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Wars In The Old
Testament
Testament
WHY SO MUCH WAR IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?
Biblica,
the International Bible Society
In the Old Testament there is so much war and violence
sanctioned by Yahweh.
Let’s take this
seriously by quoting a few verses that seem repugnant to us.
For example,
Deuteronomy 20 contains Yahweh’s instructions about war.
If a city does not accept Israel’s offer of peace and open its
gates, then “when the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the
sword all the men in it” (verse 13).
With regard to other cities, the command is, “Do not leave
anything that breathes.” (verse 16)
You probably also recall that the walls of Jericho came tumbling
down, and then the Israelites “destroyed with the sword every living thing
in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys” (Joshua 6:21).
This certainly seems
brutal and vindictive, doesn’t it?
Or consider Joshua 11:20, “For it was the Lord himself who
hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them
totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.”
From our twenty-first century point of view, we ask, “What
good was accomplished by all this annihilation?”
Yet there is
clearly another side to Yahweh as well.
While the prophet Ezekiel does not spare the wicked in his
denunciations, he also records Yahweh’s words of grace: “If a wicked man
turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does
what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die”. . . “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the
wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn
from their ways and live?” (Ezekiel 18:21, 23).
And he goes on in verse 32, “For I take no pleasure in the
death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!”
And there is this compelling verse recorded in 2 Chronicles
16:9, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen
those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
God’s obvious
desire is that sinners should repent and live. But there comes a point where
evil is finally intolerable and wiped from off the earth.
We must see these
terrible retributions in their historical setting.
The spread of
wickedness was so pervasive that immorality, degradation, and barbarity invaded
every facet of life.
Children were
sacrificed to pagan gods. Male and female prostitution took place right in the
temple as part of the religious rites.
Idol worship was
rife and the society wholly contaminated.
Today we have lost
that black and white distinction between good and evil. Tolerance is presented
as the great religious value.
Indeed, tolerance
of diversity is a high Christian value, but often today tolerance is taken to
mean the virtue of accepting nearly every behavior under the sun.
Anything goes – in
the name of tolerance! A sweeping moral relativism is the result, and children
grow up with fewer and fewer moral absolutes to guide them.
We seldom hear the
term sin anymore, but instead a dozen much milder words are employed. Surely
the Lord will not tolerate this abomination to his holiness forever.
Nor do we like to
accept the fact that when evil spreads, the innocent as well as the guilty are
hurt.
When the bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima, the city died, both the innocent and the guilty.
A few days later,
as a direct result, the war came to an end. It was a terrible end, but it was
the end, and greater carnage was avoided.
Let’s be clear
about this stricter and more communal view of justice in the Bible.
The Canaanite pagan
communities would surely intermarry with the Israelites, and God’s people were
in danger of succumbing to their sexual perversions and religious degradation.
Finally, the danger
became just too much.
The entire Bible
from beginning to end never deviates from this standard of justice as well as
grace.
Jesus is crystal clear about the punishment of evildoers, for on
the day of judgement God will say to the evildoers, “Depart from me, you who
are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
Our society does
not much care to hear about pain and punishment, and prefers the meek and mild
Jesus of some contemporary writers.
But the God of the
New Testament is the changeless God of the ages. And in that affirmation lies
our only hope.
Clearly, we have
all missed the mark. Each of us stumbles, and wounds, and sins. Even the most
godly affirm that over and over.
In God’s enduring
justice, he never simply blinks casually at sin.
But that is not the
end of the story, nor even the overriding theme of the Bible.
For as humanity
spirals deeper into self-gratification, God intervenes.
Indeed, the Old
Testament is a record of God’s intervening in the human situation with a new
promise of hope.
The New Testament
is the record of grace applied to people lost in sin and rebellion.
There was no
compulsion placed on God to undertake this rescue operation. But the plan was
and is indescribably marvelous. God did not forget about guilt and justice.
Rather, Jesus
Christ, the God-man, took on himself the punishment and so satisfied the grisly
sentence. This is what Christians call grace.
The Bible is mainly
a record of grace, set against a backdrop of horror and misery.
This is an ageless
and eternal story, persisting into this new millennium.
The evil
surrounding us seems to be growing and moral apathy seeps in everywhere. But
still God’s grace shines through. His love persists.
He calls and calls
until the very last moment. Have you discovered his grace? It’s there –
available for you to live in every day.
Biblica, the International Bible Society,
is a worldwide ministry that has been helping people engage with God’s Word for
over 200 years. We are committed to bringing the Bible to people in a way they
understand, so they can be transformed by Christ and inspired to join His
mission for the world.
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