Q. I was having a conversation recently
with a believer who is struggling with his faith. He claims that every time God
punished the enemies of the Jews, thousands of innocent people died, even women
and children. As examples, he named the people who died in the flood, all
the first born in Egypt, David’s baby (from Bathsheba) and the innocents in
Caanan who died when God instructed the Israelites to conquer the land.
He concluded that God was never ‘good’, just ‘one sided’ towards the Jews. He
said those people who died were still created by Him, so why did he watch them
be slaughtered?
A. The first problem with your friend’s view
is that the people God destroyed were not innocent. They were all sinners
who had rebelled against their Creator.
In Noah’s
time God gave people 120 years advance notice that a judgment was coming (Genesis 6:3). Then He waited
seven days after the ark was finished so that anyone who wanted to could get
aboard (Genesis 7:4,10).
Although there was plenty of room, no one did.
The
Egyptians had rebelled against God and had been worshiping a whole batch of
demonic creatures for centuries. Then they made slaves of God’s people
and refused to let them go, in spite of clear warnings in the form of various
plagues (Exodus 7:14-11:10).
David’s baby
went straight to heaven to be with God (2
Sam. 12:23), as have all the children who have died since the beginning
of time.
The
so-called innocents of Caanan had rebelled like their Egyptian neighbors and
were given 400 years to repent before the judgment (Genesis 15:13-16). None did, even after they witnessed the
effects of Egypt’s rebellion.
As for being
one sided, of all the people on Earth, no people has faced more severe
punishment for rejecting God than the Jews have.
At the end
of the age, everyone who who has deliberately rejected God will similarly
be destroyed, because God has made His presence so clear that no one in his
right mind can deny His existence (Romans
1:18-20). Those who reject Him, like all who have done so
throughout the ages, will have declared themselves to be His enemies and will
be dealt with accordingly (2 Thes.
2:9-10).
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