If God is love, how do we explain the Old Testament passages where he commands the Israelites to eradicate entire groups of people, even the children (Josh 9:24; Num 31; 1 Sam 15)? Sometimes people say it was to punish these people for their evil practices, like child sacrifice. Well, child sacrifice is certainly a terrible thing. But does it make sense to punish child sacrifice by killing all the children?
Let’s think about this for a moment. When cultures engaged in child sacrifice, it’s not because they just loved killing children — it’s because they believed it served as some kind of propitiation, appeasing their gods for the greater good. So if God didn’t approve of child sacrifice, what seems like the most rational way to deal with it: (1) kill everyone, including all the children you don’t want killed, or (2) make yourself known to these people as the one true god and tell them that child sacrifice is not what you want? Wouldn’t option 2 be a win-win scenario?
Here’s something else to consider. If God didn’t like child sacrifice, why did he command Abraham to offer his son Isaac as one? Granted, he stopped the sacrifice before the boy was killed, but isn’t this a weird command for a deity who despises child sacrifice? And what about Psalm 137, where the inspired writer is lamenting Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem and says the following:
8 O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed,
Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!
9 Happy the one who takes and dashes
Your little ones against the rock!
Furthermore, if God wanted the Canaanites destroyed because of their heinous practices, why stop at Canaan? There were many cultures that engaged in terrible practices like this from time to time — why not send the Israelites to slaughter them all? Instead this “judgment” is only brought against people in the same geographic location that God wanted the Israelites to inhabit:
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: 2 “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
— Josh 1:1-5So they answered Joshua and said, “Because your servants were clearly told that the Lord your God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; therefore we were very much afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.”
— Josh 9:24
How strange that these passages focus on taking the land from the Canaanites and not on their evil natures…
As a final consideration, even if the only thing left to do with these evil Canaanites was kill them all, does it make sense that God would choose the cruelest and most agonizing way to do it? Instead of speaking them out of existence, or immediately striking them all dead, he has them besieged by invaders. They’re forced to watch their loved ones being massacred before being hacked to death themselves. Would God really command this?
How does a god who would command genocide on this scale differ from the vilest despots of the modern era? What’s the difference between this god and bin Laden? What’s the difference between a god like this and a devil? Could a god this bloody be right?
Finding Truth 
1. God kills people
2. God is good
Therefore killing people is good
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I guess God invented the saying “Do as I say, not as I do.”
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I guess God invented the saying “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Exactly. I guess anytime someone dies from anything it’s God taking back what is his? I had never thought about it in terms of “if God exists we should live forever”. That’s not even a thought that had entered into my mind. Because it’s just not…what happens naturally. It’s the thought of God deliberately causing the death of a person – which is normally considered murder – that gives pause.
@Ark,
As I remember it from my Christian days I believed God was sovereign and since he created us he could do anything he wanted to with us. Since he was the giver of life he could also be the taker of it. He was the author of life, the creator of it, so he owned it.
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That’s what I thought too, Ruth. I now see that such a perspective only devalues life. And if God exists, why would he want us to devalue such a gift? Therefore, if things like the genocide of the Canaanites don’t affect us, there’s a real problem.
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” It’s the thought of God deliberately causing the death of a person – which is normally considered murder – that gives pause.”
Umm how does God have someone’s life end undeliberately? lol
Do you people even try to think?
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You don’t believe in “natural death” Mike?
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“Now go and strike Amalek
Jiminy Cricks!! Nates got color photos of the Amalekites. this blog is going to be famous. LOL
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I’m sure it would be a great comfort to every parent in a child cancer ward to know that God is doing this on purpose. You should definitely volunteer at St Jude’s.
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“You don’t believe in “natural death” Mike?’
Fill me in Nate. As far as I know every one dies when something that naturally used to work doesn’t anymore. You got the 411 different way hook me up.
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There’s some more of Mike’s brand of “Christian compassion.” You’re just so much like Jesus, Mike.
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We were all wondering if we should post a picture of your backside, but we decided against it as you probably see your own ass every day so it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise, Mike.
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Here’s how every other English-speaking person means it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_natural_causes
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“There’s some more of Mike’s brand of “Christian compassion.” You’re just so much like Jesus, Mike.”
Unless those are children that have died you just posted. you make ZERO sense. Hitting the booze early for independence Day nate?
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Oh, because the children of Amalek didn’t look like children?
You’re all heart, Mike.
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“We were all wondering if we should post a picture of your backside, ”
You have pictures of my backside?
Martha!
I told you these atheists have no morals. Close the blinds
……… bunch a peepin toms.
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”
Oh, because the children of Amalek didn’t look like children?
You’re all heart, Mike.
”
No because you posted children who aren’t dead nate. Is it so hard to grasp the obvious for you?
Save your fake superiority caring complex for someone who believes it (although I can;t think who that would be). What I love about how they look though is how God made them to begin with. 🙂
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Mike says:
What I love about how they look is how God made them to begin with. (Graphic)
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“What I love about how they look is how God made them to begin with. (Graphic)”
yep and thats how your kind of thinking deforms what he made
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RE: “People all die of something and its very rarely nice (even growing old isn’t) so its essentially a logic that says if God doesn’t allow us to live forever he’s evil”
That sounds like a great defense for the next serial killer to come down the pike – you should have suggested that to Ted Bundy!
“Hey, we all die SOMEtime – just because I didn’t allow the victim to live forever, suddenly I’m evil?” They’d HAVE to acquit —
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T,
Your point is well taken.
Since the atheist must make of himself the god of his own private Idaho, the Lord of the Universe is necessarily small potatoes.
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Ruth,
The Ten Commandments are a gift from God to men, his children.
Since God is all-good and knows what is good and just, he has no need for Commandments.
God is He who commands, not a human being who needs to be directed to the good.
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