Why the hell…? [2] – The Warmongering God
July 4th, 2010 § 1 Comment
This is the second installment in my three part series ‘Why the hell…?’ in which I attempt to address some fundamental questions related to evil and suffering. In this article I will be looking at the perplexing nature of the character of God in the Old Testament. Why is it that in the Old Testament we encounter what seems to be a cruel God who demands people to be killed?
The question of the ‘warmongering God’ is not an easy one. I remember writing a series of three articles on this topic for my Dutch apologetics blog. I started off feeling confident that I would be able to pull it off, but responses showed me that the matter was slightly more complex. I will attempt to address the same issue this time with reference to renewed insights into hermeneutics, thus addressing the matter on a fundamental level while at the same time exercising a degree of caution and humility.
One sure way to knock the feet from under any attack on the character of God in the Old Testament is a philosophical argument that, though irrefutable, leaves the matter basically unanswered. And not every philosopher would agree with its validity anyway. It goes like this. Any attempt to indict God for being cruel needs to first come up with a definition of cruel. In search of a definition of cruelty one needs to find a universal basis for morality. This however becomes very difficult to achieve without the postulation of a God. Rather, in order to indict God (or worse refute his existence) one needs Him to back up the morality with which we do so. Logically the argument works, but we are still stuck with the strange reality that God, the basis of morality, apparently acts against it in the Old Testament. So the problem isn’t really gone.
Different solutions have been put forward. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries for instance, in good Reformed fashion emphasizes the sovereignty and holiness of God. We are all under God’s wrath and therefore should not be surprised that some are punished, but rather that so many are left alive. The Canaanites ought to consider themselves lucky for not having been exterminated when Sodom and Gomorrah were overturned. Though I do like to emphasize the sovereignty of God, there is a degree of dissatisfaction here. God may be in his right, but why wipe out entire populations including innocent children? It almost feels as if White is not serious about envisioning for himself what these exterminations entailed.
Another approach from an Old Testament scholar’s perspective was twofold. The evil perpetrated by the nations in Canaan was so exceedingly abhorrent in God’s sight that extermination was therefore unavoidable. Peter Vogt, professor Old Testament at Bethel Seminary, holds this view. He maintains that chid sacrifice, practiced by most if not all peoples in Canaan, was particularly an abomination in the view of Yahweh, the Creator and Giver of Life. In addition Vogt has a redemptive argument too. It was necessary for the divine plan of salvation, that was being worked out through Israel, that Israel be prevented from too much exposure to the sinful ways of the Canaanites. I am quite sympathetic to this view in that it takes both the evil and the gravity of the punishment seriously. Yet I feel there is more to explore to bring a nuanced position to the table.
We need to ask the question of how the Old Testament narratives need to be interpreted. Did these happen literally? Do they have a literary function that points beyond the literal? The narratives could have a symbolic or a theological function in a time when associating God with violence was not problematic. Are the battle reports events that actually took place or should they be seen as rhetorical devices (boasting in the Name of one’s deity might have been a common thing in the Ancient Near East)? Another possibility is that of human or divine exaggeration or later embellishment. In the end, after the conquest of Canaan, there had been some destruction but not nearly as much as the instruction beforehand seemed to imply. In short, there are many questions surrounding this issue that need careful investigation, exegesis and evaluation. This clearly goes beyond the scope of this short essay.
A few more things need to be noted. Contrary to popular thought there is not just one single concept of war in the Old Testament. Different writers had different ideas of war and God’s role in it. In addition there are different kinds of war being fought (defensive, offensive, etc.). We also notice that Israel’s wars were rather ambiguous. Sometimes, they fought themselves, sometimes Yahweh fought for them while Israel remained silent, while other wars were rather God’s punishment upon Israel. In conclusion we might say that the simple idea that God sanctions violence is too simple. There is more to the equation. At the same time we also cannot deny the fact that we still face an apologetic issue here.
Working toward a solution we must consider a few aspects that throw a different light on the difficult subject of God and war in the Old Testament. Firstly, we need to understand that war is never an end in itself. God always brings redemption out of it. We see it in the conquest of Canaan where the land needs to be cleared in order to have a holy nation that will be a kingdom of priests for God among mankind. We see it in the war resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Judahites. War is used here as a terrible form of judgment, yet ultimately results in a remnant that is devoted to the Lord. War then is an instrument rather than a goal and as such is redemptive in nature.
This brings us to a second consideration. We need to look in the Scriptures where God is going, what his ultimate concerns are. For God, ultimately swords will be turned into plowshares. The eschatological vision we have from Scripture is one in which there is no place for war, where judgment will be definite and those who belong to God will see their tears wiped away for ever. God will eliminate all evil when his Kingdom will be established. Eternal peace (shalom) will reign for ever.
Thirdly and lastly there is sufficient ground to consider a different hermeneutical approach. While upholding divine inspiration we may enlarge our understanding of the human component in it. The writers of Scripture may have been writing approvingly of war and annihilation while God’s ultimate opinion is suspended for the moment. We could even expand this notion and say that the revelatory acts of God do not necessarily reflect God’s ultimate purpose. It might well be that God has adapted Himself to, what one might call, the level of morality of the people of the Ancient Near East. He works with what He’s got and thus has to achieve his goal more or less in a messy way. This entails working through the instrument of war. If this is true, we see in Scripture a growing understanding both of who God is, what God wants and what God wants to achieve. It could for instance be argued that even the Decalogue should be interpreted with that in mind.
There is some ambiguity about this last consideration. Not everyone will agree. All God’s actions are just and He is always perfect in his ways. This view too might open the door for too liberal an understanding of Scripture. Yet, there is much to say for this option. It shows how God enters human history, where humanity is at, while slowly working toward His eschatological goals and more perfect self-revelation in Christ. We may adopt this position while maintaining a high view of Scripture and it will allow us to reconcile the apparent warmongering character of God in the Old Testament with his true nature being revealed more fully elsewhere in Scripture.
I think it is important to realize that the meting out of suffering and death are not mainly to be seen as judgement. In God’s view the final judgement is much more important. How many are ‘left alive’ is unimportant (eventually, everybody died). I do subscribe to Vogt’s redemptive viewpoint. Suffering and death are, one way or another, a consequence of the Fall. We can only be thankful that God is using everything for good for those that are on His path.