God and Morality

Message / Question

Are you sure God never asks people not to do things that appear to us not moral? What about asking Abraham to kill his son? Massacre of entire races? Are you sure?

Response:

I think that they to your question is your phrase “that appear to us not moral”. Morality, the issue of right and wrong, can only be determined by the one who creates the moral code – and that is God Himself. In the examples that you use, God had absolute foreknowledge and knew that Abraham would not actually be allowed to kill his son, however the “massacre of entire races” is a far more complex issue.

First, I recall Abraham’s comment regarding the forthcoming destruction of Sodom - “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen. 18.25). In the case of two cities famously destroyed by God with fire and brimstone, we see God executing judgment on the cities because of the great evil that was an inherent part of the people’s lives. In this case, He used “natural” means (at least a non human means – maybe a volcanic eruption, maybe a crashing meteor or maybe simply a shower of molten rocks sent specifically to enact God’s judgment). We don’t question God’s judgment in the case of these 2 cities, despite the extermination of masses of people.Likewise, when we come to God commanding Israel to destroy the Canaanites, it was not an act of malevolence, rather it was an act of judgment, however this time God used human means (viz. the army of Israel) to enact the judgment. For Israel to do such a thing without the express command of God, would have been inherently evil but under God’s direction it was not.

At the time of their destruction, the Canaanite practiced ritual prostitution, homosexuality and child sacrifice, in fact their whole culture was debauched and cruel. The Canaanites were destroyed so “that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God” (Deut. 20.18). Since all are sinners, all deserve to die. They were no exception. God had moral cause for His judgement on Canaan and Israel was merely the instrument of His justice just as the fire and brimstone had been for Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is certainly hard for us in a totally different culture and time to understand, however to argue that it was immoral for the Israelites to do what they did, would be to argue that God acted immorally in directing them to do so. My only option is the see Israel as an instrument of God’s righteous judgment at that time and accept that they acted within the moral framework that God had given to them.