If God Is Good, How Could He Command Holy War?

This week on Renewing Your Mind, we're looking at some of the tough questions Christians face. How is it ethical for God, not for Joshua, not for Israel, but for God to command the entire execution, the ethnic cleansing of Canaan?

And this may be among the most difficult questions to answer. If God is love, how could He command holy war, demanding the death of even women and children? Today, Dr. Derek Thomas provides some helpful insight into God's justice and love, even in war. His text is the book of Joshua.

This narrative falls into four aspects. First of all, the encounter at the end of chapter 5 of Joshua with the captain of the Lord's army. This mysterious figure.

And remember, he has a sword in his hand. And Joshua asks him, are you with us or against us? And then in verse 2 of chapter 6, and the Lord, capital letters, the covenant name of God, and the Lord said to Joshua, and the Lord there is presumably the captain of the Lord of hosts, this figure that we've seen at the end of chapter 5. This is a theophany. This is an appearance of God in human form. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand and its king and mighty men of valor.

You shall march around the city. And he gives him these instructions. Joshua wants to know, are you with us or against us? And this commander, this theophany, this appearance of God says to him, stop trying to use me.

Submit to me. I am not your co-pilot. And Joshua has to take the city. And Joshua's concern is, how is God going to fit into my purpose?

But it's the wrong question. Joshua must ask himself this question, how am I going to fit into God's purpose? The real battle of Jericho was in Joshua's heart. Will the will of Joshua submit to the will of God?

And then more pertinently for our question this morning, if God is good or since God is good, how can he command holy war? Because once those walls came down, they were to go into that city and they were to show, apart from Rahab and her family, they were to show no mercy, women and men and children and babies and animals. They were, all of them, to be slain. Let's not romanticize this story.

Let's not glamorize this story. This story is about blood and disembowelment and decapitation with ancient, brutal, by our standards, implements of war. If God is good or since God is good, how can he command the killing of little children and babies? Now, the Pentateuch has set this up for us as a just act on God's part, as a righteous act on God's part. There's been a clue back in this narrative of Abraham in Genesis 15 that Abraham was to be promised the land of Israel, but he would not possess so much as a square inch of it because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. The iniquity of the Amorites who dwelt in the land of Canaan was not yet full.

And when, presumably, the iniquity of the Amorites is full, when ungodliness reaches a certain level, God would devote them to destruction. Joshua and his men would be the implements in that policy of harem, holy war, devoted to destruction. Let me say something about the concept of holy war. I'm passing over Israel's defensive wars. I'm passing over the expansionist wars under the reign of David, for example. Samuel had warned that in asking for a king, a king would then want a standing army, not just a defensive army, but an army that would have something to do, and it would escalate war in Israel.

I'm passing over all of that. I'm focusing exclusively now on holy war, implying holy here, not in a moral or ethical sense so much, but in the sense of sequestration, in the sense that this war is set apart. Only God can declare harem, holy war. Every soldier, every warrior must consider himself consecrated to the Lord. There were certain things he was not allowed to do in the days prior to holy war.

The term harem, devoted, banned, means that everything from human beings, from men and women and children, and gold and silver and booty and plunder, all of it belonged to the Lord that he might do as he wills. In Deuteronomy 20, where you have the so-called manual of war, there's a clear distinction between cities that were outside the Promised Land and cities that were within the Promised Land, and cities within the Promised Land were to be shown no mercy. They were to be devoted to the Lord. You will remember in the story of Saul, how Saul's kingship was brought to task by God because he had refused to devote not just the Amalekites, but their sheep to destruction.

You remember Samuel's words, what is this bleating of sheep in my ears? That Saul had not fulfilled the policy of harem. You remember the consequence of the city of Ai, immediately after Jericho.

The story of Achan, who saw the goodly Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold and the shekels of silver, and he saw and he coveted and he took and he hid, those four verbs, and brought Israel to its knees. The consequence of one man refusing to exercise the policy of harem brought Israel to its knees. We're talking here about the total annihilation, a holy jihad. Yes, a holy jihad against the cities of Canaan. Since God is good, how can he command holy war?

How is it ethical? Within the context of the Old Testament, harem laws do not apply to modern states, and they certainly don't apply to the church in the new covenant. We may not take up a sword and engage in a crusade against whoever. There is a radical distinction between harem laws as it applies to the Old Testament state of Israel, and what may apply to the modern state and what may apply to the church in the new covenant. My question is how is it ethical within the Old Testament, within the narrative of the conquest, within the great redemptive story of the gospel as it unfolds in the timeline of the Old Testament, how is it ethical for God, not for Joshua, not for Israel, but for God to command the entire execution, the ethnic cleansing of Canaan and that not to be genocide? If you don't think that's a tough question, you're not in the same world as me.

That is a really tough question. Here's the Bible answer. It's Genesis 15 16. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Abraham had to exercise restraint because in the providence of God, in His common grace towards the Amorites, there must be a filling up of the iniquity of the Amorites before the wrath of God is poured out in deluge upon them. Calvin says on this sixth chapter of Joshua, God was pleased to purge the land of Canaan of the foul and loathsome defilements by which it had long been polluted. The indiscriminate and promiscuous slaughter making no distinction of age or sex, but including alike women and children, the aged and the decrepit might seem an inhuman massacre, but it had been executed by command of God. But as He in whose hands are life and death had justly doomed these nations to destruction, this puts an end to all discussion, adding that the decree, Calvin adds, the decree is dreadful indeed.

Now let me ask you a question. At the time of the conquest, the iniquity of the Amorites is full. Were they any more sinful than Southern California or Florida? Do you think that you might find sins in Canaan that you could not find in modern America or this city?

Now be very careful how you answer that question. Why was it fair then for God to exercise harem on the Canaanites when He evidently does not do so on us? A part of the understanding of this tremendously difficult issue is we must grasp the heinousness of sin. If you have a light view of sin, if you have a tolerant view of sin, if you can look at sin and just walk away, if you can hear the name of Jesus blasphemed and it not cut you to the very core of your being, you're not going to understand this, that God is so holy that He cannot look upon sin. God is so holy. Listen, He cannot simply will you to be saved.

Just flick His fingers and will you to salvation. He has to send His own Son, His only Son. He only has one Son and in order to save the likes of you and me, He does not spare Him. He spared Abraham's son. He spared him but He did not spare His own Son. Part of the reason we find this ethically difficult to understand is because we have such a low view of sin. Let me say to you what's happening here in Joshua 6.

What's happening in these harem laws? It's a breaking in into the world of here and now, into this space-time continuum in which Joshua lived, of the judgment that will be evidenced on the last day. This is, call it what you will, an intrusion ethic, an eschatological intrusion ethic of the end into the now. For a temporary period, for a special reason, because of God's desire to have Israel occupy the land of Canaan within the broad spectrum of the flow of redemptive history so that Jesus would be born and you and I would be saved. In the integrity and righteousness of His holy character, because God is love but He is also holy love. He is holy love and He cannot, He cannot spare the ungodly.

You see, difficult as this is, here's a bigger question, here's a bigger question. Why does God, given the fact that millions of unborn children who bear the image of God, why does God not come and judge us? Not the oil spill in the Gulf, that's child's play.

I don't mean to diminish it in any way, but that's child's play. Why does God not open up the heavens and just consume this nation? My friends, if He were to do so, He would be altogether just. And if you don't believe that, you don't believe in the God of Scripture. Because, listen, my friends, listen, there is coming a day when Jesus will come again on the clouds of heaven and He will, He will separate, separate, having raised His own to Himself, He will separate one to His left and one to His right and He will say to hundreds of millions of people and women and children, depart from me, depart from me into everlasting fire, into hell, into the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. And my friends, what happened in Canaan will be nothing by comparison.

Read Revelation 18 and the destruction of Babylon, the earthly city in all its pomp and show and arrogance. My friends, do you know what Heron tells us? That the love of God is a holy love and a righteous love. And it's what every single one of us deserves. And the only safe place in all the universe this morning is to be in Jesus Christ, to be in union with Jesus Christ, to own and acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior and Prophet and Priest and King.

Because apart from Him, that destruction that you see in Jericho, it's just a proleptic glimpse of what awaits those who are outside of Jesus. What an enormous blessing it is that today is a day of grace, a day when we can call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. What a wonderful perspective on a difficult topic. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind on this Thursday.

I'm Lee Webb, and thank you for being with us. What we just heard is a message by Dr. Derek Thomas addressing one of the tough questions that Christians face. You know, any time that we think about a teaching of the Bible and work to understand it, we're engaging in theology. We need to study Scripture properly so that our conclusions are consistent and founded in truth. With that in mind, let me recommend Dr. R.C. Sproul's book, Everyone's a Theologian.

R.C. examines the basic teachings that are found in Scripture in a systematic way using time-tested methods of interpretation. You can request the paperback edition when you give a donation of any amount today to Ligonier Ministries. Let me give you our phone number. It's 800-435-4343.

You can make your request when you call us, or you can go online to renewingyourmind.org. Helping believers think biblically is our main focus here at Ligonier Ministries, and if you're looking for an opportunity to study online at a deeper level, let me commend Reformation Bible College to you. Their courses are carefully designed to help you know, worship, and serve God in all of life. You can find course information online when you go to reformationbiblecollege.org. Well, all week we have been looking at the tough questions that Christians face, and tomorrow Dr. Sproul will address a question that Christians have always asked. How can I be happy in heaven if I am aware that one of my loved ones is in hell? I hope you'll join us for Dr. Sproul's answer tomorrow, here on Redoing Your Mind. Redoing Your Mind