The God of the Old Testament: Part 21 – The Laws of Warfare

By Mark L. Carlton

Some skeptics put down believers by pointing out that large portions of the Old Testament are Bronze aged documents.  As I have pointed out in other messages, this argument -- if you can call it that since it is really just a put down -- is a text book example of the logical fallacy known as Chronological Snobbery.[i]  It is certainly true that the early books of the Old Testament are Bronze Aged documents, but it does not follow that they are not divine revelation unless one assumes that God could not possibly have revealed Himself during the Bronze Age.

However, the skeptic’s taunt comes close to making a profound point that should be considered by anyone attempting to interpret them; they are Bronze Age documents.  This does not mean that they do not contain timeless truth, but it does mean that we should consider them in their historic context. 

Many interesting things happened during the Bronze Age but the Bible tells us what God was doing during this fascinating epoch in human history.  Specifically, God created a nation.    

It all began when God called a Bronze Aged man named Abram to leave his country, his relatives, and his father’s house, and travel to a Land which God would show him.  He was promised that if he did this God would make him into a great nation.  He did it, and God kept his word.  This man, whose name was later changed to Abraham, became the father of not just one nation, but several.  The rest of the Old Testament concerns itself with one of these nations, the one through which all other nations would be blessed, Israel. 

While the Canaanite civilization ran its course the family of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob (who was also known as, Israel) moved into Egypt.  There God grew and forged them into a nation.  Then when the Canaanites had become such a thoroughly corrupt society that they merited the ultimate penalty God gave their land to Israel. 

If one read only the writing of those who accuse the God of the Old Testament of all sorts of crimes, he or she might think that the type of warfare God ordered the Israelites to wage during the conquest was common.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

The fact is that the destruction of the Canaanites was a unique event and an exception to the general rule.  The fact is that by the standards of the Age the Israelites were among the most compassionate of civilizations, at least when they were obeying the Law of God.  In fact they were famous for it. 

For example, in the days of one of Israel’s worst kings, Ahab, Israel fought a particularly fierce war against their enemy, the Arameans.  When the King of the Arameans, Ben-Hadad found himself besieged in the stronghold of the city of Aphek, his servants offered this advise:

            “Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings, please let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will save your life.”[ii]

In this case, it worked.  Unfortunately for Ahab, this is one of those occasions when he shouldn’t have shown mercy and through a prophet God rebuked him for it.  But the thing I want you to notice is that the Kings of Israel did not have the reputation we would expect them to have given the modern critique of the God of the Old Testament.   On the contrary, they were known for their mercy, and in the brutal Bronze Age this was remarkable. 

God chose a particularly brutal age in which to establish a nation, and He chose a particularly brutal neighborhood to do it in.  The civilizations that rose and fell during the Bronze Age were incredibly cruel to those they conquered, and there was nothing except the strength of an opposing civilization to restrain their brutality…except in Israel.  You see, Israel – while brutal by modern standards – was restrained by what may have been history’s first laws of warfare.   Some of these warfare are found in the 20^th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy:

“When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace.  And it shall come about, if it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you.  However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.  When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword.  Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the LORD you God has given you.  Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not the cities of these nations nearby.  Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.  But you shall utterly destroy them…as the LORD your God has commanded you, in order that they many not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the LORD.”[iii]

There are several observations I want to make as we consider these instructions.  First, they concern two types of wars; (1) wars against far off nations and, (2) wars against the Canaanites. 

We have already discussed the primary reason the Canaanites were treated differently.  They had, as we have discussed, been weighed in the scales of Divine justice and found wanting.  Because of this God judged them and appointed the invading Israelites as the instruments of His justice.  But in the above scriptures we find yet another reason; their corrosive affect on the faith and morals of the nation Israel. 

It is remarkable to me that the critics of the God of the Old Testament who are so quick to seize upon God’s decree that the Canaanites be completely destroyed are so slow to pick up on the fact that Israel failed to carry out His orders, and that as a result they too eventually experienced Divine judgment.  In fact, scriptures tell us that Israel’s special status entitled them not just to blessing but punishment when they sinned against God:

“Hear this word which the LORD has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt, ‘You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”[iv]

It would seem that God has no double standard.  

Notice also that the Laws of warfare changed when Israel went to war against non-Canaanite nations.   When going to war with other nations the Israelites were commanded to offer terms of peace.   It was only when their enemies rejected the offer of peace that Israel went to war.  But when they went to war they were to wage total war…but even then there were restraints. 

The men of an enemy city, for example, were to be put to death (this is why Ahab got into trouble), but the women, children and animals were to be spared.  But unlike other Bronze Age conquerors, the Israelites were not allowed to engage in the wholesale rape of their female captives. 

The Israelites were allowed to take wives from among their captives, but unlike the female captives of every other Bronze Aged civilization, the women had rights under the law and could not be abused[v].  This was highly unusual.  In fact, it was unprecedented.  A modern woman not be impressed, and surely God’s revelation on this point was far from complete, but to find such a standard in the Bronze Age is truly remarkable. 

The same can be said about the rest of the Laws of warfare.   A modern reader judging all of this by later revelation or modern standards can still be troubled by certain aspects of this code.  But, again, let us evaluate them in light of the norms of the Bronze Age and we can see that God is introducing rules and statutes that are extraordinarily progressive.

Still there are troubling aspects to this code such as God allowing Israel to force their enemies to serve as forced labor if they surrendered or the destruction of the entire adult male populations if they refused, and I will be addressing these concerns in some detail in my next message. But the point I am making here is that contrary to popular opinion, the God of the Bible, unlike the God of the Quran, did not command Israel to engage in endless Jihad against her neighbors, nor did He send them out to conquer the world.  Rather, from the very beginning God intended that Israel be a blessing to the world.[vi]

Now God was realistic.  He recognized that Israel would need to fight wars from time to time especially in the neighborhood He put them, but He insisted that they fight them differently than their neighbors.  As a result, the kings of Israel, unlike the kings of other nations, were known for their mercy, and as we read the Old Testament historical narratives we find that the Israelites were skilled diplomats who often made treaties and mutually beneficial alliances with their neighbors.  So to picture the ancient Israelites as blood thirsty jihadists carrying out the decrees of a cruel and capricious God does a disservice both to them and the God they served.  The true story is a little more complicated than the skeptic’s revisionist history would have us to believe.

Now some may still be asking, “But why would God order Israel to kill all of the men of the city that refused to surrender?”   While I can not definitively answer this question I can hazard a suggestion; Think Bronze Age and deterrence.