Sins of the Amorites: Not Complete

Have you ever wondered why a loving God would destroy innocent men, women, and children?

Any reader of the Bible knows there have been times when God brought down fire and brimstone and destroyed cities, and that he instructed Moses, Joshua, Saul, David, and others to totally wipe out whole cities, villages, and nations with everyone in them, regardless of their age, political leanings, or military or civilian status.

At the same time any reader of the Bible knows that the God of the Bible, the Creator God, is very loving, merciful, longsuffering, patient, and not desiring that any should be lost; a God who considers all of humanity His children.

To those who don’t believe in God, the above two descriptions of God don’t harmonize. Thus, for them, it is evidence that either God does not really exist and the Bible is just fables, or that God is inconsistent: loving and merciful sometimes, but if He gets really angry, or has a bad day, He will just wipe everyone out indiscriminately, and thus can’t be trusted or loved.

But to those who know the Scriptures and the God of the Scriptures, there is no disconnect between being merciful and not clearing the guilty. “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6,7).

God is an all knowing merciful judge. He does everything He can to help us pass the judgement, but He gives us free choice; if we really don’t want to live with Him forever, He will not force His desires upon us. Thus for those who consistently, knowingly, willingly, rebelliously resist His love and His ways, He will not clear them of the guilt; they will face the punishment. That should seem sensible to any reasonable person. Rebellion and peace cannot live together.

The owner of a home cannot allow people to continue to live within it that are constantly willfully going against the desires of the homeowner (unless of course the homeowner is co-dependent). No city, state, or country, which has just and reasonable laws, can fulfill its job to protect its lawful citizens, if it allows open rebellion against its just laws.

What about the children?

But what about the children? How can a three year old have sins so grievous that they deserve death? How can a loving God punish children for the iniquities of their ancestors to the third and fourth generation? That does not seem fair. To understand that… - well for that, you have to watch the video.

Join Rabbi Jeff Zaremsky as he answers these very important questions.