Friday, May 29, 2009

Genocide in the Bible


If Christianity was only a myth fabricated by men, and if I’d been given a hand in crafting some of the books of the Old and New Testaments, I know this as fact: I would never have depicted God the way the Bible does.

The Troubling God We Worship

For instance— the killing of men, women, and children, sprinkled frequently throughout the Old Testament. Nothing less than genocide.

I can accept the deaths of the pagan men. Their wives give me momentary pause, before I acknowledge their equal sin-guilt. But the children? Infants? My gut-reaction screams “They’re innocent!” Why couldn’t Israel have taken the children into their own camp, and raised them to fear God? How is the mass killing of children—born within nations no more idolatrous than our own—any different from abortion?

And that’s a comparatively simple example; I read 2 Samuel 24 yesterday. It wasn’t vague. I couldn’t dismiss it, couldn’t explain it away.

To summarize: God “incites David” to take a census. Once it is taken, God convicts David that he has sinned greatly in taking the census. David repents, broken. God offers three options for his punishment: Famine, plague, or the sword against Israel. David begs that God do whatever He sees fit—and God sees fit to annihilate 70,000 Jews by pestilence.

Stories like these make me swallow hard, as my sense of morality protests.

Four Common Reactions

1.) Choosing ignorance. It takes effort to work through these things, and we can spare ourselves mental exertion and confusion by simply focusing on the parts of God’s character that are easy to sing about.

2.) Working to reason the uncomfortable away with theological Twister. We can recast God as a cuddly, tame Being who agrees with us… never-minding that we’re flirting with blasphemy and developing a false view of God.

3.) Sinking into perplexity and doubt. Is God really good? Is He truly holy? Is He worthy of our trust— and praise?

4.) Shaking our fists, demanding answers. “When I get to heaven”, we gripe, “I’m going to have a few serious questions for Him.” In extremes, we even go so far as to accuse Him of being unjust.

Pride is the core issue here: each response reflects an underlying exalted view of ourselves and a weak, inadequate view of God.

Humbling Ourselves Under The Mighty Hand of God

God is God. He's the founder of morality— He cannot sin or err. We have no basis for ethics at all apart from Him; how can we object to any of His actions on any ground?

I said earlier that my sense of morality protests when I encounter these difficult passages. And there’s the key word: sense.

When I find my first reaction differing with God’s, I’m never in the right. Whenever I begin to raise my head in dissent, I can know without doubt that my “sense” of morality is flawed in that area, and must be re-aligned in short order.

In the end, such biblical quandaries can only be resolved by acknowledging who God is, and who we are in contrast. It isn't a cop-out. It's the essence of true humility, and it's the only right posture we can adopt every time we approach God and His Word.

As I mulled over this, my thoughts went back to Job. Here is a man faced with an intensely personal case where the unfairness of God seems to be on full display. God silences his complaint,


“Will you even put Me in the wrong? Will you condemn Me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like His?

Who then is he who can stand before Me? Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.” Job 40:8-9, 41:10-11


I am not the Just Judge. I am not the Holy One. I am corrupt—and I can see but a glimpse of the majesty of God. As such, my only response must always be one of acceptance and submission: You are right, You are just, You are holy; I am none of these.

Still— still, we would like to think that the human race deserves something from the hand of God. Surely even sinners deserve to be given water, food, health, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness from their Creator.

We don't. No one does. But self-entitlement is so deeply ingrained in us that we have difficulty stretching our minds over truth: God owes nothing to the people He puts breath in. He can take away that breath whenever and however He pleases.

There is a greater tragedy than the death of any man, woman, or child. It takes place every day that men, women, and children refuse to bow in worship to the God who created them— when the Son of Man who went to the Cross is not lifted up and exalted in their hearts. This, not death or genocide, is the ultimate travesty.


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