Search This Blog

God ordered the killing of a lot people. Isn’t that wrong?

When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. Numbers 21:1

It’s true that God ordered some killings in the Old Testament. Why?  Some nations attacked his people, the Israelites, even after Israel tried to negotiate peacefully (for example the Canaanites, Edomites, Moabites, etc. in Numbers 21-25).

Some nations occupied the Promised Land when the Israelites showed up. Now, while it’s not a sin to occupy a land that seemed available, these nations were being judged by Israel because of their unholy practices of paganism, sexual worship and child sacrifices. The people of Carthage, a Canaanite/Phoenician colony, sacrificed children to the god Tanit. “Archaeologists found the charred remains of tens of thousands of newborn infants and fetuses buried in Carthage.” (The Apologetics Study Bible)

These were not nice people. God wanted the land cleaned up of evil people, who oppressed the poor and innocent.  God came in much like a Sheriff taking over a gun slinging, unjust town.  

This was not about domination. It was about justice. It was about retribution coming to an unholy people. It was about taking a small portion of land that God claimed for himself and Satan led others to occupy for their own unholy purposes.

It was all about Jesus Christ.  God needed a place where the savior of the world could be born.  Israel was the country where the king would be born and rule forever.

Now that Jesus has come, died and rose again for our sins, God is not in the enemy-slaughtering, wartime business.

The battlefield is over hearts, not land.