Why did a loving God inspire men to write this in the Bible?

Question

Deut 20:10-18
10 When you draw near to a town to fight against it, offer it terms of peace. 11If it accepts your terms of peace and surrenders to you, then all the people in it shall serve you in forced labour. 12If it does not submit to you peacefully, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; 13and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. 14You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, livestock, and everything else in the town, all its spoil. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. 15Thus you shall treat all the towns that are very far from you, which are not towns of the nations here. 16But as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. 17You shall annihilate them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded, 18so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord your God.

Answer 1

This is a historical account of a war time crisis against the Atheists of that day... nothing more.

Answer 2

Question: Why did a loving God inspire men to write this in the Bible?

Answer: God inspired men to write the truths relative to salvation. That doesn't mean that everything people in the Bible attribute to God is actually from God. That is, many of the things we would today consider God allowing (because of our free will) and not necessarily directly willing, the Israelites saw as God's direct will. To them God willed suffering as a punishment for sin. Jesus cleared up the fact that God does not make us suffer for sin. Sin is auto-punishing. Plus, the Hebrew people had to firgure out that not all suffering was caused by sin. See Job. So again, we go back to the thing I've said again and again. The Bible is (according to Christian faith) is to be interpreted in the light of the New Testament, since Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises of the old testament and give the new law... love one another.

By the way, I know you are only asking these questions to annoy us Christians, but you're actually unwittingly doing something God (or maybe I should say, God can use this sillyness to do soemthing good), namely causing Christians to actually think about these issues. Next Question.

Answer 3

The book that you quoted here was not written by 'men' inspired of God. It was written by Moses, whom God talked to and gave the law to. The verses that you ask about are written telling of when Israel was about to enter the promised land. They are guidelines that God gave to the children of Israel concerning war against the inhabitants of the land that God gave to the Israelites. These people that Israel was to take the promised land from were evil and did evil in the sight of God. (such as the Canaanites worshipping Baal). During war in those days, all were slaughtered, men, women, children, even animals when a land was besieged. The version of the Bible that you are using loses a lot in translation. The KJV is much better. The treatment that the inhabitants of these cities received from Israel was actually very humane and lenient when compared to what would usually happen in those circumstances. You must understand that the children of Israel treated their servants like family. Much better than other people did, as the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and treated terribly by the Egyptians. God could have told them to kill them all, in every city., but did not. Even the men were spared in these cities as long as they made peace with Israel as Israel proclaimed it upon arrival as God told them. Does this answer your question?

Answer 4

Your answer is found in verse 18. God did not want the evil, sinful ways of those in Canaan to influence them and lead them astray. Obviously the spiritual purity of God's people is of the utmost importance. You may not like or agree with this but you are not God. Our ways are not His ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts. If you look closely at the verses you quoted and the surrounding text you can see that God actually provides some mercy to those who will submit, by living. And even though the enemy would've been subjected to forced labour they still would've been looked after in their every day needs because of God's commands concerning the treatment of others, including enemies.

Answer 5

it is nice you requested this question because it truly is glaring it truly is really useful get this difficulty immediately. The bible incorporates a call of 66 books....that are were compiled into 2 sections....ie the former and the hot testaments. The previous testomony change into initially written in Hebrew...and the hot change into written in Greek. (both were written of their unique languages thousands of years in the past) You ...alongside with many, many different all and multiple seems dabbling in a realm of information that you've little pastime in, except to objective to ridicule those which have made the attempt to get to attraction to close the problem. there's a large distinction between a version and a translation. regrettably you, and those like you, continuously fail because your lack of information betrays you. The "variations" of the bible that you element out are literally not really variations in any respect......they're merely TRANSLATIONS into English from the unique Hebrew and Greek! I reiterate...there's a large distinction between a "version" and a translation. i am hoping this has helped you to understand your difficulty somewhat more effective!

Answer 6

That was the Old Testament, and God knew that the Israelites were prone to commiting idolatry with the gods of the surrounding areas.

The New Testament has a different commandment:

Mat 5:38-39 "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

Straight from the lips of Jesus. So spare us any more of these questions, OK?

Answer 7

I will admit to this fact that yes God commanded them to KILL. If God commanded me to kill I would do it.But Jesus came and set up a new covenant;which establishes the gentiles to enter into His kingdom.Consequently this also admonishes that we now love our enemies and do good to those who mistreat us. Solomon said theirs a time for everything.If I was walking down the street with people I love and a guy comes out and attacks us I will do everything I can to protect the group;physically. But now in america where people are trying to take out the bible and God out of america;I`m going to fight first in the spirit in prayer.Then accomplish in the physical what must be done to do His will.The new covenant is totally against violence.

Answer 8

Because Canaanite women were better in almost every way than Israelite women.

Judges 14:3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.

Answer 9

that was in the old testament and was only for the nation israel. god sometimes used the nation israel as a way to judge a nation for their sins. god is a loving god but he is also just and holy and cannot accept sin in his presence.

Answer 10

Because GOD gave us the best gift of all. FREE WILL. So, HE had to make laws with Free Will.

I am talking with fellow Ministers in the church I preach in. They agree with me Free Will.

And, because of Free Will. GOD needed to make Laws for Man. The Holy Bible is actually the first Law Book made which is still publicly available. And, Laws for Man which are in The Bible are still enforced by Law Enforcement.

They went further than that. But, if it is too deep for my comprehension it is definately too deep for majority of people. Because I like to keep things simplified.