The God of the Old Testament – Part 18: What About the Children?
By Mark L. Carlton
Years ago I watched a portion of a movie based on the book of Genesis; I think it was John Huston’s, The Bible in the Beginning, but I am not sure. The scene I remember best was set just hours after God informed Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. As Abraham digested the news his son, Ismail, asked him, “but what about the children?” Upon hearing this, Abraham covered his ears, began to groan and experienced a crisis of faith.
You will not find this incident in the Bible. It had its genesis in the mind of the film-maker, and as one would expect from Hollywood, it completely misses the point. The point of the Biblical account is that God does the right thing when He judges. The filmmaker was saying, “Oh no, He does not, and the fact that children would have suffered in many of the so called judgments of the Old Testament proves it.”
We do agree that children died when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It is also a safe bet that there were children in the Canaanite civilization God commanded the children of Israel to destroy when they took possession of the Promised Land. This being the case, “What about the children?” is a fair question.
As in other questions I have addressed in this series of messages, it is important to examine the underlying assumptions of the person who is asking the question. The first assumption is that the questioner cares more about the children than God does. The second assumption is there is no possible justification for God taking or allowing a child to be taken “before its time.” But behind this second assumption is a still deeper assumption; that the death of a child is the worst possible outcome — the greatest evil — that can occur in any situation.
In addressing the first assumption I refer the reader to part 13 of this series: How does God Feel when He Judges. Suffice it to say here that there is no way a creature can care more about a creation than the one who created it. Further, it is the height of arrogance for someone to assume that s/he does. However, the God of the Old Testament has spoken about his concern for children who might die as a result of the outpouring of divine justice, so we don’t need to speculate about it. This direct statement is found in the Book of Jonah.
You may recall that after his experience in the belly of the fish, Jonah, the reluctant prophet finally made his way to Nineveh. Once there Jonah began to preach, but his prophetic message offered no hope to the people of Nineveh. The reason for this was that Jonah did not want to offer them hope. He wanted God to destroy the city just as He had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, but to Jonah’s chagrin, the city repented anyway. In response, the unchanging God — who always responds to repentance with mercy and grace — relented of the judgment He had pronounced against the city. Jonah was furious at this turn of events, and he told God about it:
“Was this not what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.”[1]
Having submitted his official protest, Jonah asked God to kill him. Apparently, Jonah felt death would be preferable to being forced to see Nineveh spared.
Jonah’s attitude toward Nineveh is understandable — even though it was reprehensible — given the great suffering the Assyrians had inflicted upon his people, Israel. Jonah would have loved nothing better than to have God destroy every man, woman and child in Nineveh; after all, the armies of Assyria had shown no mercy to the men, women and children of Israel. But from the moment God commanded him to go to Nineveh, Jonah knew that he and God were not on the same page. Jonah knew that if Nineveh repented then God’s compassion would kick in and Nineveh would escape the judgment Jonah believed it deserved.
I note that Jonah’s view of the God of the Old Testament is the exact opposite of God’s modern critics. They see the God of the Old Testament as being too harsh; but Jonah saw Him as too gracious and compassionate. I agree with Jonah on this point. If God can be blamed for anything it is that His is too gracious and compassionate, too slow to anger, and too abundant in His loving-kindness. But I digress.
In the rest of the book of Jonah we see God using various means, unsuccessfully, to try to help the prophet understand that he had no good reason to be angry with God. But unlike Nineveh, Jonah refused to repent, maintaining till the end that he did “have good reason to be angry.”
God responded to His stubborn messenger by weighing on the very subject of this message: “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
When God spoke of 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left hand, He was referring to the children. From this question we see that that God was concerned not just with the lives of innocent children but with the lives the innocent animals too. Here, then, we have an additional piece of the puzzle that we need to factor into our thinking when we consider the God of the Old Testament. God will indeed judge the wicked, but a civilization must be very evil indeed before He will do it because the lives of the innocent are not inconsequential to Him.
Let us move on now and consider the assumption that the premature death of a child is the worst possible outcome, the greatest evil, which can occur in any situation. Earlier I stated that this assumption underlies the supposition that there is no possible justification for God taking a child “before its time.” But there is one more layer to this onion that needs to be addressed; the assumption that materialism is true and that there is nothing more to life than physical life.
The latter assumption is a logical fallacy in that it begs the question by assuming the very thing being asserted by the materialist; that the material cosmos is all there ever has been or will be. Starting with this assumption materialists condemn God, who they claim not to believe in, for not behaving Himself as they think He should, given the logic of a materialist world. Then, because He does not comport Himself according to their rules they say they don’t believe in Him.
This line of argument is comparable to denying the existence of a fourth dimensional man by arguing that if one existed, he should behave like a three dimension being; but since he doesn’t he must not exist.
But if we are going to posit the existence of God, even for sake of argument, then it follows that the materialist’s universe is an incomplete explanation of reality. Moreover, the existence of God introduces all sorts of additional factors that need to be considered in evaluating His actions or inaction in time and space. So if we are going to consider the God of the Old Testament then we must examine Him in the context in which He must exist if He exists.
Consider just a few of the factors that must be added to the equation if God exists. Given the existence of God there is more to reality than the material; so there is more than this life with its joys, pain and sorrow than meets the eye. Given the existence of God, this world is really just the vestibule of eternity and this world becomes, as C.S. Lewis described it, shadow-lands that are a pale reflection of a greater and more important reality beyond the material. Given the existence of God, Paul was right; “to die is gain,” at least for the righteous. Given the existence of God, death also is changed from a boxed canyon from which none emerge alive, into a dark valley that empties at the house of the Lord.
Clearly then the existence of a God — and all that He brings with Him — changes everything, including death, even the premature death of a child. So rather than imagining there is no heaven as John Lennon’s song urges us to do, let’s assume there is one at least for the sake of this argument. Given this view of reality; make the case that it would be better for a child to grow up in Sodom than suffering a premature death that places him safely into the arms of a loving creator.
The scriptures tell us that sometimes the righteous are taken prematurely to deliver them from even worse evils than death, [2] Might the same thing also be true of the innocent? Interestingly, the Bible does tell us of an occasion when the premature death of a child occurred for this very reason.
In the 14th chapter of I Kings we read that the crown prince of Israel, Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, was very sick. His father was understandably concerned, so he sends his wife to inquire of the prophet. But rather than a message of comfort, the prophet told her that her husband’s house was about to be judged because of his sins, and that their child, Abijah, was going to die. But listen to the reason: “When your feet enter the city the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave, because in him something good was found toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.”[3]
Of course, since God seldom takes us into his confidence we should be careful in speculating as to His reasons for allowing or ordaining any particular event, especially an untimely death. However, passages like the one above do indicate that God has His reasons and that from the perspective of eternity they make sense, even when they seem like senseless tragedies to us.
Finally, let me say this. I am not insensitive to the pain that the death of a child brings. I am a father and a grandfather, and I shudder at the thought that they may be taken from me. I have also officiated at the funerals of children and infants; and having helped families through their times of deep personal loss I cannot imagine any pain this side of heaven more difficult the death of a child. But as Christians we believe, in spite of our pain, that there is another side — heaven — and because this death does not have the last word. So then, knowing that God is gracious and merciful we endure the pain of today, confident that there will be a tomorrow, glorious reunions, a God who will wipe all tears from our eyes, and an eternity in which the plan of God will be known, and everything, even our most tragic losses, will make sense.
[1] Jonah 4:2
[2] Isaiah 57:1 — “The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart; and devout men are taken away while no one understands.” For the righteous man is taken away from evil, He enters into peace; They rest in their beds, Each one who walked in his upright way.”
[3] I Kings 14:13
