Biblical Genocide

A Brief Word About Genocide in the Bible

People often rage against the God of the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, because God commands and condones genocide against entire ethnic groups.  They are furious, wondering how in the world a God of love could do such despicable acts.

These situations certainly need to be dealt with.  But I caution a modern person against picking up the Bible, flipping straight to these passages, and then raging against God.  You don’t know the full story.  And just to illustrate the folly of that, consider the United States.

Suppose you knew nothing about the U.S., but just casually flipped on the TV on the night President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by Navy Seals.  You might be outraged.  How could a modern, enlightened government condone assassination?  Are we that bloodthirsty?  How could America spend billions of dollars just to hunt down and kill one man?  He probably didn’t even deserve that!  How corrupt is this government?

If you have no idea who bin Laden was, or what he had done, or what kinds of things he would gladly do if given the chance, you have no understanding of why an assassination was ordered.  Yes, normally it is despicable to kill people.  But in this case, bin Laden was responsible for the deaths of thousands of U.S. citizens.  They weren’t soldiers trying to kill him; they were civilians, simply going about their day, probably having no idea of who bin Laden was.  Bin Laden hated America and would gladly keep up his attacks if given the time, resources, and personnel.  

There may even be a few Americans who think the assassination was still deplorable, that no modern nation should resort to such things.  Yet consider the alternative.  Would you rather let him live and work freely, arranging further attacks and killing thousands more Americans?  This is a man who is unwavering in his contempt for America.  Would you really let him roam freely, knowing that thousands of your fellow citizens, or even your family and friends, may pay the price with their lives?

In this situation, most people today would acknowledge that we had to pull the trigger.  bin Laden was an enemy committed to killing us; it was literally us or them.  We realize the assassination was necessary, and we accept.  Most of us even cheered when we heard the news!

So we do admit, at some level, that killing can be justified.  Yet when we open the Bible, we automatically assume that none of the killings were justified and that God is a homicidal maniac, gleefully ordering thousands to their deaths.

If we did our research, we might realize how bloodthirsty these cultures were.  When Israel invaded the Promised Land, the tribes there were not innocent hippies, loving peace.  They were sacrificing their children in fires, worshipping their pagan gods.  They delighted in attacking and destroying people groups they didn’t like.  Worst of all, they cared nothing for God, the One who had created them and blessed them with every good thing they ever had.  Instead of worshiping Him, they worshiped demons, declaring rebellious, murderous spiritual beings as more worthy of praise than the very God who created them.  Their sins stank to high Heaven; God was fully just in killing them.  Yet even so, God is more gracious that any human.

Consider that when the Patriarchs were living in Israel, these same people groups were already living there.  Yet God did not wipe them out then.  In Genesis 15, as God is speaking to Abraham, He tells him, “And they [Abraham’s descendsnts] shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”  Instead of wiping them out when they first sinned, God allowed them hundreds of years to change their ways.  They had priests telling them the ways of God; Melchizedek, the priestly king of Salem, lived on the current site of Jerusalem, knowing and proclaiming the words of God to the surrounding peoples.  Yet the Amorites refused to listen.  They persisted in their sins, their rebellion.  

Imagine the United States having an enemy, a culture that literally fed their babies to fires, and who completely hated us.  They would destroy us in an instant if given the opportunity.  Any President would be justified in declaring war against them and defending the country by removing this threat.  Yet imagine the United States instead allowing this country to live.  Not only that, but the U.S. keeps giving it gifts.  Presidents keep open dialogues, constant communication, trying to resolve a peace with this people group.  This goes on for 400 years.  Yet despite all that the U.S. can do, this country still hates America and will do anything to destroy us.  

That’s the situation Israel was in when they went in to take the land.  Remember that Israel is the people of God; He is their leader.  He has been immensely merciful to the Amorites, to the peoples who lived in the Promised Land.  He kept preaching His word to them, kept lavishing blessings on them, kept giving them life and health.  He gave them century after century after century after century to turn to Him, to stop rebelling against Him, to accept His peaceful solution.  Yet they persisted in their rebellion, in their hatred of God.  So after all this time, God finally said enough is enough.  Because of their continual, willful, unrepentant rebellion, God destroyed them.

Still, do not think that Israel has a special place of being able to kill whomever they want.  God warned them, saying that if they followed the example of the Amorites, He would eventually kill them and drive them out of the land for the same reasons that they destroyed the Amorites.  Israel didn’t listen.  They became exactly like the Amorites, even worshiping the same pagan deities and sacrificing Israelite children to the flames.  The valley of Gehena, just outside Jerusalem, was well known as a place where the fires never died and the worm didn’t cease.  The screams of babies burning to death could frequently be heard from its depths.  It is no wonder, then, that Jesus later used Gehena as a frequent illustration of what hell was like.

Yet even then, God was patient.  He wanted centuries, almost a millennium.  He sent prophet after prophet, messenger after messenger, all warning Israel to repent or face the same judgment they dealt to the Amorites.  They didn’t listen.  They killed the prophets.  They continually spurned God, ignoring Him to whore themselves out to whatever pleasures they desired, not caring that they were killing children and letting the poor starve.  After centuries upon centuries of rebellion, God eventually did raise up a foreign power to slaughter Israel and drive them away from the land they had covered in blood.

God is not cruel.  He is not bloodthirsty.  He continually pleads with people to turn to Him, to repent of rebellion, to know His peace and love.  Only after their continual rebellion, after having countless chances to settle the matter peacefully, does God finally use violence.  

God is far more patient, graceful, and understanding than the best world leaders Earth has ever known.  He loves His enemies even to the point of pouring out blessings on people groups who hate Him, and He does so for centuries, pleading with them to repent of rebellion and turn to Him.  No human being is that good.  No human people group is that good.  

Our God is.