New Believer's Question ........
 

We have a Chinese student living with us and tonight he asked me a question that I'm a little hard pressed to answer so hoping for a little help from some of you who I know are able to give a good answer.

He's reading through the OT and today was reading some scripture where David was praying and asking God for victory in battle and the victory was promised him.

Eric wants to know why if God loves everybody He would allow those outside of the chosen nation to be murdered and killed by His own people? He feels that the wars and battles fought in the OT and approved and in fact directed by God Himself are in sharp contrast with the teaching of the NT.

How would you answer Eric?

Many of us have wondered about that too Felicity.. hope somebody can give a good answer

Could it be that perhaps that these instances in the OT. were cases of God's judgement being poured out on the disobedient ?

Well, this kid said he was "troubled" by what he read and to be honest I didn't have a great answer to give him, at least not one that I feel does the question justice or that I myself am satisfied with.

The answers that I come up with just leave a lot of holes ..... and in turn spawn more questions.

Sometimes the OT. is puzzling like the part of folks marrying relatives, or in the flood thinking about children being drowned.
Oh well we'll understand it better bye and bye.

Incoming message from MissBratfield....soon we'll know the answer

Not a lot of time tonight so I will answer with this: The OT is a type and shadow of the NT. The physical wars we see fought in the OT are a type of the spiritual wars we fight today. OT was fought in flesh and blood. NT says: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph 6:12). I hope this helps.

That was part of my answer but I'm still not completely satisfied with the explanation.

See if I was Eric I'd be thinking ......

"Yeah but the fact is .... a God of love who loved the whole world so much He gave His life for it gave the command that all His enemies be slaughtered and by those who served Him. Seems like a total contradiction."

Some people will point out how wicked the nations that dwelt in the land of Canaan were. This, we are told, is why God commanded Israel to "drive" them out of Canaan. In Genesis there is a note (Genesis 15:16) that in the days of Abraham the "iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full..." This seems to indicate that the people were given a time (at least 490 years) to repent. A part of God's patience toward the Canaanites resulted in causing the enslavement and suffering of Israel in Egypt. That kind of "turn about" is worth noting.

Later, under David's rule when all of the land was secured and God had given him peace, David went about "numbering" the people. In Israel the people were "numbered" for only two reasons, taxation and war. Since it was David's military commander, Joab who complained it seems that David was planning upon a war of expansion. He was intending to go beyond the territory that God had prescribed to Israel. Just planning such a war resulted in a terrible judgement against Israel.

Later, when Israel and Judah both began acting just like the nations that their forebears had driven out of the land, God drove Israel out of the land using the Assyrians and Babylonians. God apparenty wasn't playing favorites when it came to nations keeping His commandments.

I don't have all the answers and began to write, but it seemed inane...let me think about it today, and hopefully the great minds here will provide an answer.