War and Violence in the Old Testament

It is essential to begin the discussion of war and violence in the Old Testament with a central premise in mind. God is the creator and possessor of the universe and all that is within it. In a real sense it is his prerogative to do with his creation as he sees fit. With that said, the one true God spoke the universe into existence and put humanity at its center in an act of self-giving, other embracing love. Moreover, humanity was invited by God to be his people living in his presence and in his place as long as they live as he had intended. Tragically, humanity chose to live by its own rules, a decision that prevented them from being God’s people living in his presence and in his place. As soon as humanity was separated from him, God initiated a rescue mission to return humanity to his presence and place, but that meant meeting humanity in their violence, corruption and brokenness. God began to form a people who would eventually bless all of humanity, but the formation process required God to literally reclaim a physical place and a spiritual place in the people’s lives. For hundreds of years, the people who would become the people of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt worshipping many gods. They needed a king who could lead them, protect them, and teach them. The God whose very words set the foundation of the world and the expanse of the sky would be that king. He would take back the land and the people that were rightfully his so that they could live in his presence.

God commands the people of Israel to annihilate the specific peoples occupying the Promise Land because they were physically and spiritually threatening and polluting God's once good creation. Deuteronomy 20:16-18 states in no uncertain terms, "But as for the towns of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. You shall annihilate them-- the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites-- just as the LORD your God has commanded, so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the LORD your God." God commanded, allowed, and supported grave and unspeakable acts of violence as a means to protect, form, and nurture a people whom God would use to bless all of the nations. God had begun a rescue mission to reclaim and restore his people in his place and in his presence. But he would need his people to embody and reflect his character and nature. The people of Israel were incapable of fulfilling such a calling while they were held captive by the social, religious, and cultural practices of the prevailing tribes, nations, and people groups in the land of Canaan.

This is vital - God meets people where they are in order to reveal, rebuke, and redeem. Thus, God met the people of Israel through the social, religious, and cultural practices of their day and time so that he could reveal his character and purposes. Furthermore, as God revealed more of his character and purposes he revealed a higher social, religious, and cultural standard that did not simply critique or rebuke former practices but ultimately sought to redeem them. It therefore follows that God would utilize the tribal practices of warfare in the Ancient Near East to stake a physical and spiritual claim for the people he would eventually command to "love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). Peter Craigie provides helpful insight when he writes:

If God is to meet man in history and act on his behalf, it must be in the world as it is. But the world which is, is a world which is sinful, for God has given to man a certain freedom. Therefore, if God is to work on behalf of man in the world, He must give the appearance to man of using sinful means - He must seem to be unethical in his behavior...War cannot be looked at apart from man...To say that God uses war is to say in effect that God uses sinful man in His purposes. In the Old Testament, if we were to expect to see God working in what we might call an absolutely 'ethical' manner, we would in effect be denying the possibility of seeing His work at all."

The story of God in the Old Testament is not a flat script with no depth or growing edges; rather, the narrative of God is shaped upon the revelation of God, a revelation whose sole concern is to restore God's people to his place and in his presence. The New Testament captures the climax of God's story in its portrayal of Jesus the one who is "the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being" (Hebrews 1:3). The apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:19 that in Jesus the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. In the person of Jesus, God revealed with living, breathing clarity the extent of his love, the depth of his character, and the breadth of his conviction. In Christ, we see the fullest revelation of God's essence, his heart, and his intentions for humanity and all of creation. It is Christ who provides the means for God to gather his people in his place and in his presence. Through our faith (i.e. trust, obedience, and belief) in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we become in the present moment God's people who are filled with his Spirit/presence, but our faith also draws back the veil of the future allowing us a glimpse of our eternal home. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away" (Revelation 21:1-4). The presence of war and violence in the Old Testament does not impugn the nature and character of God; it impugns the human heart void of obedience to God. For it was God in the person of Jesus who took upon himself - upon his own body - the evil, the brutality, and the corruption of human history in order that we could be who God always intended, where God always intended, and with whom God always intended.