DOES THE BIBLE REVEAL A GOD WHO KILLS?
Rather than starting from the Old Testament and working forward, we need to start from the more illuminated New Testament and work backward.
This really has more to do with us a better recognizing the New Covenant SPIRIT rather than the Old Testament LETTER, or, put another way, the spiritual fingerprints of Jesus versus the spiritual fingerprints of Satan.
This is scripturally true regardless of whether we consider the devil a dark angelic “who,” OR instead as a dark dynamical “what”. Whoever or whatever the devil is, the term Satan symbolizes the dark energies which are untethered from the divine will and work death, fear, hostility, condemnation, accusation, and oppression within this Earth realm.
Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan, not utilize them, and to reveal to us that do NOT come from the Father (1 John 1:3).Satan is the killing source, not God. (John 10:10). Satan is the "murderer from the beginning," not God. (John 8:44). Hebrews 2:14-15 says Satan has the "power of death," NOT God. 1 Corinthians 15 lists "death" as an "enemy" of God, not a friendly force He uses. In other words, Jesus simply doesn't kill. Death is not in His nature. Let's start from the New Covenant Jesus and work backward to the Old Covenant view of God as killer.
Jesus reveals a God who NEVER kills, and never orders us to kill. But, in wrongly reading OT Scripture "by the letter," which Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:6 to NEVER do, for "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life," one could say God kills and tells many others like Joshua and Saul to kill whole tribes of women, babies and men.
But reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-48 we are told in the last verse to "Therefore be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect." What is the "Therefore" there for? The previous 10 verses tell us what the Father's perfection is--- to turn the other cheek toward our enemies, to bless those who curse us and despitefully use us, to pray for our enemies rather than kill them, to go the extra mile and give the extra coat. Just like the Lord blesses the just and the unjust with needed rain and energizing sunlight, the Father doesn't kill His enemies, but instead overcomes them with good. Romans 12:21.
So, as "able ministers of the New Covenant,"(2 Corinthians 3:6), if we read the Old Testament with the New Testament Spirit, which always gives life, we will see that it was Satan, always Satan, masquerading as an agent of God, who either kills or orders us to kill.
The Old Testament had an UNDIFFERENTIATED view of God and Satan. The writers were not aware that Satan was an enemy of God. They thought he was an obedient angel of God, the Lord's "left hand" of wrath so to speak. So often, when the OT says "God said," it could refer to EITHER God or Satan saying it BECAUSE the OT Jews believed they were both just displaying different parts of God's nature. But, Jesus came to declare and differentiate the works of His Father from the works of Satan. Satan's death and destructions are NOT of God. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan, not to claim them as His own. 1 John 3:8.
Simply put, the Old Testament was written from a perspective which saw Satan as an angel with a tough job, but who ultimately was just following the Lord's orders. Jesus, in contrast, revealed in His teachings and tone that Satan was violently OPPOSED to His Father's will RATHER than humbly submitted to it. Read most any Jewish religious reference material on Satan, and you will see they believe that Satan was the death angel who smote all the Egyptian firstborn, supposedly at the Lord's command.
And not just the Egyptians. Jewish orthodoxy still largely believes that Satan is the grim reaper who ultimately kills all men at God's sole command. The book of Job shows Satan kills with sickness ("boils"), with nature ("a great wind"), with other violent men ("Sabeans with swords"), and with supernatural power ("fire from heaven"). Satan is a master assassin who kills a million different ways, but always, the Jews believe, at the express command of God. Jesus came in the New Testament to correct that view as error by revealing Satan to be a cosmic rebel, liar and murderer fro the beginning rather than an obedient angel merely fulfilling his purpose in creation.
As THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH CONCEPTS by Philip Birnbaum says, "Satan...is...identified with the angel of death. He leads astray, then he brings accusations against man, whom he slays eventually. His chief functions are those of temptation, accusation and punishment. Under the control of God, he acts solely with the divine permission to carry out his plots." (Sanhedrin Press, page 594). Rabbi Benjamin Blech similarly writes, "Judaism sees Satan as a servant of God whose function is to set up choices between good and evil so that we can exercise our free will.... [His] apparent harshness is merely camouflage for divine concern and love." IF GOD IS SO GOOD, WHY IS THE WORLD SO BAD? Simcha Press, pages 7-9.
In the New Testament, we get a significantly different picture. While Hebrews 2:14-15 confirms that Satan, as "the devil," does indeed have "the power of death," Jesus' purpose in bearing the cross was to "deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Put even more bluntly in this passage, Jesus ascended the cross in order to "destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."
Jesus came to destroy the works of the destroyer. 1 John 3:8. But Jesus destroyed them not with His "alleged" counter-wrath, but with His sacrificial love. Jesus came to reveal that all forms of "death" and "violence" were enemies of God and never a part of His divine nature. 1 Corinthians 15:25-28 defines the dynamic of "death" as an "enemy" of God to be "put under His feet" until it's "destroyed."
So, if the Old Testament saints were confused and not able to differentiate the purposes of Satan and God, what does this imply about their ability to distinguish between the voices of God and the devil? Well, it allows for the absolute mother of all mistaken identities--- confusing the voices of God and Satan--- or, just as tragic, mistakenly combining their TWO voices into ONE bipolar voice.
Like a high static radio, which sometimes receives two different signals at once, the Old Testament saints were hearing from both Yahweh and Satan, sometimes alternatively, and sometimes simultaneously. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, they could not distinguish between both voices, again just like a radio receiving two different stations although the dial is only on one setting. The Old Testament saints assumed both voices were from God, that both WERE God.
But, Jesus came to correct all misunderstandings about His Father. We have the anointing, BECAUSE of Jesus, to go back and properly divide Scripture, just like He did in Matthew 5:38-48. Jesus came to reveal His Father's light and Satan's darkness, something the Old Testament saints were clueless about. John 1:18.
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