There is So Much Brutality in the Old Testament!
By
Michael Lane, Executive Director, Delve Christian Ministries
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Christians, more than even non-Christians, tend to be appalled by the brutality of the Old Testament especially when they compare it to the New Testament. The contrast seems drastic; Jesus comes with a message of love, mercy and peace, while God in the Old Testament demands the complete destruction of his enemies, destroys entire cities and floods the earth, killing everything which is not safely on the ark. Is this even the same God?
This is not just a problem for modern Christians. Early Christians struggled with this as well, so much in fact that several early sects wanted to do away with the Old Testament completely.
The Old Testament is Jesus' Heritage
To begin, we have to acknowledge that we cannot accept Jesus and yet abandon the Old Testament, for Jesus himself revered and accepted the Old Testament. During His ministry, Jesus spoke candidly of Jonah (Matt 16:4), Noah (Luke 17:36), Abraham (John 8:56) and Moses (John 7:19) without any indication that the ancient books of the Bible were no longer applicable or in force, or that these ancient stories had no merit. Jesus said repeatedly that he came to fulfill, not to abolish the scriptures. (Matthew 5:17)
The Old Testament reveals the entirety of God's plan for redeeming his people, which came to fruition in Jesus. The Old Testament predicts and prophesies about him. It details his ancestry and His heritage, so we should not overlook how much we can learn about both the Father and Son from its riches.
Not a Fair Comparison
We need to resist the urge to compare the two testaments, for in several vital ways, they are substantially different. The Old Testament is a vast, sweeping epic spanning thousands of years and containing many central characters and events. It records the era when the Israelites were fighting the surrounding nations (and often themselves) to claim the promises of God. It was a brutal time, and the Old Testament faithfully reflects the conflict of those days.
In contrast, The New Testament is very different, spanning less than a hundred years and focusing almost exclusively on the life of Jesus Christ.
To make this comparison is to put a biography of Winston Churchill against a history of warfare in the first two millennium. The amount of violence and bloodshed in the two books would be very different!
The New Testament is not all Love and Mercy
While it is true that Jesus' central message is love, He never shied away from talking about justice or wrath. In Matthew 10:14-15, He says, "If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave. I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on the judgment day."
Jesus understood very well that His message would not be universally accepted and that His Gospel would cause division, strife and bloodshed. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus tells us, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."
And, like the Father of the Old Testament, Jesus had extremely high standards for us to follow. Jesus never said, "try hard" or "do your best." He told us in Matthew 5:28, "But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Jesus' principles in some instances were even stricter than in the Old Testament, forbidding divorce where Moses had permitted it.
Jesus commanded us to cut off our hands and feet, or cut out our eye if they cause us to sin. (Matthew 18:7-8). He warned us not to cause children to lose faith, otherwise it would be better for us to be cast into the sea (Mark 9:42). On several occasions, Jesus called the Pharisees "vipers "and "blind guides" and warned them repeatedly that they were in danger of being cast into hell. (Matt 23:33)
Clearly, Jesus is no soft pushover who will look the other way when we sin. While we cannot overemphasize His message of love and mercy, clearly he was as His Father in the Old Testament, a God of justice and righteousness.
The Old Testament is Not all Death and Doom
We must not overlook all the examples of mercy which are abundant in the Old Testament, both on a personal level and for all of Israel itself.
On a personal level, the Old Testament contains wonderful, touching stories of God remaining faithful and caring for his people who remain faithful to him. We see great tenderness in the way God rescues Joseph, answers Abraham's prayer for a son and protects and cares for David, even despite his occasional indiscretions. God miraculously protects Daniel from the lions, and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fire.
On a national level, we can't ignore God's mercy in rescuing the Israelites from Egypt, or the fact that he did permit Noah to escape on the ark in order to preserve mankind.
God always gave cities and countries ample opportunity to repent before they were destroyed. We see from the example of Jonah in Nineveh that God is merciful and does not want to destroy them except as a last resort. When the people of Nineveh repented, God was glad and spared them, and would have done the same for any other people who would turn from their wickedness.
But what about all the killing?
No matter how we might rationalize, we still need to contend with and reconcile all the violence in the Old Testament. Most disturbing are the times when God Himself orders the annihilation of an entire race.
The clearest example of this occurs in 1 Samuel 15:2-3, "This is what the LORD Almighty says: Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'"
To put this in perspective, we need to start by acknowledging that the Israelites had to be kept safe at all cost, for God knew that it would be through the line of David that Jesus would come to the earth. Jesus' resurrection is the greatest example of God's mercy, and so this act of mercy needed to be protected at all cost.
The Amalekites were far from innocent. They were attacking the Israelites constantly, often preying on children, the weak and the elderly.
Writes, Rabbi Aron Moss,
"The Amalekites took any opportunity to attack Jews for absolutely no reason. There was no land dispute or provocation that caused this hatred - it was an intrinsic pathological need to destroy God's people. Such hatred cannot be combated through diplomacy. There was no option to re-educate the Amalekites or review their school curricula. Their hatred was not taught - it was ingrained. As long as an Amalekite walked the earth, no Jew was safe. It was a clear case of kill or be killed."
What choice does God have in such a situation but to destroy them? None of us get pleasure in the idea of taking a life, but at the same time, given a scenario where an evil, violent man will stop at nothing to destroy your beloved children, who in their right mind would not want to see that man killed if there were no other options? This is the scenario which God faced. The Amalekites would not relent or repent, and so God acted to preserve his people. From the perspective of the Israelites, it was an act of mercy.
But Did God have to Annihilate Them?
I don't often get into examining the original Hebrew or Greek language used in the Bible, but we can learn something interesting from this example. The Hebrew word used in the original text of God's command to Saul is "herem." Most translations use some variation of the phrase "attack and totally destroy." This word in Hebrew has a deeper meaning than to simply destroy. One might also use the word "ban" or "exterminate" to describe something which cannot be allowed to continue to exist. "Herem" in this context refers to something which is so completely irredeemable that it is contaminated and must be utterly destroyed lest it further contaminate that which is good.
God understood that the Amalekites were like a cancer or a disease. They were so depraved and so vile that they had to be utterly destroyed. To spare them in any way would have the opposite effect, for they would rise up again as evil and degenerate as ever. Remember, God is protecting his people and wants no mistakes or chance of failure.
Life belongs to God
Finally, we must keep in mind that God is the one who ultimately decides who lives and dies, and that is true today as much as it was in ancient times. It is the result and curse of our sinful nature that we all must die, and the manner and time of our death are known to God alone. It may seem unfair for God to strike down an entire nation, but those are His choices alone to make. To argue that it's unfair for God to wipe out the Amalekites is simply to argue about timing, for they were all going to die by God's hand in time.
We are shocked at God's decree to Saul to exterminate the Amalekites because it is so explicit, yet God continues to take lives every day, sometimes one-by-one, or sometimes by the hundreds of thousands in the case of major natural disasters. You would be just as right to ask God why he destroys by Tsunami or earthquake, and many often do. In the end, we are all here for a short while and during that time, we must do the best we can to serve God and enter into a relationship with Him.
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Comments
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Thank you, I need this perspective - and more on this topic if its available!
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5/9/2008 1:24:21 AM
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anonymous
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You did a very good job in discussing this topic of "Brutality in the OT". However, one thing I wish was discussed is why God ordered the killing of children and infants.
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1/19/2010 7:22:17 PM
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J316, Member of Delve into Jesus since 1/19/2010
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