Old Testament Violence: Part 1?

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     Like a child who pleads with their parents for one more bedtime story, the inquisitive Christian says, “Please, Father, tell me more.” The Bible holds many mysteries that beg to be explored for those who decide to pick it up and read it. There are also some stumbling blocks within it that can make people outside Christianity, or even Judaism, from seriously considering taking a closer look.

    

The Issue

     One of the main issues many have with the Bible is that God seems to command the Israelites to commit much violence in the Old Testament. I’m no scholar, especially when it comes to the OT, but when I set out to study the OT in earnest I decided to also take special notice for possible explanations on why God would command said violence. What I present here is some of the things I have observed and please keep in mind that it is just observation and is by no means a definite answer.

     For the most part, the bulk of divinely commanded destruction happens after the Exodus out of Egypt. The first real place that God commands the slaughter of everyone is in Numbers 21:34-35 (NIV):

34 The Lord said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hands, along with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.” 35 So they struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army, leaving them no survivors. And they took possession of his land.

The most significant instance of God raining down fire on someone before the Exodus, however, is when he did just that to Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis. It was these two separate events that really got me thinking, mainly due to the opposite reactions of people in both instances. Note how in the above verses the Israelites seem to carry on without concern. It wasn’t always the case.

   

 Being So Bold 

    In Genesis 18, while God is visiting with Abraham, the Lord lets him know about His plans to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah. Instead of remaining silent though Abraham's compassion is put on display. He pleads with God to spare on the city on behalf of any righteous people who might live there, he even bargains it down to having it saved if there are only 10 righteous (Gen 18:16-33). What I like in this interaction is the patience and gentleness that God has with His faithful servant Abraham, and if you’re a Bible nerd like me you may even get a little weepy.

     Anyhow, these two passages stood out to me and I started to wonder if the Israelites knew this story. I know that they knew their God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but I wondered how many stories of their forefathers had been passed down to them before the exodus? Traditionally, it is assumed that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, if that is the case then perhaps that specific story was unknown before and during the time it was written. I then continued to wonder that if the Israelites knew this story, and had reacted to God’s commands just as Abraham responded to God’s revelation to destroy S&G, if things would have gone a little differently. I think it might have. Please keep in mind though that this is just speculation based on an observation.

     

God's Terror and Confusion

     However, let me bolster my claim of how things could have gone differently. I do not think that it was God’s original intent to command such slaughter against other nations in the first place. The best evidence for this claim comes from Exodus 23:27-30:

27 “I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. 29 But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land."

     I’m not sure to what extent God’s terror and confusion looks like, but the rest of the passage seems imply little violence, if any will occur between Israel and the other nations, that God will do the work for them.

In The Wilderness     

     Enter the wild and wonderful book of Numbers. This book gets a bad reputation for 1) It’s English name and, 2) People only concentrating on the census information within. The Hebrew title is much more interesting, Bemidbar, which means “In the Wilderness.” This book, which covers roughly 40 years, is really the place where the tumultuous relationship between God and Israel is shaped. In this book are fascinating interactions between God and Moses, out of nowhere prophets like Balaam, and where Israel really screws itself over.

     You see, before Israel could enter the land of Canaan, the land of milk and honey, God tells them to send one man from each of the twelve tribes to explore (Num 13:1-2). When the 12 men report back to the camp of Israel they indeed describe that it is a beautiful place flowing with milk and honey, but said the cities were heavily fortified. Caleb and Joshua, two of the twelve did not let that bother them and suggested they could handle it. The others though decided to spread a “bad report” of saying giant humans, descendants of the Nephilim, occupied the land (Num 13:32). In all of the Hebrew to English lexicons I looked into, “bad report” translates into basically telling a lie.

Astounding Forgetfulness

Moses - jbrown67 - DeviantArt

     The lie is of important concern because spread through the whole camp like wildfire, the people believed it. Suddenly, a people who had seen the powerful works of God manifest in plagues, a pillar of fire, and even separating the sea, had become fearful of a lie and became resentful towards God. They started freaking out that their children and wives would be taken as plunder by the enemy, they even suggested picking a new leader and going back to Egypt (14:3-4). Only Joshua and Caleb, two of the spies who had confidence in the Lord, protested against the people’s rebellion, but the assembly of Israelites were so worked up they almost stoned the two of them.

     To say that God was angered by this is an understatement. The next passage is an intriguing interaction between God in Moses, where the Lord threatens to strike them all down, but then Moses intercedes on Israel’s behalf and God spares them. Instead, the Lord prevents the older generation, who saw His mighty works in Egypt, from entering and occupying Canaan, they now would die in the desert. The children, who the Israelites who feared would get plundered, would actually be able to enter the promised land, but only after a 40 year wait.

A Relational View of Trust     

     Now, how does all of this tie together? God works through covenants. They are different that contracts. Contracts are legal documents that two parties draw up because they don’t trust one another. God on the other hand, is always trustworthy. Covenants are a lot like relationships. Two people who trust one another are usually happy together, but when one starts expressing doubts even though the other person has stayed faithful, things start to get a little awkward. The trust starts to disappear and the person who has stayed faithful in their trust has to keep proving their trustworthiness. Eventually, things get to the point where the faithful person has to remove the benefits of their trust in order to get the other person to understand the gravity of the situation.

     At this point in my study, I believe that is what God did with the Israelites for this portion of Scripture. He forgave the Israelites sure, but he pulled back some of the benefits of His trust like having them enter Canaan on time. I also think he pulled back his plans of driving off the Canaanites and other kingdoms through the confusion and acts of nature He described in the book of Exodus. If this was the case one could argue that because of the Israelites distrust of God, they propelled themselves into a place where war was inevitable with other nations. Then, when God told them to completely strike down their opposition, instead of acting like Abraham, they thought, “Oh, we better do what he commands this time and fulfill our part of the covenant,” so they killed everyone.

     Had the Israelites trusted God as faithfully as Abraham did they then could have had a similar relationship with God. They then might have let God do what he needed to do, or perhaps reacted like their forefather if God told them to lay waste to an opposing nation. That is why I’m not sure how much of what Israelites knew of their forefathers.

Conclusion and Disclaimer     

     What I have presented doesn’t explain everything. It doesn’t explain the rest of the violence throughout the OT and there is a high probability that this argument has been made before. Truthfully I have not had the time to look into any other theological works to support this theory. However, I could not dismiss these observations and I thought it might be beneficial for some who are interested in this topic. Hopefully those who have read this will find some good insights, or at least willing to take a closer look. 

     By the way, I recommend reading the book of Numbers for more than just researching biblical violence. It is a bit dry at points, but it is littered with so many other fascinating things that outweigh the dryness.