“Turn from
evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever. For the LORD loves
the just and will not forsake His faithful ones. They will be protected
forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off; the righteous will
inherit the land and dwell in it forever” (Psalm 37:27-29)
One of the things
that many people wrestle with as they study the pages of the Bible is God’s
actions that at times seem very unjust. Some will even go so far as to blame
God for committing atrocities in the Bible. Atheist Richard Dawkins in his
book: The God Delusion said “The God of the Old Testament is
arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it;
a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic
cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal,
filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously
malevolent bully.” At first glance it can be easy to understand how Dawkins
comes to this conclusion. Just consider a few of the acts that the God of the
Bible did do.
In Genesis
7:21-23, He drowned the entire world’s population: men, women, and children
with the exception of 8 people. In Exodus 12:29, God killed every firstborn
male child of the Egyptians. In the book of Joshua, God commands the destruction
of every Canaanite living in the Promised Land. There are several other acts
that God commits which seem very unjust and immoral. Thus, how should we
respond to the seeming atrocities of God?
There are
three facts that must be understand. First, we must understand the fact that these
actions are not evidence against God’s existence, rather proof of His existence.
How is that the case? In order to recognize that something is inherently
wrong, there has to be a consistent moral standard. To have a consistent moral
standard is impossible without a moral law giver. One writer explains, “Every time we argue over right and wrong, we
appeal to a higher law that we assume everyone is aware of, holds to, and is
not free to arbitrarily change. Right and wrong imply a higher standard or
law, and law requires a lawgiver. Because the Moral Law transcends
humanity, this universal law requires a universal lawgiver” (Got
Questions.org, “What is the Moral argument for the existence of God?”;
available from https://www.gotquestions.org/moral-argument.html).
Additionally, to
deny that there is a moral law giver is to deny that the God of the Bible did
anything wrong. In fact, intellectually honest atheists admit that without
God, objective moral laws cannot exist. This is true because it is the logical
result of taking atheistic philosophy to its natural conclusion. If there's
such a thing as evil, you must assume there's such a thing as good. If you
assume there's such a thing as good, you assume there's such a thing as an
absolute and unchanging moral law on the basis of which to differentiate
between good and evil. If you assume there's such a thing as an absolute moral
law, you must posit an absolute moral law giver, but that would be God – the
one whom the atheist is trying to disprove. So now rewind: if there's not a
moral law giver, there's no moral law. If there's no moral law, there's no
good. If there's no good, there's no evil (portions from Compelling Truth, “How
does the moral argument support the existence of God?” available from https://www.compellingtruth.org/moral-argument-existence-God.html).
An interesting
side note, more people have been killed as a result of atheism in the past 100
years those who have waged war in the name of religion. Consider how many were
murdered under the atheistic communism in just Russia and China, over 100
million! Therefore, as was stated, recognizing things that appear to be morally
wrong in God’s actions actually prove His existence. However, this naturally
brings us to a pointed question. Is the Moral Law giving God of the universe
Himself immoral?
This brings us to
the second fact that we must understand about God’s actions that are in
question. Love and morality require justice. Law breakers must
experience the consequences for their actions, otherwise there is no justice. A
classic example of this comes from the book of Joshua. The Lord told Joshua and
the Israelites to basically commit genocide of all who inhabited the land of
Canaan. At the outset this seems very immoral. However, when we look at this
event in the context of the entire Bible, we find the exact opposite.
The Lord had been
very patient with the Canaanites. In the days of the Abraham (2000 B.C.) God
said that Abraham’s descendants would not at once possess the land of Canaan,
but would sojourn in a foreign country (Egypt) 400 years. Only then would they
come back to Canaan, “for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its
full measure” (Gen. 15:16).
600 years after
the time of Abraham, the sin of the Amorites (Canaanites) had reached its full
measure. God then said, “It is on account of the wickedness of these nations
the Lord is going to drive them out before you (Deut. 9:4).
The Canaanites
had become very cruel to one another. Judges 1:7 tells of the Canaanite king
Adoni-Bezek, who had cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70 other “kings” he had
captured, and then forced them to pick up scraps under his table for their
food. In addition to this, clay tablets found in Egypt tell of continual
hostilities among the cities of Canaan.
The Canaanite
society was pervaded by an obsession with fornication. The legends of the
Canaanite gods Baal and Anath are full of references to fornication. When the
Israelites went to the worship of Baal at Peor, they soon became involved in
immorality (Num. 25:1-3), because religious prostitution was part of the
ritual.
The Canaanites
practiced offering their children as sacrifices to their gods (Deut. 12:31;
18:9-10). For all of these reasons, justice needed to be served against the
Canaanites, and so God used the Israelites to bring about that justice (portions
from Wilbur Fields, Old Testament History: An
Overview of Sacred History & Truth).
Or how about the
global flood that is talked about in Genesis chapter 6-9? Was God just in
destroying the entire world with the exception of justice 8 people? Genesis
6:5 says, “The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the
time.” Verses 12 and 13 mention that violence filled the earth and
corruption. A careful examination of Scripture reveals that God was patient
with mankind for around 1,600 years before sending the flood. And meanwhile,
there were people like Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, and Noah who all tried to get
mankind to repent of their wickedness. Therefore, as one considers the
context of the God of the Bible’s actions they realize that God was not immoral
at all, instead He was patient, loving and just! So, it is very interesting
that whenever people carry out justice it is humane, but when God does it some
view it as atrocities.
The third fact
that needs to be considered is that God sees the bigger picture. Some
times God permits a person’s death for their own good. In the context of the
Lord’s Supper, some who partake of it in an unworthy manner die prematurely (1
Cor. 11:30). However, in context the point of this is to prevent them from experiencing the
judgment of hell had they continued in their sinful ways.
Therefore, while
God’s ways are not always our ways, His ways are always best for He knows the
bigger picture that we cannot always see in our limited understanding. Really, this is about allowing God to be God. God’s plan
is always for the good of mankind which must include justice being served. Some
of that justice takes place in this life, some in the next. Either way, God promises to right every
wrong that ever takes place (Col. 3:25).
In His service,
Matt
