This term’s Christianity Explored has been a real delight. But it’s also been the most demanding I’ve known. The questions have been stimulating and genuinely thought provoking. What’s been especially striking is the objections that have been raised to the Christian faith, especially to the existence of the God of the Bible.

The issue of God’s destruction of His enemies in the Old Testament came up a few weeks ago and I promised that I’d think about it and write something up. Here it is. I don’t suppose it’s the last word on the subject. And so let me recommend another couple of answers here and here. 

Let’s be honest, we find some of what God commands in the Old Testament unpalatable. For example, Old Testament Israel’s foreign policy was pretty full on. Look at Deuteronomy 20:10-18. God commanded the wholesale slaughter of nations. And He wasn’t simply talking about the fighting men. He ordered the destruction of men, women and children. It would be fair to say that it’s not only unbelievers who struggle with this depiction of God. It is incidents such as these that have led people like Richard Dawkins, the proselytising atheist, to accuse the God of the Old Testament of being genocidal. We might not agree but we can see where he’s coming from.  

I suspect that there are two troubling concerns to this depiction of God.

In the first place, we want to know why God commanded the wholesale slaughter of cities. This raises questions about the character of the God we’re expected to worship. Are we really being asked to worship and serve a God who advocates the slaughter women and children?

In the second place, we want to know whether this command still stands. The idea that we should conquer the world in a re-enactment of the Crusades sounds preposterous. Trying to propagate a religious ideology through the use of force is abhorrent. If that’s what Liberal Democracies fear that the Islamic Fundamentalists are trying to do, you can see why they might be suspicious of Christian with similar ambitions.

But the idea that God is guilty of genocide is a distortion of what was going on. We’re in danger of leaving certain aspects out of our reckoning. These are some of them.

1. God was preserving a nation through whom He would bring salvation

God intended to bring the nation of Israel into existence because they would be the means by which He would pour out His blessing to the nations. God’s plan of salvation, which would culminate with Jesus’ birth, began centuries beforehand in the midst of hostile Canaanite territory. Therefore, the command for Israel to engage in military conflict with the surrounding nations was not an isolated, nationalistic agenda. It was part and parcel of God’s intent to bring salvation to the world. He began with the historical situation and had to move the nation through the gruesomeness of war to clear the way for salvation through Jesus Christ. And so we need to come to terms with the fact that war was a normal, though unacceptable, way of life in the ancient Near East. If Israel was to continue as a nation then they had to fight for their existence. Their ‘full on’ foreign policy was shaped with this in mind. They were required to take up arms in self defence as they faced enemies who sought to eradicate them. Therefore, in most of the wars, the Israelites were defending themselves and were not the aggressors. Israel did not initiate most of the conflicts in which they were involved [Exodus 17:8, Numbers 21:1 & 21-32, Numbers 31: 2-3, Deuteronomy 3:1, Joshua 10:4]. In fact as Deuteronomy 20:10 makes clear, Israel’s first responsibility in warfare was to offer terms of peace. If the city complied they went into forced labour. But if the city refused then Israel would make war against it. Israel’s foreign policy was shaped with preservation in mind.

2. God was punishing the nations for their wickedness

In Leviticus 18:24-30 we read about God’s attitude to the nations. There are similar warnings about the Canaanite practices in Exodus 23:24 & 32 and Leviticus 18:25. The Archaeologist W.F. Albright, in his book From Stone Age to Christianity, puts some flesh on the phrase ‘abominable practices’. He identifies ‘their orgiastic nature-worship, their cult of fertility in the form of serpent symbols and sensuous nudity, and their gross idolatry’ [W.F. Albright, From Stone Age to Christianity, (Baltimore: John Hopkins, 1940), p214]. And so we need to come to terms with the fact that the nations that were destroyed by the Israelites were not an innocent, decent civilization. God had been patient with this unbelieving and immoral people. But His patience had run out. In fact an argument could be made that it was in the best interests of society in general that this culture was wiped out. Much as we might argue for something similar with regards to Nazi Germany. The eradication of this immoral culture should not be viewed as a regrettable incident in Israel’s history but the righteous act of a God who is intolerant of all forms of evil. The shocking thing is not that God does this but that He doesn’t do it more often.

3. God was purging the land of idolatry

If Canaanite culture survived it would have been a continual temptation for Israel. The idolatrous worship of the original inhabitants of the Promised Land could easily have turned Israel from serving the one true God. This is assumed in Moses’ words in Exodus 23:23-33.

Tolerant co-existence of false worship and wicked lifestyle was problematic in a theocratic state. God’s requirement for Israel to be holy is repeated throughout the early chapters of the Old Testament [Leviticus 18:30 & 20:26]. The ongoing presence of the Canaanite tribes threatened this. The monotheistic faith and practice of Israel could only be preserved through the destruction of corrupting rival cultures.

4. God was exercising His right to take life

We’re understandably appalled at the treatment of the women and children who took no part in warfare. We think that this raises questions about God’s goodness. But that’s not the case at all. It is God’s decision how long we live for. We need to come to terms with the fact that it is God’s prerogative to give and take life. Whatever we think, it’s not an inalienable right that we exist. It’s God’s good and undeserved gift. If He decides that we live for only a few days we cannot charge Him with injustice. He’s done nothing wrong. God was under no obligation to create and having created God is not under obligation to sustain the universe. So even the termination of women and children, though shocking, isn’t unjust.

5. God was employing Israel as His instrument

The Israelites were instruments of God’s judgement. He directed their military activities. He was the divine commander directing His army. Every conflict in which Israel was supposed to engage was initiated by God. Unlike her neighbours Israel did not fight wars for war’s sake. The conquest of the Promised Land was not simply the means of giving His land to His people, but it was also the means by which He destroyed a wicked people. Moses says sa much in Deuteronomy 9:4&5.

Many of us struggle to rid our minds of the marauding images of medieval crusaders wreaking a campaign of havoc, pillage and rape. But God required His Israelite army to uphold ethical and moral standards even as they were engaged in the act of killing (Deuteronomy 23:9). Israelite soldiers were to stand apart from their ancient Near Eastern counterparts in the way they conducted themselves. It’s also true that God employed other nations as His instruments to exact His punishment on His own people when they compromised their covenantal loyalty. Israel wasn’t exempt from the demands of living under the lordship of God. When Israel broke faith with God, He treated them like the other nations. He struck them down as they incurred His judgement and wrath. God judges disloyalty and disobedience whether it occurs amongst His people of amongst His enemies.

Conclusion

And so with these five aspects duly considered it’s reasonable to conclude that God cannot be charged with immorality. The nations were not innocent, they were immoral idolaters. They did not deserve to live and neither did their offspring. In that sense they’re no different to us. God was entirely just in His treatment of all humanity. But He was especially merciful to Israel and to all those who allied themselves with their ultimate ruler, their covenant keeping Lord. God continues to be merciful to all humanity in our continued existence. But He’s especially merciful to those of us who have allied ourselves to His Son Jesus Christ. In him we are not assured of a lengthy existence in this world but that’s a given for the next.

It ought also to be clear that the particularity of Israel’s situation means that the command to drive the nations out of the Promised Land is no longer applicable. They were strict limits to Israel’s military activities. He determined where they went and who they fought. He told them how to fight. And He gave them victory. It was all tied up with God’s promise of the land of Canaan. They were not to embark on a worldwide crusade to force conversion through the sword. They were simply to establish a theocracy through whom God could bring His Saviour to the world.

That God used Israel as His instrument in the past does not provide justification for nation’s claiming God’s support of their military activities now. There is no theocratic state who can claim God’s permission to engage in modern crusades. God continues to use nations as the instruments of His judgement and punishment. But we have no way of knowing when He does. We simply do not know what God is doing in the world. What we do know is that if we live life as His enemy we will face Him as His enemy. And God doesn’t lose. The wise thing to do, like the cities in Deuteronomy 20, is to make peace whilst we can and to enjoy the blessings of His rule.