Isaiah 13:13-16 reads:
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land. Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated.
The accusation is often made against God that He is a monster! Enacting the worst crimes against humanity. How could any conscionable person support such a deity!? Here in Isaiah 13 we have a prime example of just that. God will bring wrath, which includes babies being killed before their parents eyes, and the rape of women! In the face of such horrifying acts, the only people who could worship this entity are either evil or ignorant! … right?
Obviously as a pastor and apologist I don’t think I am either evil nor ignorant, so how do I square this circle? Truth be told, I really don’t struggle with this one. I see it as something of a non-issue as far as morality goes. There are several truths we can point to in order to stand our ground that God is not some sort of moral monster.
Point #1: What value do we have? On the non-theist side we are merely the product of random chance! Luck! We have no purpose or reason for existing and our lives are only worth what we decide they are worth. On this view, I think our SHOES are more valuable than we are. At least they exist for some reason! Imagine Hitler had won World War II. Who is to say he was wrong to exterminate people because of their immutable characteristics or genetic heritage? It sounds awful to say, but if he had won, it would be the dominant view. And what charge would the Godless bring against a ruling Nazi party except that they “don’t like it”? Only through the value imparted to us by virtue of our creation in the image of God almighty can we even bring a charge against Him that carries any weight. The atheist sits in God’s lap and slaps His face.
Point #2: God can do what He chooses with His creation. If the destruction of one, or ten, or a hundred, or a million leads to the salvation of those who would otherwise be doomed to hell (which I contend is God’s primary goal on this earth), then it is well within His rights to do so. Do we look at the story of Moses & Pharaoh and cluck our tongues at God? Gee, Lord, weren’t you a little hard on the Egyptian rulers there? Why give Pharaoh over to the hardness of his heart just to make an example of Him? Well because that displayed God’s power, and glory, and became the cornerstone of the Jewish faith that was the foreshadow of what Jesus would do. And Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. God doesn’t do anything randomly, but with great care and foresight. So we can trust that no matter what has happened, it has happened because God has a greater plan. Even if we cannot see it, we know that He causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him.
Point #3: WE DID IT TO OURSELVES!! This might be the biggest, most important one in my mind. Here we have Babylon, an evil kingdom that murders, kills, destroys, sacrifices their young on the altar of Molech, and treats women like trash. Yet, when God allows his wrath to be exacted by human warfare (and all the atrocity that comes with it) we clutch our pearls and scream “How dare God do this thing?!” We really need to get a grip here. God has not CAUSED these invaders to act so despicably1, He simply allows them to proceed unfettered in their military conquest in order to achieve His goal of destruction of one side. We know this is how God works because that what He did to Israel — allowing evil Babylon to come in a capture them!
Questions? Comments? Ask away. Happy to get into this with anyone who is interested to do so.
- Unless you are a Calvinist, like we talked about before. If so… godspeed to you but you’re on your own, Al Capone. ↩︎