I recently asked the church if they had ‘that one question about the Bible to which they constantly return’. Here is one of the responses:
I am reading Deuteronomy: before entering the promised land Moses is asking the Israelites to kill the people there. Jesus asks us to love one another and live in peace.
Does God really want war and destruction or [does He] want us to live in peace with others?
Given the world we live in and the Scriptural teaching that it will get worse before it gets better (Matthew 24.6) this is a question that most of us have either asked or will ask.
Does God really want war and destruction or [does He] want us to live in peace with others?
Many times this question is rooted in the apparent contradiction of some Old Testament passages. Take, for example, these three;
“You shall not murder.”
(Exodus 20.13)
“So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything they have. Don’t spare them. Put them to death—man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.’”
(1 Samuel 15.3)
“As for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive. Instead you must utterly annihilate them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God.”
(Deuteronomy 20.16-18)
The tension is clear between the command to not murder and to not allow a single living thing to survive. Before we move on, we should reconcile this tension as best we can.
Exodus 20.13 teaches us that life is sacred and people do not have the right to take it of their own volition. Only God has the authority to take life ¹. In the command to not murder, we are hearing that aside from Divinely-decreed and Sovereignly-sanctioned life-taking (as odd as that might sound), people are not to kill.
In His Sovereignty as ruler of all, as upholder of all that is holy and just and right, God Almighty has the right to end life (Deuteronomy 32.39 says this in other words). God often chooses to have this done through human agency. Think of Jael in Judges 4, Phineas in Numbers 25, and David in 1 Samuel 17. The death penalty is also instructed multiple times and wars of Divine judgement are ordered (Exodus 21.12, Joshua 3.9-10). As simply as possible: killing with Divine direction is permissible, but man made murder is not.
Does God really want war and destruction or [does He] want us to live in peace with others?
Big picture, war is never good and always the last resort. In seeking whether modern countries will go to all-out war with one another, those in power will discuss and try to establish ‘jus ad bellum’: is it right to go to war?
One of the principles of’ jus ad bellum’ is ‘proper authority’. This suggests that war is only justifiable if entered into by a proper and legitimate authority. Thomas Acquinas, a favourite source of quotes for many Christians, stated that for war to be just it had to be called for by a ‘sovereign authority’ .
In Romans 13 Paul writes on the subject:
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God. So the person who resists such authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will incur judgement (for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad). Do you desire not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive its commendation because it is God’s servant for your well-being. But be afraid if you do wrong because government does not bear the sword for nothing. It is God’s servant to administer punishment on the person who does wrong. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath of the authorities but also because of your conscience. For this reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants devoted to governing. Pay everyone what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.”
(vv.1-7, emphasis added)
Connecting the two, God has put governments in place with earthly authority as a physical and tangible representation of His heavenly and eternal authority. Part of this is the authority to bear the sword and to administer punishment on the person who does wrong. This certainly fulfils Acquinas’ statement that war must be waged by a ‘sovereign authority’ ².
The principle of proper authority in declaring and waging war is what sets war apart from murder: Exodus 20.3 from Deuteronomy 20.16-18.
In the command of Exodus 20 the desire for death emanates from the person involved. In Deuteronomy 20 there is proper and Sovereign authority:
“…just as the Lord your God has commanded you…”.
Into this world of conflict and war stepped Jesus teaching peace on earth and love for neighbour (Luke 2.14, Mark 12.30-31). Jesus, God in the flesh, came explicitly and repeatedly preaching peace. How, then, do we view His teachings in light of what we have already established?
First, we should accept that Jesus is not a pacifist and does not oppose all war. His second coming will be, to put it politely, particularly violent ³. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus instructed His disciples to bring along swords (Luke 22.36-38). During that evening, however, we read
“When those who were around him saw what was about to happen, they said, “Lord, should we use our swords?” Then one of them struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus said, “Enough of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.”
(Luke 22.49-51)
The swords were there, weapons were ready, but human use of them was condemned emphatically (“Enough of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.”). Should conflict have been Divinely-decreed or Sovereignly-sanctioned then the disciples were ready, but they were not to instigate or initiate violence of their own free will. We see here the principles of the Old Testament teaching on war upheld by Jesus Himself.
Does God really want war and destruction or [does He] want us to live in peace with others?
In conclusion, Scripture makes clear that God wants us to live in peace with one another when possible (Romans 12.18). When Divine judgement is needed this side of eternity it is often the heavy responsibility of a few to carry it out. This should never happen due to the decisions of men and women, but only as far as the will of God is found and followed.
As we seek to live in the perpetual tension of war and peace, of life and death, the words of Billy Graham are helpful:
“God gave this life to us…and only God has the right to take it from us…Human life…[is] precious to God. You and I are so valuable to Him that He sent His only Son into the world to die for our sins so we could have eternal life.”
¹ – Compare how the commandments are being directed to the people in Exodus 19 and how Job speaks of God in Job 1.21.
² – https://aquinasonline.com/just-war
³ – See Revelation 19.11-21 and note the phrase “he judges and goes to war”