Wars in the Old Testament

Some people might question the goodness of God by pointing to wars that Israel fought against their neighbors. They ask, “Why does God train His people for war?”. In this article, we will discuss wars in the Old Testament and God’s intent.

Love our neighbors

Jesus said to love our neighbors as ourselves. When someone asked Him who is our neighbor, Jesus told a parable about a traveler in Israel who was robbed and left half-dead. The only person who helped him was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked: “‘Which of these three [priest, Levite, Samaritan] do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?’ And he said, ‘The one who showed mercy toward him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do the same'” (Luke 10:36-37).

So being a neighbor to someone is not anything limited to location or ethnicity. Being a neighbor is showing mercy to someone (whoever he is), and by helping him, we become his neighbor.

So having these commandments, why did God allow the Israelites to go to war with their neighbors and in some cases kill everyone in surrounding nations?

For this, we need to go back to the basic concept of sin and punishment, and then from there understand why God directed the Israelites to attack their neighbors.

1. Angels fight and administer justice

Good angels fight bad angels in spiritual battles all the time. In the end times, when Christ comes to judge the earth, the holy angels will execute God’s judgment.

“Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.'” (Jude 1:14-15)

“For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8)

Angels do not deal out retribution out of hate or desire to punish people, but they do so because sin must be punished before a just and holy God.

2. Israelites were instructed to punish their own people for sins

In a similar way, the Israelites had to punish their own people for sins, which included executions.

“Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.” (Deuteronomy 22:23)

One of the reasons for punishment was to discourage people from committing more sins. Another reason was to teach the Israelites to administer justice fairly in Israel.

“If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him. Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good [make full payment with fine for the owner’s animal], but the one who kills a man shall be put to death. There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 24:19-22)

In order to be fair to all people, God’s Law is this way – just as one does to another, so what was done will be paid back.

This is why Jesus tells us: “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12). If we treat other people kindly, we will be rewarded. If we treat others badly, we deserve justice so that what was done to the other person will also be done to us.

So God’s justice is to repay people exactly what they do to others. However, God’s mercy is that if we repent of our sins, God forgives us and shows us mercy. 

3. Israelites were used to punish disobedient nations

God said to Abraham, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. … Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” (Genesis 15:13-16)

God gave the Amorites time to repent of their sins (400 years) while His own people suffered slavery. When the Amorites did not repent, they were judged and taken out of their land. According to God’s standard, it took time for the nations to fill up their measure of sins to the point that God had to punish them:

“Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations … so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you.” (Leviticus 18:24-28)

4. When Israelites were disobedient, God used other nations to punish them

God used other nations and brought them to war against Israel. Then the Israelites went into captivity because of their sins.

“The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy.

Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. All the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his officers, he brought them all to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles.

Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.” (2 Chronicles 36:15-21)

5. Judgment for nations and spiritual wars

During Old Testament times, God punished nations due to their sins. Israel made war with other nations, and God helped the Israelites when they obeyed God. But when they disobeyed God, God sent other nations to be adversaries against Israel. So God judged between the nations.

Israel’s wars also symbolize a physical representation of our spiritual battles with forces of darkness. During Old Testament times, there were physical wars for the people of God. Now, each person faces a spiritual war against forces of darkness.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:12-13)

Whatever was physical during Old Testament times had a spiritual lesson behind it. Now each person goes to war spiritually. He either overcomes evil with good or is overcome by evil (Romans 12:21).

6. Judgment for each person

Just as God judges the nations, God will judge each person for his or her sins. God is holy and just. He will not let sin go unpunished.

“The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.” (Ezekiel 18:20)

People will not be punished for the sins of others, but each person is judged based on his own deeds.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, just as the good angels do not take pleasure in war or meting out punishment.

“‘For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,’ declares the Lord God. ‘Therefore, repent and live.'” (Ezekiel 18:32)

“‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die…?” (Ezekiel 33:11)

“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

“For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.” (Lamentations 3:33)

So repent (turn away from your sins) and believe in Jesus for salvation. The perfect God died for the ungodly so that those who believe in Him and follow Him can be made righteous through Him.

Conclusion

God does not condone genocide, but God uses one nation to judge another when the judged nation fills up its measure of sins. And even though there is punishment for sins, neither God nor the angels take pleasure in these things. As for human judges and those who correct others, no one is to do those things out of a sense of pleasure, hate, or vengeance, but each person is to watch out for himself in case he himself also falls into sin.

Those who sin will be judged. The punishment of sin is death.

If you argue that God’s way is not right because He brings judgment to those who sin, please consider. God is holy and just. This is God’s law. He has also provided a way out of punishment of sins through God the Son who died for us. But those who don’t accept His salvation will have to endure God’s wrath.

Are you willing to risk your eternal life by insisting on your own way and insisting God’s way is not right?

Jesus said, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:35-38).

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Read Mark 8 in the Bible.

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