Reconciling a Murderous God

Introduction

If you will, open your Bibles back to Isaiah chapter 55. In Isaiah chapter 55. But before we leave that, I want to think about something this morning that I have not got to experience yet in this life, or any other lives, I suppose. But I have had it told to me. This particular phrase is one that I think stands out among all the phrases that are uttered in the parent-child relationship in a very particular way. And it’s the phrase, because I said so. I, not being a parent yet, have not had the joy and the exhilaration that must come with that phrase. So I sought out an expert, someone who has used this phrase a lot, someone I knew, understood the power and the magnitude of because I said so.

So I turned to my dad this morning. And I asked him, I said, Well, give me a little bit about why we say because I said so. And this is a definition from authority. That because I said so is to establish both the authority and the wisdom of parents. And we understand the concept. The concept of because I said so is it doesn’t matter all the questions of why, it matters because the parent is both the authority and the wisdom in the parent-child relationship. And about 99%, perhaps more, of parent-child conflicts, the parent knows more than the child does. And so there is wisdom there. Again, this is all underlined by the fact that the parent has natural authority as given by God in the parent-child relationship.

And that’s one that children and sometimes older young adults struggle with, seeing that authority and respecting it as such, and understanding and appreciating the wisdom of the more wise parental figure. But what we see in Isaiah chapter 55 and verses 8 and 9, I think declares God and puts God in a similar spot, except even more so, distanced from us, and a parent is distanced from us even his child. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. You see, God is God. And so what God has said should go, because he said so would be more than enough.

But we are fortunate that we have a God who helps us understand him. Certainly the Bible is riddled with an explanation of God and some of his characteristics. Now I say some because there are many things throughout the Bible, even concerning the great God that we are here to worship in spirit and in truth this morning that we do not understand. And frankly, there are many things that we will not understand until the time at which God decides to reveal all things to us. And if and when and until he does that, we should respect him on the grounds that he has given us. But I would like to talk about a particular issue found in 1 Samuel chapter 15. If you’ll turn there, we’re going to look at two Old Testament passages.

And this is a very common objection to God, and I’ll point out the fallacy of that opinion after we read a couple texts here. In 1 Samuel chapter 15, beginning in verse 1 and 2, God gives what is an hour there a very controversial order. In 1 Samuel chapter 15, beginning in verse 1, and Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts. I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

Here is the Lord, the Lord of hosts, declaring, destroy all of them, is the language given. He spares no one, man and woman, child and infant. That is an annihilation ordered from the Lord. Now look at Deuteronomy chapter twenty. In Deuteronomy chapter twenty, beginning in verse sixteen. Deuteronomy chapter twenty and verse sixteen. But in the cities of these people that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction. The Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.

If you haven’t got where this train is going yet, notice how in verse tw verse eighteen, excuse me, we see a common explanation for a common old testament occurrence, at least as we tell of it in our Bible studies. In verse eighteen, the reason for this extermination ordered by God is that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God. And we say this is the Lord’s justice being upheld. This is the power of God, this is the plan of God at work. But I want to just bring up a rhetorical question and point out something that is often debated by scholars, both on the atheist and Christian side of the spiritual.

And that is, how can an all loving God be such a murderous God? How can God, a great and loving God, how can the Bible’s God be loving and be the standard and the giver of objective morality if he’s ordering the extinction of some people? And so what I want to consider this morning is based off of research from Dr. William Lane Craig and some uh research from Godquestions.org. While I don’t recommend all of what either source perhaps has to say, they do shed some great light on this topic. So what we want to understand this morning is when this is brought up by someone who does not believe in God, oh, I can’t believe in your God, your God is murderous. Maybe you’ve heard your God is homophobic.

1. What Does This Objection Even Prove?

What do those charges mean? What are they actually saying? And we’ll see in just a moment a large fallacy in those objections. But before we hit that point, for our own faith, how do we reconcile the old testament God that is commanding the Israelites to utterly wipe out other people with the New Testament God who desires that all men be saved? Well, what we need to consider first of all, and this is the largest fallacy in the point, is I want to question what does this objection even prove? And who would even be wronged? And that’s what we’re going to answer. First of all, I want to answer what does this objection prove? The challenge, of course, being how is a pure, holy, and loving God one that is exterminating people?

Let me suggest plainly, first of all, if you are ever approached by this line of thinking, and if you’ve ever considered it on your own front, that this line of thinking doesn’t actually disprove God at all. If anything, it’s a shot at biblical inerrancy. It does not disprove the existence of God. Whether God exists and destroys everyone or God exists and love everyone does not make something with the power greater than we can even fathom, as Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 20 reveals, that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. What that God does is not proven or disproven by how we interpret his actions as good or bad. Now, the idea of it being a shot against biblical inerrancy is that, well, a couple of things could have happened.

Either the conquest never happened, in which case our biblical accounts are severely flawed in those fronts, or perhaps the people of Israel just thought that God was behind them and wanting them to wipe out these people. And they did it in the name of God, but they actually had that part wrong. Again, that goes against the biblical narrative that shows, as in 1 Samuel chapter 15, the Lord of hosts is commending this. It’s hard to get that confused, and it’s hard to let go of that crucial verse and the idea that God has Himself commanded this. And so what we have to disc point out this morning, I hope that we can discover is why would God do this? How do I reason in my faith in God?

2. God Has the Right to Do What He Wills

How can I serve a God that is so murderous? And perhaps even by extension answer some questions about the homophobic God or any negative term that we like to throw on God that atheists like to term as if that would ignore the extinction of God altogether. But first and foremost, let’s understand that God operates on a plane that is way far beyond all that we can even consider. I understand you might not have heard way far before, but that doesn’t even begin to describe how distant God is from us. We understand when we are coming to worship God this morning, that we have come to worship God in spirit and in truth. Why? Because God said so. Why? God is the creator of the heavens and the earth.

God hung the moon and the stars, he put the earth on the very orbit that it’s on. He created everything in a perfect, intelligently designed way. And even rhetorically, if we’re discussing this with someone with no faith in God, to understand the concept of how do we explain this Old Testament God goes with the understanding that that God exists. And if that God exists, that God has with perfectly within all of his rights to do whatever he so pleases. And that could be the end of the subject. We could hang our hats on because God said so, because God willed it, because God planned it, as we’ll see, it’s really a revealing of God’s plan. It’s to help the Messiah come. It actually, as it turns out, leads to the salvation of the whole world.

But we wouldn’t know that if we get caught up in our 21st Western civilization cultures thinking on the God of the Old Testament. When we try to shackle God with our opinions, our viewpoints, whether derived from the Bible or not, we have shackled God in a way that we might not be right about. If God is the God from Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 8 and 9, whose ways and thoughts are far beyond ours, how dare we question that God? At least as it comes to disproving him with what he chooses to do. Because the truth is, if God is real, if God did create the heavens and the earth, he has all authority. He has all the power to do what he wills. But consider further the idea of God taking lives.

3. The Wages of Sin Is Death

If you’ll turn your Bibles to the book of Romans, we’re going to look at two passages that you probably know already, but we’re going to look at them quickly. In Romans chapter 3, look with me there. If we’re going to move on past the point that God can do what he pleases, let’s look at perhaps some of what we know about God and apply it to him in these Old Testament characteristics. In Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, what do we read? You know the passage. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now look at Romans chapter 6 and verse 23. Again, another passage you may know. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so what we have is our own guilt put right before us this morning. If you notice, Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. For the wages of sin that we have all committed is death. The price and the consequence of sin is death, in both a spiritual and a physical way. So when we consider the idea of God, how dare he wipe people out, perhaps God’s righteousness, perhaps his holiness, perhaps his plan to uphold his purity and righteousness is what’s at stake here. When you consider how is that fair? How can God do that kind of thing? Look at me in Genesis chapter 15. Is God unfair by committing these heinous murders? By ordering these murders.

Look at Genesis chapter 15. If you’ve ever considered this issue, I think this is a critical passage that reveals to us something about our great God and his justice. I hope you’ll see this. In Genesis chapter 15. If you’ll pick up the reading with me in verse 13. In Genesis chapter 15, beginning in verse 13, then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there. And they will be afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age.

And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Look with me again at verse 16. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation. Why? For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. What is God conveying? Do you see it? For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. I want you to get this in your mind solely and entirely. God knew they weren’t entirely wicked yet. It wasn’t time to judge them. Their wickedness was not all encompassing yet. Turn back to Genesis chapter 6. It’s kind of funny when you consider the idea of does this disprove God that they’re kind of ignoring the fact that God did destroy the whole world with water first.

But notice why he did that. In Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man, whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them. Now we know from verse 8, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and the rest of Genesis chapter 6 and on through. That Noah was spared by God. But why did God want to blot out man?

4. We Have the Same God

Because their wickedness. Because every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It was God’s righteousness that was going to cause the destruction of those who were caught up in severe unrighteousness and immorality. But if you consider that is our Old Testament God, and remember the question we’re facing is how do we reconcile that? I want to show you something. Look at me in 2 Peter. Go with me way deep into the New Testament. 2 Peter chapter 3. Excuse me, the term is way far that I introduced. 2 Peter chapter 3, though. Notice with me in verse 8. We’re trying to reconcile the Old Testament God with the New Testament God. In 2 Peter chapter 3, notice in verse 8. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you. Notice with me why? Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a war, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Some manuscripts have will be burned up. And so we question what about this New Testament God that’s all loving? What happened to the old Testament God who would strike down people for their disobedience? And we say we have the same God. And the scriptures tell us that he acts the same.

He’s showing more patience. But there’s a reason for the patience. Why is it? What did we just read? That all should come to repentance. We do have a God that desires that all men be saved. And just in a moment, we’re going to look at some of those other nations, even in the Old Testament, that God did allow to come to repentance. And at least gave them a chance. But what we need to understand when we look at God and say, well, he commanded that the Amorites be destroyed utterly and entirely. That this wasn’t just God closing his eyes and picking out a map and saying, I want these people dead. He had a plan. He had his reasons. God has ways and thoughts that are far beyond ours, and if we get that out of our minds, we’re left telling God what he should and should not have done.

And I fear the day that any of us stands before that God, having thought in this life, that we could tell God what to do, or ascribe all of his motives. We need to be very careful with how we consider, how we approach, how we view our great and almighty God. And before we just call him some obsessive murderer, let’s consider all of what there is to say about it. We know in one case, in Genesis chapter 15 that we had just read, that the wickedness was not yet complete. That was, it wasn’t time for God to judge them. Why do you think he would have given time? Do you think it’s because God just decided that in 400 years it’d be a good time for them to be entirely wicked?

Or perhaps maybe God was giving them a chance to turn to repentance. I tend to take the latter view, but I could be wrong. But let’s look at Jonah chapter 3. Let’s look at a different example. We know the story of Jonah. And Jonah chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city going a day’s journey. And he called out, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

And notice verse 5, this great and wicked city that was going to be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth for them the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles. Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sack cloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish. What happens in verse 10? When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. You see, God was going to destroy the city of Nineveh. Why? Because God closed his eyes and picked it on a map? Because they were an inconvenience to him? No, because of their exceeding wickedness. And so he sent Jonah, which Jonah didn’t want to do in the first place, and as we see, he didn’t really want to do it after the fact either. He didn’t like the fulfillment of their repentance.

But what he’s teaching them is if you go and at least teach them, give them a chance to turn from their evil ways. Give them a chance to repent. God was calling Nineveh, just like he did with other nations, and he did with Israel and later Judah, calling them to repent. Why? To avoid the calamity that God would bring them on, bring on to them for their unrighteousness. The reason for the destruction was the unrighteousness and the unholiness. It wasn’t because they were in the way or because God had a murdering streak in him. There was righteousness, there were laws to be upheld. There was a God to be respected and revered. Not a God to have a mockery made of in false idol worship. Not a God that could be pleased through sexual immorality in some sort of pagan worship.

Not a God who could be pleased by child sacrifices and all the corrupt things that we could barely wrap our minds around that some of these other nations and in some cases Israel got involved in. God is a holy God, and we would do well to remember that fact. So when we notice that God gave Nineveh a chance to repent, we have an example of a foreign nation, not Israel, not God’s chosen people, given a chance to repent. Now, on the other hand, I think you can make the case even stronger that we have the same God, because you know what? God punished with the sword Israel and Judah too. It wasn’t just about the foreign nations, it was even God’s own people. Why were Israel and Judah punished?

Why did Assyria take Israel into captivity? Why did Babylon come and take Judah into captivity? Because they disobeyed God. Are you catching a theme here? The people would be punished for not obeying God. God would allow them to continue. God would bless the people if they sought him. This isn’t some capricious God. This is a God of love who desired that all men everywhere repent. He didn’t change. God had a plan to be worked out. And so when we consider, first of all, that God has the right to do what he will, and secondly, God dealt with the other nations and Israel the same anyway. We understand that perhaps this dilemma we’ve created isn’t so much of a quandary at all. But I want to get a third point.

5. God Had a Plan to Be Worked Out

We talked about Abram in Genesis chapter 15. But you know the promises in Genesis chapter 12. The land, nation, and seed would be promised to Abraham. If you understand where that land was, it was where some of these foreign nations were. And so let’s consider the fact that for God’s plan of salvation to come into effect, Jesus was to become of his holy people. Remember the seed part of that promise to Abraham? So by your seed all the nations, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That was Jesus. Where was he to come from? From Abraham’s lineage. We have all these prophecies in the Old Testament that revolve around God’s plan being carried out. And can I tell you something? We would do well to remember that God has a plan for us, and that we should just get in line and follow it.

Because God sees things that we don’t even begin to think of. I’ve often heard the analogy: can you name the president a hundred years from now? You know, God had a plan. God, in fact, in Ephesians chapter three reveals the church was part of his eternal plan. We couldn’t even think of the thing church if God hadn’t first given it to us. We don’t even really think of words as it are, or bodies of organization. I challenge you to name one organization that will exist 6,000 years from now, 10,000 years from now, if the Lord wills that the earth continue on that long. You can’t do it. And in fact, if you guessed, you’d probably be wrong. And if you guess something from this country or another nation, you’ll probably be embarrassingly wrong.

God has a plan on things we don’t even begin to understand and what that means for my spiritual life and my spiritual walk is.

And we’re going to conclude the lesson by looking at some things we can learn about God from this dilemma that are positive and should help us with our walk. But perhaps the biggest thing is we should say, you know what, God? Your will be done. You have a plan, I don’t begin to understand. Your ways are higher than my ways, your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth. That is an extreme amount of ignorance that we show if we try to tell God what his plan was or was not. You understand that this question of how can that God be so murderous? That question kind of turns itself on its head, doesn’t it, when you start examining other facets of it?

6. What About the Amorites? The Adults and the Infants

But I want to do consider before we get to the applications, just a couple quick points. What about the Amorites? What about the Canaanites? Was it fair to them? Why don’t I look at two groups of people? Because there’s one still remaining that we can’t just say was entirely wicked. But first of all, I want to deal with that group, the wicked group. The adults. Why would God destroy the adults? Well, go back to Deuteronomy chapter 20. Go back with me to Deuteronomy chapter 20. And we actually already read the reason for this. In Deuteronomy chapter 20, I’m going to read the same verses again, beginning in verse 16. But in the cities of these people that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction.

We have the list that includes the Canaanites. Notice in verse 18, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God. You see, there’s two reasons there in verse 18 for why these people needed to be destroyed. First of all, why? In verse 18, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods. These people were not worshiping God. They were committing abominable practices. This is not some tender lamb in a field that God struck down. Beyond that, the verse continues, and so you sin against the Lord your God. God knew it would be even worse if the people of Israel got caught up in the sin for several reasons.

It would affect the plan, it would affect the people, and it would affect the standing of God’s chosen holy people in the world around them, and most importantly, in their direct relationship with God. God understands when he tells us things to do, even in the New Testament, when we’re going to abstain from certain practices, when we should guard our hearts, there’s a reason for it. It’s not because God’s just mad and wants to tell us what to do. Again, although he could do that if he still felt like it, the creator of the heavens and the earth has that power and that divine right. But he has chosen to do what’s in the best interest of us. God was looking out for his people. And we know from the Old Testament story that because they failed to do what God said, they were led astray.

We know time and time again, individuals and as a collective nation, the people were drawn away from God because of idolatry. Where did that come from? It didn’t come from God. It came from the other nations around them. God had a plan. And so these adults were wicked. They were committing abominable practices. And God decided to take their lives because of it. But then that leaves another key group of people. We read it. Child, children, and infants.

How can a God that is so loving order the extermination of infants? Maybe that question has bothered you. Maybe you’ve never thought about it, and maybe now it is bothering you. I’d like to suggest maybe three different answers. I think there’s three different answers, and I think they all work together personally, of why this isn’t all that bad. First of all, it helps them to avoid corruption. Just like in Deuteronomy chapter 20 and verse 18, it avoided these children growing up and growing up into what? Right into those abominable practices. Right into that wickedness, right into the idolatry. And worse yet, if they grow up and they get in that idolatry, and again, we we know this happened. They find the Israelites. They intermingle, they intermarry, the sons and daughters mix.

Then they’ve brought the Israelites down as well. God has a plan. And when God orders things, he does it with purpose and with reason. And we may not see it, but that doesn’t make it not so. But consider with me, perhaps the most comforting thought, that these infants had not yet got caught up in those abominable practices. They had not yet been caught up in those teachings. They were not swaying the hearts of Israelites. Those infants are likely with God in heaven. So what you call murderous and wretched and senseless killing, perhaps God was saving the very few who were left in these nations that were pure and innocent. Maybe God was keeping them for his eternal purposes rather than our physical ones. It’s just another powerful example of how God is so wise.

God has a plan.

Conclusion

God desires that all men be saved. And he has a plan for you, just like he does for me. And so what I want to conclude with this morning is some applications of God’s characteristics. First of all, what have we concluded about our genocidal God? He’s not so genocidal after all. God is a God of purity, righteousness, and wisdom and compassion. He desires that all men come to repentance. We know that God is powerful. God could destroy everyone. God, in our sin and our falling short, could exterminate us, both through the shackles of what we put on him and by his own righteous decree, he could choose to destroy us all. But what’s amazing is that God does have a plan. We’ve seen this morning God’s power, God’s justice.

I hope you’ve seen God’s plan and just how powerful it is that this New Testament God that we read about, that old Testament God that allowed people to come to Him repentance, how special and how wonderful it is that that God gives us a chance to be with Him eternally. That powerful God who could have ended the whole world with just the His the flick the snap of His fingers, or just a few words or even just the flick of His hand chose to give His only begotten Son to die on the cross for you and for me. He did that because He loves us. How powerful it is to see that almighty God choose the love humble, merciful, excuse me, merciless, sinful me. What an amazing thought.

God has plenty of love, grace, and mercy if we get on board with His plan. If we recognize that He is powerful, He is loving, and He does desire that we come to repentance. Will you join Him? Will you join in on the path to come to Him this morning? Let’s pray. Our dear God and our most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we praise you for your greatness, for your power is indescribable. Your might is infinite. You are an eternal God who is the creator of all things. We are so thankful to you, O God, for choosing to love us. Oh Lord, we hope that we are humbled, and we pray that you would humble us if we ever choose to stand up and think that we are something without you or instead of you.

Oh God, you are gracious, merciful, and loving, and help us to find your way, to take advantage of those great attributes of you. Well God, help us to be holy. Help us to be blameless. Help us to be found righteous, righteous in your sight. Oh God, may we never get caught up with the cares of the world of the world around us. May we never get distracted by things that are not of you. Oh God, help us to devote our lives solely and entirely to your wisdom and your plan. Thank you for your love, dear God, and help us to worship you today in manners pleasing in your sight. And it’s in we ask all this in your son’s name. Amen.