Steed of Truth

Updated At: Sep 15, 2022

Violence in the Old Testament

First of all, these so called violent acts actually prove the mercy of God, the love of God, the holiness of God, and the justice of God. Let's go to Genesis 15:15-16 -- "You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”"

God is telling abraham, it will take 400 years for your descendants to come out of that land of captivity and inherit the land of Canaan because the sin of the Amorites has not reached its full measure. When the time was fulfilled, and the iniquity of the Amorites reached its full measure, God took the Israelites out of Egypt and took them to the promised land (Exodus 12:11). There is a limit to how much evil, sin, and violence God will tolerate. Once a nation or an individual reaches that limit, you leave God with no choice but to now act in justice and wipe you out.

If you read Leviticus 18 and 20, God put up with 400 years of generation after generation of infants growing up to be as perverted and wicked as the generation before them. For 400 years God tolerated the Amorites and the Canaanities to commit incest, bestiality, homosexuality, murdering children and sacrificing them to their god Molek. Furthermore as evidence for this act, archaeology has found the bones of children in Canaan that were offered as sacrifices to their gods. They would heat the statue of Molek so it would be boiling hot and they would take the child and put it on the arms and let the child burn to a crisp as a sacrifice to Molek.

So why would God put up with this for 400 years? Because He is showing you each generation of infants growing up to be immoral people like the genration before them and that there is no more hope for them. God sees a future generation of murderes, sexual immoral people, idolaters who murder children and all kinds of other atrocities for 400 years. Is God now Just to say I am done with this people and it is time to wipe them out? Yes! Because the pattern would never end. In God's wisdom, by God taking out the children who are in a state of innocence, though their earthly life is terminated he takes them out in a state of grace where now they dwell in his presence forever and not be condemned to hell.

However, there is evidence that God's instruction to wipe out the canaanites was not unconditional. This evidence is found in the book of Joshua and the book of Judges where God spared the Canaanites that repented. For example, Rahab the harlot (Joshua 2:8-11), she provided lodging for the spies and protected them and when Joshua conquered the land, she and her family was spared because she showed fear of God and repented. God not only showed mercy upon Rahab but also made her part of the legal geneaology of Jesus (Matthew 1).

God's desire is that the wicked repent than die as written in Ezekiel 18:31-32 -- "Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!"

In Joshua 2:9-11 -- "and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." eventhough the canaanites knew how mighty the true God is, they still persisted to go against God since they are really wicked people. So if you read the Old testament in context, you will know that it was just and not genocide.