When God Says, "Kill Them"

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

The passages in the Bible where God tells his people to destroy towns and entire groups of people are not ones I tend to dwell on. I know they exist, but I usually live as if they don’t.

Yet, when I do stop and think about them, it’s not usually the actual killing that really bothers me, even though it was babies and children and women and men and cows and goats. The thing that makes me pause, the question that lurks on the edges of my mind is “Why?”

Why would God command his people to "kill them," these people who were quite possibly totally innocent?

As I continue to think on it though, I arrive to the real root of my question. Yes, I want to know why God commanded these things, but my question becomes much more basic than that.

Is God really who he says he is?

We hear so much about God’s love and grace and redemption, and it doesn’t seem to line up with these Old Testament stories of slaughter. There are reasons, like Pastor Dirk talked about with the concept of “herem.” These were the things that were devoid of any potential to be redeemed, and therefore had to be destroyed for the good of God’s people. There’s also the matter of obedience--God told his people what they had to do, and they were supposed to obey him. On some sort of factual level, these can sort of make sense to me.

On an emotional one though, I still can’t entirely make it seem okay.

But I’m not sure that’s the point. Maybe there’s a different way to approach these difficult questions. Instead of starting with asking God “Why?,” maybe the answer begins with, “Are you who you say you are?”

It’s still not an easy or even comfortable question, and our answer to it may fluctuate. When life seems to be falling apart, it can be more difficult to believe God is who he says he is. But when we look at the bigger picture of the entirety of the Bible, and hopefully in our own lives and that of those around us, I hope we can at least begin to answer that question with a “Yes.”

When we understand what our core question is, I think we set ourselves up to better approach our other questions. I don’t think it’s wrong to have questions and doubts about God and the Bible and faith, and if they spur us on to conversation, study, and reflection, I think they can even be helpful. If we can rest in the assurance that God is who he says he is, even though we’ll never entirely understand him, we can approach our doubting with confidences. The answers to the rest of our questions may not come quickly, easily, or ever, but we can know that God is good.

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]