Question:

Why in Bible, does God seemed to be angry with everyone and "smite" them or kill them off. Isn't God supposed to be kind and loving and you know Jesus, what about the turn the other cheek theory?

How does a slaughter of infants and civilians square with a Lord who later urged His followers to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies, and to pray for those who had wronged and spitefully used them? While admitting that such things are troubling, let's look to how the Bible itself answers a question that questions the "ethics" of God.

Toxic Culture.
Archeological discoveries in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria confirm the Bible's descriptions of ancient Middle eastern society. The countless gods of the land reflected the dark side of human nature. Fertility cults institutionalized male and female prostitution. Child sacrifice was used as a way of pleasing the gods, the chief of which was the sun-god, generally known as Baal or "lord".

Such idolatrous conditions had persisted for centuries, even though the God of Israel had made His existence known through the miracles surrounding the Exodus from Egypt. Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho, acknowledged that her people had known the reputation of the God of Israel when she said:

I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us . . . . For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites . . . . And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; . . . for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath (Josh. 2:9-11).

The Canaanites had rejected an opportunity for mercy. Although they knew that the God of Israel had revealed Himself and had worked miracles on behalf of His people, they had not embraced Him as the God of creation.

Conditions Of Conquest.
Old Testament records show that God did not, from the beginning, command Israel to kill all the inhabitants of Palestine. Instead, He promised that if His people trusted Him, He Himself would give the Canaanites reason to gradually leave the land.

I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land (Ex. 23:27-30).

As we have already seen in the quote of Rahab, from the very beginning of Israel's campaign to conquer the land, God gave the Canaanites reason and opportunity to flee. He made sure they heard about the coming of the Israelites and filled them with terror. Even though, from God's point of view, they had polluted the land and forfeited their right to live in that region, the Lord of the Old Testament gave them an opportunity to retreat. When they chose to resist the God of the armies of Israel, only then did God demand the destruction of entire communities.

A New Society.
Had Canaanite society remained undisturbed, its idolatrous culture would have continued to influence and even shape the region. Yet the God of the Old Testament chose the Canaanite homeland -- the crossroads of the ancient world -- to promote the values of a new social order. These descendants of Abraham, to whom God had promised the land 400 years earlier, would by their example be "light" to the surrounding nations (Ex. 34:10-17; Dt. 7:1-11; 20:16-18). As no other nation in the history of the world, this land, its people, and its God were to be a source of blessing for all the nations of the earth.

Shock Value.
The mission of destroying communities who resisted should have instilled in Israel a shuddering realization of the consequences of idolatry--especially when that idolatry resisted the truth about God. Fulfilling the role of executioner should have formed in them a healthy fear of God and a hatred of false religion. They themselves would not be exempt from such judgment. They were "chosen" to show the whole world the wonderful benefits of knowing the God of gods and the terrible consequences of ignoring Him.

The Perspective Of Time And Eternity.
Because we're 3,000 years removed, we are troubled and even offended at the thought of Jewish soldiers executing the wives and children of frightened and helpless landowners. But the inevitable conditions of time and eternity have their own perspective. If the lifeless idols of Canaanite culture were at war with the living God, if they were robbing whole communities of the knowledge of life and goodness, then the death of resisters would have sent a message. Without that message, Canaanite culture would have been like an unchecked cancer infecting all who came into contact with this important landbridge to the three continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Even after seeing why God might have required the death of the Canaanites who chose to resist, we may not like what He did. That's understandable. God isn't looking for our fullhearted approval. He knows we can't see the “whole of life” as He does.

Reasons To Trust.
Although God does not demand our approval, He does call for our trust. Any honest reader of the Bible finds overwhelming evidence of His trustworthiness. He keeps His promises. He makes Himself real to those who seek Him. He has given us reason to believe that in the end He will right the wrongs of the ages and be fair to all--even with His enemies. His incomprehensible grace and perfect justice will prevail.

Accepting God's Right To Be God.
God also calls on us to accept His authority. As the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists, He has a right to declare, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" (Ex. 33:19). If He is Lord of lords, then it was His divine right to say to the pharaoh who refused to allow the Israelites to leave his country, "For this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth" (Ex. 9:16).

God could have delivered the Israelites without being so severe. But the path He chose gave merciful and fair warning to all. In His love, He created an example that was designed to alert every generation of their ultimate accountability to Him. We may not fully understand just why He did what He did, but we have many reasons to acknowledge His right to be God.

A Good Question.
But is this also the God of the New Testament? Doesn't Jesus reveal a God who is gentler and kinder? No, the truth is that Jesus simply gave us a clearer picture of the love and gentleness that have always been evident in God's dealings with man.

Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Mt. 11:28-30). His statement echoed the same sentiment as the invitation of the God of the Old Testament who issued the plea, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die?" (Ezek. 33:11).

Yet when the patience of God has run its course, and when a rebel world shows its determination to live apart from submission to His love, the very last book of the Bible reveals once again the judgment of the God of the Old Testament. In close connection with frightening judgments that kill more than two-thirds of earth's population is this awesome endtime scene:

Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (Rev. 6:14-17).

God always was and always will be a God of both incomprehensible love and fearsome wrath.

Question? Since the God of the Old Testament admitted to hating some people, how could He be one and the same as the God of the New Testament who taught us to love our enemies?

This question is based in part on the fact that God speaks in Malachi 1:2-3 of loving one brother and hating another.

"I have loved you," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'In what way have You loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" says the LORD. "Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness."

The answer to this apparent problem revolves around the cultural Hebrew meaning of the word hated in our English translations. When we speak of hating someone today, we think of intense dislike and ill will. But that was not the only meaning of the word hate in the times of the Bible.

The Old Testament Meaning.
To be hated in Old Testament times might mean only that someone else was loved more than you or was chosen over you for a special role. For example, the Hebrew word that is translated "hated" in the King James Version of Genesis 29:31, 33 describes the fact that Leah, Jacob's first wife, was loved less than her sister Rachel. Genesis 29:30 reads, "Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah." He loved both Leah and Rachel, but he loved Rachel more. His attitude to Leah was not that of dislike. In fact, when Jacob knew he was about to die, he asked to be buried in the family grave, saying, "And there I buried Leah" (Gen. 49:31). It is obvious that he held Leah in high esteem even though he had a special love for Rachel. To be chosen for special honor was to be loved. To be given a place of less importance or honor, no matter how desirable, was to be hated.

 The New Testament Confirmation.
The New Testament confirms that this was the meaning of the term hated throughout Jewish history. Jesus said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" ( Lk. 14:26). Clearly, Jesus was not telling us to dislike our relatives or harbor ill will toward them. On the contrary, He told us to love one another with self-sacrificing love: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another" (Jn. 13:34). It's obvious, therefore, that Jesus' statement that we are to hate our family and friends is a command to give Him first place in our love and loyalty--so much so that by comparison it is as if we feel "contempt" for all other competitors.

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