Confusion in the O.T?

Question

Why does God direct His people to kill others, when one of the ten commandments is you shall not kill? Why does this suddenly stop in the N.T.? I have been told it is because origanlly that commandment was refering to the Jewish. A Jew could not kill another Jew, but anyone else was free game. What do you think?

I hear so many people saying that the old testament contradicts itself, can someone give me examples without giving me verses to go look up?

Thanks for any help on these!

Answer 1

The O.T. is the combination of several different tales that work in different ways. An Eye for and Eye and do not Kill work against each other. The whole story of the creation is told two different ways. Remember that depending on who is doing the counting, the OT covers 3-5000 years and includes changes in worship, the common name of God, and attitudes in general. You probably need to get a good report on the history of the development of the Bible. The famous 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica is online and has long articles on the topic of Bible although some of the factoids have been updated, especially for the NT.

Answer 2

God never directed the Jews to kill anyone. If you are referring to the books of Judges and Joshua, you will see that there are no songs or poems as in the other books of the O.T. because the story-tellers didn't want to make it sound like killing is a good thing. What happened in the book of Joshua was that the Israelites were trying to get Canaan back, so they would fight and made a law called "harem" or "the ban" which meant that they would kill everyone and the spoils would be given to God. They did this so the Canaanites' children would not try to enact revenge and the wives wouldn't bring along their idols and turn the people away from God. The Israelites originally believed that "love thy neighbor" only applied to other israelites, so they had no problem killing the Canaanites. The Jews later realized that all of God's creation is their neighbor.

The Bible doesn't contradict itself. There are several sources for the writings in the Bible: Priestly, Yahwist, Elohist, and Deuteronomist. They were all different writing styles and different points of view, so they for the most part had separate stories (hence the 2 stories of creation); however, sometimes the people who put together the Bible thought that both sides of the story were important, so they put both in without changing the format to make them flow.

Answer 3

God protected His people from those who would infect them with wickedness (i.e., worshipping strange 'gods', following pagan practices, etc.) or even kill them.

The commandment is "thou shalt not murder," not thou shalt not kill.....there is a difference.

God is not limited by the commandments.....if He requires that the Jews do something in the OT that seems to contradict the commandments, then you have to ask if there was a greater principle at stake.

It isn't a contradiction for God to act in such a way that observes a greater good (the preservation of the chosen people). It is a necessity.

If you take the two issues and put them on a scale, for example.......killing on one side and the good of the Jews on the other.....then the good of the Jews would outweigh the moral issues in killing.

Answer 4

It was through the Hebrew people that God destined the Savior to be born. All through the O.T., God is preparing the way, till the time is right. The fact is, if the ancient Jews had not conquered other tribes, whose ways were often anathema to the Lord, they would never have survived intact as a separate people.

Answer 5

If you will read the Old testament again concerning the battles that the Jewish people were involved in, you will find they only killed those that tried to hurt them first, brought shame upon the jewish people, ... .

God's law was that no man was to kill any man at all.

If a man killed another man, outside of self-defense, it was punished by a life for a life, injury for injury.

A person has an animal that was known to hurt people, then caused a person to die, the owner of that animal knowing all this was killed for not dealing with the animal properly and the animal was killed also to prevent it frm doing it again.

The New Testament did not negate the Old Testament teachings or laws. If you read the New testament you will see that it reinforced many of the Old Testament laws.

Answer 6

First of all the Law was not for the Jews only but for all. It was given to Moses to give to all the tribes of Israel. It was also for those who were strangers in their land.

Deuteronomy 31:12
Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:

The New Testament is a new covenant. The message Jesus went about teaching was a message of love not violence.

Luke 3:14
And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

In the Old Testament in
Exodus 20:13
Thou shalt not kill.
Means not to murder someone. God had many laws they required many to be put to death because of certain sins.

Galatians 3:13
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Romans 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

The Bible does not contradict itself, it only needs to be rightly divided.

2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Answer 7

This is because we live under new testament law. As Christians we are to learn from the old testament but live our lives like Jesus lived his life. We are to live under the rules and laws of the new testament.

Hope this helps you to understand better. Sometimes religion is very hard to grasp and you have to be careful who you ask. People are very set in their was when it comes to their beliefs.

Answer 8

God tells them to kill those people because they were evil and would not obey God. God gave them many chances but they didn't listen so God wiped them out. It stops in the NT because Christ came and made a New Covenant. God clearly stated thou shall not murder that's what it means.

Answer 9

In the O T, Gods chosen people were the Isrealites he tried to protect them to keep them pure and from disease. Propably when God commanded them to kill everybody it was because the people they were fighting may have had diseases and God didnt want them to get it. When Jesus appeared Isreal had gotten to the point of just going through the motions of their religion and really didnt practice it like they should have.

Answer 10

Rom. 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

The only time, in the Old Testament, that God ever instructed that a person, persons, or nation was to be killed, was when their cup of iniquity was full. God is the Righteous Judge. He knows when a person has gone beyond Redemption.

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ gave us another example of God's Character -- call it a different perspective, if you will. The woman caught in adultery was guilty and deserved death by stoning according to God's own Laws. But the man caught with her should have also been stoned -- yet he was not brought with the woman. That would not have been fair to the woman.

But Jesus also knew that this woman had been framed, by the very men accusing her (whom, themselves, had even slept with her), in order to test Jesus' adherence to God's Law. You see, the Pharisees knew that this was a test for Jesus because they also knew that God isn't the strict killer that many Atheists and Evolutionists make Him out to be -- if He existed, at all, of course. ::rolleyes:: At any rate...

So, Jesus showed us that man cannot judge fairly. That is why He told them that the man without sin could cast the first stone. Then He bent down and, starting with the eldest, began to write their sins in the dust of the ground. Being curious as to what He was doing, they began peeking at what He was writing. As soon as they saw their own sins in the dust, they hurried away -- lest they, themselves, fall under the Stone of Justice.

When they were all gone, Jesus then showed us the Love of God. You see, Jesus was without sin. He could have cast the stone, himself. It was in God's Law. No one would have questioned Him. But Jesus knew the heart of that woman. Jesus knew she was not beyond Redemption. That is why He told her:

John 8:11 "...Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

You see, once saved, always saved, is baloney. Yes, Jesus accepts us the way we are. But is He satisfied to leave us that way? No. He told the woman she was under Grace and Saved. But, He also told her to sin no more.