How Can We Understand Old Testament Commands For Violence?

One of the most common canards in the popular understanding of the Bible is that there is a massive change in character between the “Old Testament God” and “New Testament God”.  New Testament God is all about peace, brotherhood, forgiveness, and mercy.   This is contrasted with Old Testament God, who is all about murder and punishment.

While most Christians would insist that the Old Testament and New Testament speak of the same God, many of us are pseudo-Marcionites in practice.  We do not like to think about some of the more disturbing things God did and commanded other to do in the Old Testament.

So today I wanted to take a look at the prime example – the extermination of the Canaanites.



The Ban:

When the Jews left Egypt, God told them they were traveling to the land which was originally promised to Abraham, but which was currently occupied by the Canaanites. The Hebrews were given explicit instructions on what to do with those people:

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you — and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy."  - Deuteronomy 7:1-3 

“…but as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive.  You shall annihilate them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded.”  – Deuteronomy 20:16-17

Thus, we see the order coming down from upper management:

"Kill everyone and annihilate every sign of their culture."

Passages like this are most perplexing when placed next to statements from the New Testament like, “God is love.” [1John 4:8].  The command to annihilate everyone – even children - doesn’t seem consistent with the person of Jesus.

How do we deal with this?


Incremental Steps:

One of the mistakes people make when reading the Old Testament is imagining how everything would look in a modern context.  A classic example would be the proscription of death (usually by stoning) for various offenses.  Or perhaps laws regarding the treatment of women, or of slaves, or conquered people.  Folks imagine those laws being enacted today and are repulsed by the God they meet in the Old Testament.

But the Old Testament ought not be read in such a way.  Yes, there are certain eternal truths which are explained in its pages, but there are also things which are historically conditioned.

The Old Testament is a story of God leading His chosen people out of – and through - a world filled with violence and idolatry the likes of which we scarcely understand.  Many of the bizarre laws and customs we see are meant to be a small step forward for a nation which is slowly being shaped.  They were meant to restrain the evil practices which were already common at the time - to take things from bad to less bad, so to speak.

Two passages of the New Testament reflect upon this:

The first occurs when Jesus is asked the conditions under which a husband could divorce his wife.  Christ’s answer is essentially, “Never.”  The Pharisees and Scribes asked why Moses would have allowed for divorce.  And Jesus pointed out that this was an accommodation:

“They said to him, ‘Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?’  

He replied, ‘Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.’” - Matthew 19:4-8

A second passage is found in the beginning of the letter to the Hebrews.  This passage explicitly states that God revealed the truth only partially in the Old Testament:

“In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, He spoke to us through a Son, whom He made heir of all things and through whom He created the universe.” – Hebrews 1:1-2

Which leads us to the second principle…


Good Reasons:

The second thing I want to keep in mind is where the narrative is headed.  I ask myself:

What is the ultimate goal of this slaughter?

The story of the Old Testament is incomplete and inexplicable without the New Testament; God, in an arbitrary act of favoritism, gives a plot of land to a nomadic group of people – commanding slaughter for the current inhabitants.

To what end?  For what?   Why?

The answer becomes apparent in the New Testament.  God was raising up culture that would reject idolatry and polytheism, which would grasp something of His mystery.  This nation would be a seed which would bloom into a worldwide kingdom marked by the knowledge of God’s mercy.

In fact, that is what God promised to Abraham from the very beginning:

“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the nations of the earth shall find blessing in you.’" – Genesis 12:1-3

This plan was realized when the missionary efforts of the Apostles reached out into all corners of the globe.

But none of this would have happened if Israel had not been preserved.  And in order to preserve Israel -(even to the extent that it was preserved)- it was necessary to wipe out the cultures which existed in the Promised Land.  This motivation is explicitly stated in the order the Israelites received.

“Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” - Deuteronomy 7:4-6 

“…so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord your God.” – Deuteronomy 20:18 

Different Prerogatives:

Still, even if a person agrees that preserving the nation of Israel was a worthwhile goal – one may object to the means used to do it.  As the old axiom goes, “The ends don’t justify the means.”

In this case what do we see?  Genocide?  The killing of children?  Isn’t that… evil?

Well… here’s the thing.  If you came into my house and began smashing my bookcase, you would be doing something evil.  That bookcase is not yours and you have no right to destroy it.  However, I am well within my rights to destroy the bookcase.  Why?  Because it is mine.  I made it.

In similar fashion, you have no right to indiscriminately destroy life.  It isn’t yours, you didn’t make it.  But if you were the creator and sustainer of the universe, if you were the one who personally crafted the soul of every human being… you have some unique prerogatives.   God is not doing anything immoral when He takes life.  He is only taking back what He has freely lent.

This is essentially the explanation Paul gives in the letter to the Romans:

“One of you will say to me, ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?’ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?   

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory?” - Romans 9 19-23

What About Today?

The next question a person may ask is this:

 “Then what is to stop a person from announcing God has told him to kill people?  If Moses can do that, why can’t any nutcase who thinks God is speaking to him?”

Well… here’s why.

In the years preceding the carrying out of these killings, the Israelites were exposed to a nearly constant stream of public miracles.   They saw the 10 plagues, they passed through the Red Sea, they were fed miraculously in the desert, they saw clouds of fire descending from the sky, and tons of others.  All of this gave them very strong reason to believe that God really was speaking through Moses.

So when a nutcase thinks he has divine warrant for killing people, it is perfectly valid to demand public miracles to validate his mission. No public miracles, no mandate.


To Conclude:

There are still questions that really cannot be answered.  The first that spring to my mind is:

Couldn’t God – in all His omnipotence – done this another way?  Couldn’t God have just made all of those people disappear into thin air?  Was it absolutely necessary to command the Hebrews to commit this kind of slaughter?

This is where I run out of answers.  I do not know, nor do I think anyone knows.

I’m not saying I find the extermination of the Canaanites particularly palatable – even if they were an evil culture.  What I am saying is that by keeping in mind the principles laid out above, I can at least make the challenges posed by this event surmountable.

Thank you for joining me.