Love Beyond Annihilation

“If God is so loving, why did He kill all of those people in the Old Testament?”

Most, if not all, of us have heard this common query from believers and nonbelievers alike. And most, if not all, of us have had to grapple with this question ourselves as we construct our faith. Our understanding of love comes from our mores and what we read in other portions of Scripture. Total annihilation doesn’t seem to fit the paradigm. Yet here we see God not only condoning but requesting and accomplishing the complete decimation of numerous people groups.

Why would God tell us, in the Ten Commandments, not to kill, only for Him to order Israel to kill other nations or do the killing Himself? Is killing then good? These questions ultimately come down to two other questions: Who is God, that He can do what we cannot, and what is the reconciliation of love and judgment?

Many theologians have written volumes about these questions. While much more could be said on this topic, I would like to share a few thoughts that have been helpful to me in my faith journey and in working with others. I hope they will be a useful starting point for you.

The Pattern of Judgment

God is the sovereign Creator. Life exists in and through Him. The natural consequence of our sin—our choice to distance ourselves from the God who is life—is death. The Bible says that eternal life is knowing God and His Son (John 17:3). That is, knowing on a deep, connected, and relational level. The opposite is also true: death is not knowing God and His Son. As God alone has the power to give life, He alone has the prerogative to take it away. God’s judgment of our sin is to give us what we have chosen and allow us to face the consequence—death.

God gave us a window into His thoughts regarding judgment when conversing with Abraham on His way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah:

“Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know” (Gen. 18:20, 21).

The first reason God gives for eradicating these cities and the people inside them is that there is an outcry against them. Those victims who had been hurt and oppressed by their evil deeds were receiving justice from God. The second is that their sin was severe and deep, something that they had chosen and implanted into their character. They did not love others, nor did they love God. Before delivering His judgment, God took the time to assess the situation and discuss it with His friend. A similar pattern of judgment is seen in the Flood: God looks, sees, assesses, and then judges.

Judgment is a good thing—it is a loving God bringing freedom and justice to the oppressed and securing the redemption of His people.

When God promised the land of Canaan to Abram in Genesis 15, He was clear to state that the iniquity of the Amorites had not yet been completed. For hundreds of years God was watching and assessing these people, and they would not be touched or have their land taken from them by God’s people until their choice for evil was decided.

Such direct reasoning from God is not given in the book of Joshua. But from these examples, we infer that God’s destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan was a result of His judgment being completed against them. They were given ample opportunity to make their choice, and afterward, they received its consequence. These choices were collective (the whole nation was destroyed) and individual (Rahab and her family were saved from Jericho because of her choice to align herself with God’s people).

God’s Desire

With some understanding of the sovereignty of God and His rationale in judgment, we must address the second question we asked: Where is the love of God in His judgment?

It’s easy to point out the love of God in bringing justice to those crying out to Him for the evil done to them. We desire restitution and redemption for the victim. But does that mean we wish death upon the perpetrator?

According to God, the answer is no. “ ‘For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn and live!’ ” (Eze. 18:32). The wages of sin is death, and judgment will bring death to those who choose to cling to sin, but that does not mean death is God’s desired outcome. Truly He came to die on our behalf as atonement for our sin. His pleasure is in the salvation of souls, and He begs us to repent so that we may live.

In fact, God’s love and desire for our salvation are ingrained in the language used in judgment. When Moses interceded for the children of Israel after they had worshipped the golden calf, he asked that God not blot their names out of the book of life (Ex. 32). In Revelation 3:5 Jesus says, “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

The discussion of whether or not a name will be “blotted out” means that the name is already written there. God guarantees the salvation of all who believe in Jesus, thereby communicating His deep longing to save. There is nothing you can do to earn your salvation—it is already available to all who want it. God’s judgment determines if you have chosen to keep your name there, or if you’d rather keep your sin and have your name removed.

Judgment is a good thing—it is a loving God bringing freedom and justice to the oppressed and securing the redemption of His people.

To be clear, these battles were not God’s stamp of general approval for holy wars. In fact, when Israel tried to fight a battle without God’s request or approval, they failed miserably (see Num. 14). God’s commands to destroy the nations in the land of Canaan were specific judgments in those circumstances and to those people. We are not called to physical battle against those who choose not to follow God. We are also not called to verbal “holy wars” against those with whom we disagree or deem to be wrong.

If we are to learn anything from these stories, it’s that we should do the exact opposite: we should call all to embrace the beautiful salvation of our God, trusting God’s judgment to avenge the evil done to us and save to the uttermost all who come to Christ.