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Did God ever order the killing of an innocent person?

That day Joshua took Makkedah. He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors. And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho. Joshua 10:28

So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded. Joshua 10:40

When God moved his people into the Promised Land, there was a lot of bloodshed. We must remember God was using the Israelites to punish these nations and their evil pagan god worship, which included putting children into fire and burning them alive.

God didn’t want any remnant of these nations left, so when the Israelites attacked he ordered the death of every person – man, woman, and child (some cities just the men). So were all those people guilty or were some innocent?

God gave ample time for people to hear about his magnificent power and respond. The prostitute Rahab in the city of Jericho knew of the Israelites and confessed her allegiance. She was saved. Every nation in that region knew what was coming and could have bowed to Israel’s God. They chose to fight.

That’s not to say every woman and child that ever died in those wars was guilty. Some probably were innocent. . .by our standards.

God is fair and knew the hearts of every man, woman and child. If an innocent was killed and their heart loved the true God, they would be given salvation.

God is all-knowing and he knew the future of these people killed. They could be innocent now, but later they could be behind the deaths of hundreds of other innocents themselves. In that case, God saved other people’s lives by killing these people now.

God is righteous and just and his purposes are unknowable to us. We can’t foresee or understand the methodology behind everything he does.

So the innocents were fairly judged and only God knew their hearts.