My reply to Something I'm Noticing - How Can a Loving God Appear To Be So Cruel
This is a reply to an email I received with the subject - Something I’m Noticing
You wrote:
I've been reading 5 psalms and 1 proverbs in the mornings over the past few weeks. (Those are quantities, not specific chapters).
I'm about half way through them at this point, and a theme has occurred to me.
I've been noticing something I will call hate a lot in the psalms specifically. The psalms many times are calling on God to vanquish "enemies", cause them grief and suffering, pull them from the book of life.
This seems very counterintuitive to how we are supposed to love everyone and pray for our "enemies". It seems that instead of asking Him to take revenge on them and cause them misery, we should be be asking for Him to reveal himself to them and pray for them to find the peace that we have.
In my on-going search to know God better and to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that I have, I must admit there are things I still have to chalk up to I just don’t know, or God works in ways beyond our understanding, and to trust God to be working everything out for our good. And I do trust he is good and blesses those who seek him, and that he opposes the proud who rebel against him. And so I try to interpret these events looking for ways to give God the benefit of the doubt and, admittedly, attempt to explain them in a way that is Scripturally sound, consistent with God’s character and glory, satifies his justice and displays his mercy.
It’s an age-old question that any reasonable mind would ask after reading the Old and New Testaments. God's commands to kill others in the Old Testament are among the most difficult for people to comprehend. Why would God command the Israelites to kill entire groups of people?
After researching this I had many pages of notes and, after reviewing them, decided to focus on two main themes, namely: The justice and mercy of God, and God’s Sovereign Grace. But first let’s look at something else I think is important. That is, what life was like at the time.
Completely Different Times - setting the stage
Throughout history some things will never change. Nothing new under the sun. But things do change in some ways. One way is the ways of life of civilizations across time. Life has evolved from caves to condos, from stone to digital - or, one could say, from tablet to tablet. The difference between our way of life today and 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 years ago is almost incomprehensible. It was mainly people and the land. Nothing like today for most of us in the West. They farmed all kinds of products, provided for themselves, connected with others to trade, for mutual benefit and protection. They formed tribes to protect and provide for each other - I suppose that’s kind of the same. They were constantly aware of danger, from both man and animal. Animals would stalk their livestock, and there was the persistent threat from man. They protected themselves and fought with swords and spears and rocks. And it’s important to remember there was no Christianity back then. I suspect the idea of grace was not as prevalent as it with us. Things like ‘Pray for your enemies’ and ‘Turn the other cheek’ wouldn’t enter for another 1000 years or more. It was a whole different time. So we have to be carefuly of interpreting history only in terms of what we know now.
There’s a story involving King David that illustrates this perfectly. David felt remorse about the way Saul had treated the Gibeonites. So, The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the LORD’s inheritance?” The Gibeounites didn't want silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor the right to put anyone in Israel to death. They wanted seven of his male descendants given to them to be killed and their bodies exposed before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul—the LORD’s chosen one. Saul gave it to them. He gave them Armoni and Mephibosheth, and five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab. He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies on a hill before the LORD. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning (2 Samuel 21:2-9).
The Gibeonites’ demand is fascinating. Can you imagine something like that happening today? It comes from a whole different way of life. Imagine if this involved two countries today, say Austria and Sweden. The issue is retribution. If they had an issue between them that one of them wanted to make retribution for, I’m sure the payment would not be the lives of seven of their people given to them to be killed and their bodies exposed before the LORD somewhere. I don’t think that would go over very well with the human rights activists. No, it would be more in terms of money or resources or land or something. But it was perfectly reasonable back then because it was a different time with a different way of life. Killing and fighting were part of it.
Justice and Mercy - a biblical perspective
God Never Kills Unjustly
The Bible makes clear God hates sin (Romans 6:23; Proverbs 6:16-19; Proverbs 8:13; Psalm 5:5; Isaiah 59:2; Isaiah 13:11; Isaiah 61:8; Zechariah 8:16-17). Through the Old and New Testament, we understand how God despises evil and learn that the consequence of sin is death.
There are two sides to the story - judgement and grace. God’s hate is never against people, rather against sin. God’s righteous judgement must always be seen in light of and in contrast to his grace and mercy. Everything comes down to justice and grace. Justice in the understanding of the rules and consequences God laid out, and grace in the sovereignty of God to save. Everyone throughout time has had an opportunity to know God exists and to respond to him. I’ll get to that in the next section.
During the conquest of Canaan, God ordered the complete destruction of entire cities and nations: But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the LORD your God has commanded you (Deuteronomy 20:16-17).
Israel was God’s instrument of judgment against the Canaanites, who were evil, almost beyond what we can imagine today: Every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods (Deuteronomy 12:31). So God’s command is not unjust, but righteous justice against sin.
God’s holy justice demands that sin be punished. The Canaanite destruction provides us with a sober reminder that, while God is gracious and merciful, He is also a God of holiness and wrath to execute correct and righteous judgement.
The destruction of the Canaanites in the book of Joshua was God’s divine punishment against wicked people. God used Israel as the means of meting out that punishment. But he cautioned them about thinking to highly of themselves and forgetting his grace, saying, “Recognize today that the Lord your God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them. He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the Lord has promised. After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 9:3–5, NLT).
Justice and mercy. God exacted judgement on sinful Canaan, but showed mercy to Israel to fulfill his oath, even though they too deserved judgement.
It’s important to know that these commands took place within the context of wars between nations. In times of war, the options are to fight and win or to be defeated. God had promised the Israelites they would be victorious and live in the land of Israel. To do so included defeating the already violent nations living in that land. And the reason he instructed the Israelites to wipe out everyone and everything is the possibility that even the slightest remnant could infest the people with their pagan ways. From the Israelite perspective, keeping enemies alive caused the following: First, survivors would have the potential to later oppose the Israelites in war. Second, and more importantly, the survivors could cause spiritual harm through the worship of other gods. God's commands in these situations were to kill everyone in the community instead.
God’s ultimate plan of salvation - we know now - is through Jesus. Perhaps it was necessary to protect Israel from outside influences as history worked its way toward Jesus who, of course, would come through Israel’s lineage.
God no longer commands such actions of His people. The Old Testament commands to kill entire enemy peoples were specific and limited to particular events, and I think to a particular time in history. Such accounts certainly are not to be used in any modern context in such a way.
Now let’s look at a different perspective. One I will call Giving God The Benefit of the Doubt.
Giving God the Benefit of the Doubt - a personal perspective:
God’s Sovereign Grace - Going Immediately into God’s Presence
Notwithstanding the foregoing, it’s still difficult for me to get my head around this. Why would God kill so many ‘innocent’ people? I highlight the word innocent because we know, like us, all of them were guilty of sin and deserved to die. But still. It’s the seemingly innocent we have trouble with. It’s not so hard to justify it in terms of fighting evil where it exists, or in the inevitable occurrence of war, and that soldiers will die and so forth. But it’s the others that bothers us. Unarmed women and children, and the otherwise decent folks just trying to live a simple and peaceful existence. It’s hard to justify those. Why would God do that?
What if God took some of them right into his presence? Would that make a difference? What if, the instant they were killed, they were taken into the immediate presence of God? Maybe even a moment before they were killed. What about that? I like to think he might have done that. It makes it easier for me to accept. I mean, being in the presence of God is what we’re hoping for. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).
You are where you are at this moment, wherever you are reading this. Imagine an earthquake hits, the roof collapses and you’re killed. But at that very moment you go to the immediate presence of God. You don’t feel anything associated with the roof collapsing on you, God takes you just before it. Everything becomes clear. You have an understanding and perspective of the life you were in just moments ago and that God rescued you from it. But at that moment you realize you are safe with God in Heaven. I like to think that, in situations like the killing of the Canaanites - as well as other situations like when people haven’t heard the message of Jesus and had a chance to respond, or babies who know nothing about sin and repentance - God, by his sovereign grace, chooses to save some of them. But on what basis could he do that and still maintain justice?
Forget about religion for now. From Adam and Eve, to you and me, and everyone in between, God has given every person four things to know he exists, what the rules are, the consequence for breaking the rules and the chance to respond. And each of us is accountable for our response. Throughout circumstances and across time, God has provided everyone with these four basics - even before they were written in the Bible:
The knowledge of his existence without excuse - For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Romans 1:20). We know he exists through nature.
The understanding of right and wrong in our hearts, with a conscience that serves as an alarm to alert us when we’ve done something wrong. When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them(Romans 2:14-15). Before the Ten Commandments, people were held accountable to natural law - the knowledge of God’s existence through nature, and the understanding of the law on our hearts and through our conscience.
The understanding of the penalty for breaking God’s laws. We know now, from Paul’s writing in the New Testament of course, that the penalty for sin is death - For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). But God said it from the very beginning to Adam - And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16-17). From the very beginning God’s love for us was clear, giving us our very lives, providing for all our needs. But he clearly laid out one rule, along with the consequence. Don’t eat from that tree or you will die.
A will. A sense of self. The ability to decide what to think and determine how to react - to the world and to God.
With that as a basis let’s look at God’s Sovereign Grace and how he might have saved certain people in those situations.
Since Adam and Eve, God wants a relationship with people, and he wants us to want a relationship with him. It has to be a two-way street. He wants us to want him. If we do, he blesses us and provides for us. But, if we don’t, he opposes us. And he has designed a way to determine who wants to be with him and who doesn’t care - through the four basics.
Each one of us, and everyone in antiquity, is equipped with those four things, and is accountable for our response. And there are only three ways to respond, either by acknowledging God, rejoicing in him, wanting to know him more deeply and honoring him with joy; or with indifference; or with outright rebellion.
I suppose that, throughout time, people have fallen into one of those three categories. And so what if, when all those people were killed in the wars, God took some of them immediately into his presence? He knew everyone’s heart, and he knew who those people were who rejoiced in him, and who the others were who either just didn’t care or who rebelled. They all deserved to die, they were all sinners. It’s just that some of them just naturally had a heart for God - acknowledged him, rejoiced in him, felt guilt and shame when they knew they had done something dishonoring to God, and wanted to have peace with him. Three examples would be Noah, whom God said was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God (Genesis 6:9), Abraham, who believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6) and David, a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
What if God took those people immediately to heaven? For me, it’s just one perspective that allows me to accept it in a way that is consistent with Scripture, a way that God can demonstrate both his judgement and his glorious grace. A way that gives God the benefit of the doubt.
We have to trust that God’s ways are always just and he will always bless and protect those who humble themselves before him and stay obedient to his commands. He never kills the innocent, only the guilty (which, but by his grace, is all of us).
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
