Quote:
Originally Posted by Felicity
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?
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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.
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