Some people distrust God because they object to the killings in the Bible that he initiated directly or ordered the Israelites to conduct.
They cannot conceive how a loving God could tolerate, much less authorize, such brutality, especially when the victims included innocent children.
God sanctioned these killings to ensure the success of his salvation plan and to punish individual and corporate sinfulness.
He gave the victims fair warning of his impending judgment and ample opportunity to avoid it through repentance.
Murder Prohibition
God issued ten universal commandments as the Israelites journeyed from Egypt to their promised homeland. One prohibited murder. Not all killing, just murder.
Murder is the unlawful, premeditated killing of one person by another. It is considered the supreme expression of evil worldwide.
God is internally consistent. He could not prohibit murder generally and then turn around and ordain it at opportune times.
God is also innately righteous. He can only do good things. He cannot initiate evil.
Therefore, we must conclude that the killings God sanctioned in the Bible were not murder, but justifiable homicides.
Justifiable Homicides
Justifiable homicides are lawful killings.
Examples include self-defense against attackers threatening bodily harm, safeguarding property against intruders bent on causing felonious damage, the defense of others who are under deadly attack, specific law enforcement actions when the lives of officers or the public are endangered, adjudicated executions conducted by the state, and authorized military combat.
God, the supreme arbiter of right and wrong, determined that the killings he ordained in the Bible fell under one of these categories.
Individual Killings
God directly killed several individuals in the Old Testament and two in the New Testament for their personal sinfulness.
Old Testament examples include:
- Two adult sons of Judah, one of the twelve Israelite patriarchs. One man for a specific act of disobedience, and the other for his overall wickedness.
- Two adult sons of Aaron, the first high priest of Israel. These men, both priests themselves, offered a sacrifice that violated God’s mandatory protocol.
- Three malcontents who incited a rebellion against Moses and Aaron while the Israelites were traveling from Egypt to their promised homeland.
In the New Testament, God killed a husband and wife who lied about the amount of money they donated to the early church.
Firsthand Knowledge
These individuals would have avoided their fate had they meekly adhered to what they knew firsthand.
The Old Testament men had witnessed the ten plagues in Egypt and crossed through the Red Sea on dry ground. They were following the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They knew the Mosaic Laws.
If they had walked in harmony with God in response to this knowledge, they would have avoided their punishment. Instead, they dismissed their lived experience and did as they pleased.
The New Testament couple knew at least one of Jesus’ apostles personally, if not all of them. They heard him preach and may even have seen the miracles he performed. They witnessed the explosive growth of the early church.
They would have avoided their fate had they taken all this to heart and developed an intimate relationship with God rather than a superficial one. Instead, they deceitfully sought the acclaim of their fellow church members for their feigned generosity.
Mass Killings
God authorized or conducted mass killings in the Old Testament to punish wickedness and ensure the success of his salvation plan.
Here are a few examples:
- In the great flood, God drowned every person on earth, including children, except for Noah’s family, who were safely housed in the ark.
- He killed the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, including children, by raining down fire and brimstone on these city-states.
- To convince Pharaoh to release the enslaved Israelites from captivity, God killed the firstborn son in every Egyptian family.
- Upon returning to their promised homeland, God instructed the Israelites to kill every resident of the Canaanite city-states they conquered, including children.
- He inspired Samson to kill thirty Philistine men.
- God commanded King Saul to eradicate a nearby Canaanite tribe called the Amalekites, including their infants and livestock.
Covenant Context
The righteousness of these mass killings becomes apparent when viewed in the context of God’s covenants, the ample warnings he gave those who died, and his willingness to change course if they repented.
Adamic Covenant. God established a covenant, or pact, with Adam before he and Eve first sinned.
He promised that they, as well as their descendants, would enjoy eternal bliss if they refrained from eating the forbidden fruit.
Unfortunately, they did not uphold their end of this bargain.
In response to their disobedience, God initiated a salvation plan that would nevertheless fulfill the pact he made with Adam.
He would redeem humanity by accepting the eventual death of Jesus as the universal atonement for all sin.
He stipulated that individuals who contritely complied with what they knew about his salvation plan would qualify for the eternal bliss he promised Adam.
Abrahamic Covenant. God later established a pact with Abraham that expanded on the one he made with Adam.
He vowed that Abraham would be the progenitor of a great nation that would inhabit a territory along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. He also pledged to redeem humanity through one of Abraham’s distant descendants, namely Jesus.
Abraham’s offspring through his son, Isaac, and grandson, Jacob, called the Israelites, transformed from a small clan into a large nation during their four hundred years of Egyptian captivity.
Mosaic Covenant. After enabling the Israelites to escape from Egypt and miraculously cross the Red Sea, God promised Moses that he would bless them if they obeyed him and curse them if they disobeyed.
Davidic Covenant. God promised King David that his kingdom would endure forever, meaning that Jesus, the coming Messiah, would be his descendant, humanly speaking.
Joseph, the husband of Mary, who bore Jesus, was a distant blood relative of King David.
Salvation Plan
God effectively proclaimed in these four covenants that the Israelites, their promised homeland, and their devotion to him were essential components of his salvation plan.
He said, in essence, that these prerequisites had to be in place before Jesus could come to earth and atone for sin.
The mass killings God sanctioned in the Old Testament ensured that these preconditions would be met.
The Big Flood. God drowned everyone on earth because he deemed all humanity to be wicked and corrupt, except for Noah, a righteous preacher.
God repopulated the world with Noah’s offspring, so the faithfulness and obedience he exhibited in building the ark would inspire a similar level of righteousness among future generations.
Sodom and Gomorrah. God showered the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone after their immorality endangered a man named Lot and his angelic houseguests.
Lot and his children escaped this devastation, but his wife did not because of her last-minute disobedience.
God killed the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah not only to quash their wickedness, but to protect the bloodline of Jesus, humanly speaking.
Lot was King David’s forefather. Killing his menacing attackers ensured that the Davidic covenant would be fulfilled.
Egyptian Males. God killed the firstborn Egyptian sons only after Pharaoh disregarded the first nine plagues and refused to release the Israelites from captivity.
He slew these men and boys because the Israelites needed to return to their promised homeland to set the stage for the earthly life of Jesus.
Canaanite Cities. The homeland that God promised the Israelites was not deserted when they arrived.
Instead, it was occupied by independent city-states, populated by warring tribes that would not voluntarily surrender their territories. They needed to be vanquished.
These tribes also worshipped a pantheon of deities. Their rituals included elaborate rites, animal sacrifices, temple prostitution, and human sacrifice.
God instructed the Israelites to kill everyone in these city-states to both seize their territories and prevent his people from straying spiritually.
He knew the Israelites would be inclined to assimilate the idolatry these tribes practiced unless they were eradicated.
Unfortunately, the Israelites failed to follow God’s instructions fully, resulting in chronic wars with these city-states and dalliances with their pagan deities.
Samson. God ordained Samson before his birth to free the Israelites from the barbarism of a violent, pagan, nearby tribe called the Philistines.
As an adult, Samson publicly broke his vow of consecration to God and was only sporadically faithful in fulfilling his sacred duty.
However, in a fit of rage during his wedding feast, he killed thirty deceitful Philistine men after losing a foolish bet to them.
God prompted Samson to act out his anger in a manner that fulfilled his divine destiny.
Amalekites. The Amalekites, a violent Canaanite tribe, frequently raided the Israelite’s territory.
They also practiced sorcery and observed other pagan traditions that were common to the region.
God ordered King Saul to kill the entire population to ensure that the Israelites not only survived as a people but also remained devoted to him.
Unfortunately, King Saul failed to fully comply with this order, which led to persistent problems for the Israelites down the road.
Territorial Not Genocidal
Some critics contend these mass killings constituted genocide, but this is untrue.
Genocide is the deliberate destruction of an entire racial, ethnic, religious, or national group.
In unleashing the great flood, God condemned all humanity to death for its corporate sinfulness, not specific multitudes because of their bloodline or nationality.
He did not kill every living Egyptian, just the firstborn males. He intended to secure the freedom of the Israelites, not wipe out an entire population.
God ordered the Israelites to kill everyone living within the boundaries of the city-states they conquered, but he did not instruct them to pursue and kill those who fled to safety.
The Bible records several instances in which God spared individual Canaanites who chose to worship him and city-states that submitted to Israelite rule.
These outcomes prove that his goals were territorial, not genocidal.
Ample Warning
God forewarned the victims of these mass killings and gave them ample time to avoid their fate through repentance.
Noah spent more than fifty years building the ark. The folks who listened to him preach righteousness or visited his construction site and heard his warnings about the coming flood had decades to begin walking in harmony with God before the rains came.
The leaders of Sodom and Gomorrah knew about their need to repent because Abraham witnessed to them about his relationship with God after rescuing them from the clutches of the militant city-states nearby. They disregarded his testimony.
Pharaoh had weeks, if not months, to save the firstborn Egyptian males by releasing the Israelites. He spoke with Moses before and after the first nine plagues and witnessed the devastation they caused before the deadliest one struck.
The residents of the Canaanite city-states, informed by merchants transiting nearby trade routes, knew about the Israelites’ miraculous escape from Egypt long before they arrived. They had forty years to repent while the Israelites wandered in the desert.
The Philistines and Amalekites also knew the Israelites’ history, plus they saw them conquer nearby city-states and prosper for centuries before Samson and Saul came on the scene. They had more than enough time to repent.
Last Resort
God never wants to condemn anyone to death. He would rather everyone comply with his salvation plan so they could live with him in heaven forever.
He is also omniscient and unconstrained by time. He sees all the immediate and ultimate ramifications of every possibility simultaneously.
God ordained these mass killings as a last resort after considering the outcomes of every other potential course of action.
They were neither his first choice nor his ideal alternative, yet in his infinite wisdom, he deemed them his best option.
Divine Amenability
That God would have preferred to forego these mass killings is evidenced by Abraham’s negotiation with him about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Upon learning about the pending destruction of these two city-states, Abraham asked God to spare them if he identified fifty righteous residents living there.
After God agreed to this condition, Abraham bargained with him several more times until he agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if he found only ten godly inhabitants.
Unfortunately, he did not.
God would have likewise spared the flood victims, firstborn Egyptian males, and Canaanite casualties if sufficient numbers of the respective populations had repented.
Fair Questions
What about the people who were unaware of Noah and the ark because they lived far away and never met any traveling merchants who could brief them? It seems unfair for God to drown these folks.
Everyone alive at the time of the flood had the same opportunity to repent of their sins, regardless of where they lived.
The people living far from Noah knew of God’s existence through his natural revelation and of his moral superiority through their consciences.
Plus, many of them were only a generation or two removed from Adam’s time on earth. Their elders may have even known him personally.
Consequently, Adam’s interactions with God and the serpent in the Garden of Eden and the lessons he learned about obedience and repentance were likely part of their oral tradition, just as they were for the Israelites.
As he does with unbelievers today, God enlightened these folks about his mercy and forgiveness at critical junctures, hoping to prompt their repentance.
Those who responded affirmatively to his entreaties still died in the great flood like their unrepentant neighbors, but unlike them, they inherited eternal life upon their deaths.
What about the innocent children who drowned in the great flood or perished when the Israelites conquered the Canaanite city-states in which they lived? It seems unfair for God to ordain their killing.
Children often suffer the consequences of parental sins, unfortunately.
Today, some die in car accidents because a mom or dad drove drunk. Others end up in foster care because of parental neglect or abuse.
Scripture indicates that the children killed in these ancient cataclysms, who were too young to comprehend God’s salvation plan, were immediately ushered into heaven upon their death.
The older children who understood it had the same opportunity to repent of their sins as the adults.
Were people forever doomed once the rains began, the fire and brimstone fell, or the Israelites invaded? Or could they still qualify for heaven in their final hours?
Everyone who died in one of these calamities could still repent right up until their last breath and enter heaven upon their demise.
The thief who asked Jesus for mercy while hanging on the cross next to him illustrates this truth. Jesus assured him that he would enter paradise upon his death.
God likewise welcomed into heaven the victims of these mass casualty events who confessed their sinfulness at the last minute and asked him for mercy.
PIvotal Point
The killings that God sanctioned raise questions about his character because we would like to think that his love for humanity dictates everything he does.
However, God’s character is multifaceted and symmetrical. His many attributes coexist harmoniously in perfect parity without friction or tension.
This means that his justice compels him to punish us for our sins equally as much as his mercy compels him to extend grace to us.
He leaves it up to us to determine which direction he pivots.
God told Adam in the Garden of Eden that the penalty for sin would be eternal death, and he has never wavered on that point since then.
That is why Jesus came to earth to die on the cross. His atoning sacrifice paid the penalty for all of humanity’s sins so that God could lawfully offer us eternal life.
Our acceptance or rejection of this atonement determines whether he grants us a free pass to heaven upon our death or requires us to pay the penalty for our sins ourselves.
Read More
The killings that God sanctioned raise questions about the fairness of his salvation plan. Click here to read more about this issue.
