Answering Objections to God’s Judgment in the Old Testament

“Why did God order the killing of an entire people group? That’s genocide.”

The reason we can so quickly fault God for wiping out multitudes of people is that we have a subjective definition of what is “good.”

For example, we define “good” perhaps as helping some old lady across the street. Someone watching us do such a task is impressed with our servanthood and gives us kudos. However, we don’t see the big picture. If we knew that sweet old lady whom we just helped was crossing that street to slip cyanide in everyone’s cups at the corner coffee shop, we hopefully would not have helped her carry out the task.

Or we may think it is a good task to give money to someone on the street. While that may seem noble, what if you discovered that the person was going to use it to purchase drugs? It would not be such a good thing after all, would it?

Or we may think it is good to give a stranger a ride to the grocery store. While that act may seem noble, what if you discovered that the person was going there to rob the place? Would you still think it is a good thing to do?

“God alone has the right to define what is good. With God seeing the whole picture, He never makes a mistake. There is no hindsight with God. Everything God does is motivated by His nature: His goodness, His justice, His holiness.”

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Therefore, who among you is able to define “good”? What gives you the right to say whether what God does is right or wrong? If goodness is subjective, then there is no right or wrong. Rather, you could only say that what God did is not your preference. However, even then, how can you make that statement since you are not omniscient to know whether destroying a certain people group was the correct action based on all the information?

Therefore, God alone has the right to define what is good. With God seeing the whole picture, He never makes a mistake. There is no hindsight with God. Everything God does is motivated by His nature: His goodness, His justice, His holiness. And that is why God can kill an individual or a group of people, like the Amalekites, and it can be a good thing. In fact, it can be considered the best thing.

Rather than standing in judgment over God, when we have all the information, we discover that God is justified in killing not only the Amalekites, but all of us. We all are sentenced to die because we have broken His holy Law a multitude of times. But God, in His love, paid the penalty for our sin so we wouldn’t have to die.

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