe. 10 Reasons Why Its Wrong to Kill an Unborn Child, A Shepherds Perspective: Loving God for Who He Is, Adultolescence? A Church-Based Help for Almost-Grownups. Please click here to learn how. The wrath of God against sin and His righteous judgement of sinners are important biblical principles. As we read through Joshua and Judges this appears to be born out, as the extermination of the Canaanites is never fully implemented. God was the King of Israel for a season, and therefore, its Judge. He wasn't as harsh as you think, and he is more harsh than you think. Apart from Christ's death on the cross, we had absolutely no way to be forgiven. At Wheaton College (1964-68), John majored in Literature and minored in Philosophy. God judged the sin in the world by punishing His Son on the With Joshua there was a political, ethnic dimension, God was immediate king, and he uses this people as his instrument to accomplish his judgment in the world at that time. An example of this right now is that God has given the sword to the government (Romans 13:4). Why was it right for God to slaughter women and children in the Old Testament? (Hebrews 2:3). God is sovereign, and in the Canaanite case, He meant to destroy everything (even the cattle- because they were used for bestiality practices). The Egyptian firstborn sons during the Passover (Exodus 11-12) 4. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die. What Made It Okay for God to Kill Women and Children In the Old Testament? The flood of God's wrath on Judgment Day will be far worse. He is a regular contributor to The Christian Post. Dont kill in order to spread the gospel, but die to spread it.. Everybody who dies, dies because God wills that they die. Because they developed a nationalistic sense of their own superiority, which led them to be disinterested in bringing truth about God to other cultures on the basis that God and His blessings should belong only to them. The vital question of concern to most here is the age of these "little children.". In the Old Testament, the wrath of God was often unleashed against sin. Wipe out Jericho.". "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). My first reaction to that question is to say, "He wasn't," or "He is." There is one way to escape God's wrath against your sin, and to come under His grace and eternal protection. Lay your life down for the world. You are either "storing up wrath" for yourself, or you are resting in the mercy, grace, and love of Jesus Christ by trusting Him as your Savior. I couldn't do it, and I wouldn't do it. Time to repent God is now patiently waiting, giving people an opportunity to repent (2 Peter 3:9). . Even if we accept that God was judging the Canaanites through the Israelites, the objection may be raised that some of the Canaanites were innocent victims since they were not involved in the detestable practices of the Canaanite religions. There is a range of verbs used in the commands to Israel concerning how they should treat the Canaanites. Thank you. In Deuteronomy 20 God makes it very clear that annihilation is only to be used in the case of inhabitants of the Promised Land of Canaan. Site Policy & Cookies Contact us, Thumbnail source: Freeimages.com/Jorc Navarro, https://www.bethinking.org/bible/old-testament-mass-killings. This understanding that the primary nature of the judgement was expulsion from the land helps us to understand Leviticus 18:24-29, where God says that, the land vomited out its inhabitants and that if the Israelites copy the religions of Canaan, the land, will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. God is sovereign, and in the Canaanite case, He meant to destroy everything (even the cattle- because they were used for bestiality practices). If not conquered, the Canaanites would have tried to exterminate every last Jew, similar to what Hitler tried to do in World War II. the Bible clearly says that we ALL have sinned We should remember Gods standard is holiness, and we need to understand the Old Testament in light of what that means. Many have asked the intriguing question, Why was it right for God to slaughter women and children in the Old Testament? Thousands of years from now, without understanding the historical context, what will people think of this act? To enjoy our website, you'll need to enable JavaScript in your web browser. Our finite minds are incapable of understanding every dimension of such a dilemma. He didn't go around killing those who opposed Him. The first of the Ten Commandments is idolatry, and the Canaanites were infamous for this sin. GIVE TODAY to help pastors around the world share Christ. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. If I were to drop dead right now, or a suicide bomber downstairs were to blow this building up and I were blown into smithereens, God would have done me no wrong. The part that makes it harder is that he commands people to do it. . Without understanding that God must judge sin we cannot understand the wonder of Gods forgiveness and grace or the amazing truth of the cross, where Christ endured the wrath of God for our sin. A number of cases of mass killings of people, apparently at God's behest, are recorded in the Old Testament: 1. So then why did God send His only Son to the cross? Only God can make this kind of judgement, since He alone possesses all knowledge and wisdom. 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? Dr. Piper has penned over 100 books. Why did God at times approve of genocide? No culture is entirely righteous and no society completely sinful, but it is possible to distinguish between cultures and societies that reflect more of Gods intention for humanity and those that are more distant from it. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. Why did God allow the Israelites to kill people? God owes us nothing. And the nation of Israel was critical in this occurring! I would hand out a much lighter sentence. Sign up to our monthly email to get the latest resources to help you grow as a thinking Christian delivered straight to your inbox. (Isaiah 53:5). He used the Israelites to judge the people and remove the evil in the land. The first three examples are similar in that there was no human agent involved in each case it was God, or an angel of God, who carried out the mass killings directly. Is God a murderer? 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. The book of Habakkuk focuses on this concern in the context of the impending invasion of Judah by the Babylonians. Witness to God during the time of opportunity there was knowledge available to the people that enabled them to know about God. 12:29-31; etc.). God already made His choice for a world of sinners who violated His perfect commands. As already mentioned, when the Israelites adopted the religious practices of the Canaanites, God judged them just as He had done the Canaanites. and the Babylonian Empire to defeat the southern kingdom in 605 B.C. Korah and his followers in Numbers 16) and even, as in the case of the Canaanites, against entire nations. For example, people no longer bow down to golden calves, but indirectly, some certainly do! And the church today is not Israel, and we are not a political entity. It is hard to comprehend why idolatry was detested by God because this sin has been lost on us today; idolatry is much more subtle. A decision was made to end the madness by bombing civilian population centers, including the devastating nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Children were sacrificed to pagan gods. Exodus 22:2, "If the thief is caught while breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there will be no bloodguiltiness on his account." God's commands to kill others in the Old Testament are among the most difficult for people to comprehend. Return to homepage. How can that ever be right? You may say, "I don't feel like I deserve to pay for my sins.". John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. So God has his times and seasons for when he shares his authority to take and give life. At Wheaton John also met Noel Henry whom he married 1968. That is because Jesus Christ died on the "I did not come to judge the world but to save the world" (John 3:17). What about the innocent Canaanites (especially children)? John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. Studying Romantic Literature with Clyde Kilby stimulated the poetic side of his nature and today he regularly writes poems to celebrate special family occasions as well as composing story-poems (based on the life of a Biblical character) for his congregation during the four weeks of Advent each year. God will judge fairly once again God initiates the judgement, but in this case the outcome will be more than physical death. Now add to that the fact we're all sinners and deserve to die and go to hell yesterday, and the reality that we're even breathing today is sheer common grace from God. Youve got human beings killing humans, and therefore a moral question of what is right to do. At the time of Abraham there is evidence that the Canaanites had some knowledge of the true God: The judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were close to Canaanite territory, and the deliverance of Lot were evidence of Gods judgement against sin (Genesis 18-19). Likewise, it would be equally wrong to suggest that the God of the New Testament is not capable of righteous judgement. The book ends with a declaration of Habakkuks faith as he praises God and expresses his trust in Him (Chapter 3). How did God respond to our wickedness? Why did God condone such terrible violence in the Old Testament? Did God change and become more loving and tolerant?". And now you're getting Jesus, who is mercy incarnate, grace incarnate, forgiveness incarnate, open-heartedness incarnate, saying, "This is what is available for you.". 3:33), but depending on how people act, He will bring hardship to correct and protect. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Church in Papillion, Neb.
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