IS GOD CRUEL?

An In-Depth Analysis of God's Apparent Acts of Cruelty in the Bible

Michael Caputo

(ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PAPERBACK FROM AMAZON)

© Copyright, Michael Caputo, 2013 (All rights reserved)

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the    New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

FROM GENESIS TO EXODUS

FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN

THE LAWS OF GOD

FROM THE     CONQUEST OF   CANAAN TO THE JUDGES

FROM SAMUEL TO SOLOMON

FROM ELIJAH TO NEHEMIAH

THE GOSPELS

FROM THE BOOK OF ACTS TO REVELATION

INTRODUCTION

Is the God of the Bible a cruel God? Atheists and other unbelievers would quickly reply affirmatively and would then proceed to point out examples from the Bible as evidence that God is harsh and sadistic.

"For instance," they would add, "Is a God that wipes out humanity with a flood, or that destroys cities and tribes because they do not reflect His moral standards not cruel and sadistic?" They would also point to other events relating to his own chosen people Israel and even to individuals He says He loved, such as King David.

Of course, to the biblically ignorant and to the ones who do not know the context of all of the above events, it might, in fact, seem that God was, indeed, harsh and cruel; but not to the biblically literate -- and definitely not to the ones who have spent years studying and understanding the mind of God.

This work was written to increase the reader's understanding and appreciation of God’s character, His love for righteousness, His great wisdom and His unending love. Above all, it is meant to strengthen the reader’s faith and trust in the Almighty so that he/she may turn to Him with total assurance in the fact that He is a Father who is always fair, just, and loving.

To accomplish this aim, this book will analyze many major events that have been used by atheists and others as evidence of God's alleged cruelty; but it will do so in a way that is both original and unusual. Each analysis will begin with the thought-provoking, hypothetical question, “What if God…?” Afterwards every situation will be explored in depth as will the historical context. Lastly, the author will address what might have happened if God had handled each event differently.

For instance, the Bible tells us that God destroyed the pre-flood world and only saved Noah and his family. This seems to be quite a drastic measure, and some skeptics point to it as an example of incomprehensible cruelty on God’s part. But what if God had not destroyed the inhabitants of the earth and had allowed them, instead, to continue in their degeneracy? Would that have been a wiser decision? Or could it be that God’s verdict was both appropriate and necessary?

Again, God appears to be very harsh when He orders Israel to totally eradicate the inhabitants of Canaan. Scoffers point to this as one more example of sadism on God’s part and insist that it contradicts the “God is Love” idea. But what if God had not ordered the Canaanites’ total destruction and had allowed all of them to live side by side with Israel, though extremely evil? Would God have shown more justice by doing that?

Moreover, God appears surprisingly unjust for decimating thousands of seemingly innocent Israelites, because of David’s stubborn sin.  Once David realized his grave mistake, he begged to be forgiven; yet God responded that His decision to destroy thousands of Israelites was irrevocable. Why would a God of goodness not forgive a repentant sinner? Most of all, why punish Israel when David was the one who sinned? Could it be that even this most perplexing event is not at all proof of His unfairness but that it, instead, reveals God’s divine wisdom and justice?

Lastly, what if God would not climax the end of our age with the horrific events described in the book of Revelation? What if He would, instead, orchestrate Christ’s return in a much more peaceful and much less catastrophic way? Would not that be much more appropriate from a loving God, or could it be that even the cataclysmic end of the age is another manifestation of God’s wisdom and greatness?

In this work the reader will clearly see that God’s actions are invariably wise, fair and just. No matter how seemingly cruel or unjustified, every one of his interventions, when looked at closely, reveals great love, patience, wisdom and justice.

This book is meant to be a mind-expanding and transforming experience. The author’s hope is that, by reading and reflecting upon God’s traits and motives, the reader’s understanding of God’s mind will reach new heights and that his love and respect for God will multiply. Most of all, the author hopes that readers will be greatly reassured that the Ruler of the Universe is the best Creator there could ever be, the best Father we could ever have, and that humanity is in very good hands.

FROM GENESIS TO EXODUS

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT CURSED THE GROUND?

The taking of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil led to disastrous consequences for Adam and Eve and all of humanity. The penalty of death followed hundreds of years later, and it has been imposed on humanity ever since. Eve’s childbirth pain was to be multiplied, and the ground was to be cursed as well. Essentially, life was to become a burdensome, grueling experience, until the establishment of God’s Millennial Kingdom on Earth.

God had promised Adam ad Eve that they would die, and He kept His promise. But he went a step further and punished Adam and Eve beyond simply dying of old age. The ground, which was to provide them with the means of survival, was cursed and their long life was to be filled with toil and sorrow until the end.

But what if God had not punished Adam and Eve as grievously as He did? What if He had only permitted the death penalty but had not cursed the ground and, by extension, human life?

Adam, we are told, lived to over 900 years of age. His descendents lived very long lives as well. Since death did not ensue immediately, if God had not added the extra life-long punishment, it would have been easy for humans to conclude that there would have been no consequences to sins, no matter how serious they might have been. Thus, God addressed this need by adding daily anguish to accompany the lives of humans.

God, in His wisdom, saw fit to make human life arduous and painful by cursing the ground. He clearly wanted mankind to be reminded, generation after generation that sin invites curses, misery and anguish. Humans had to experience daily that independence from God leads to a struggle for existence and to an anxious life, and that following Satan results invariably in great stresses and sorrows.

Every nation and every generation since then has tasted the curse. Humans know that the basics of life are rooted in the soil and its production. The soil’s production is unpredictable, even where the land is generally fruitful, and even abundant crops are always related to exhausting labor. Nations that veer away from agriculture experience the “essence” of the curse by tasting exploitation and abuse in factories and offices where bosses are often demanding and unfair, where hours are long and exhausting and where remuneration is often incommensurate with the effort.

The curse was to last until Christ’s return when the times of refreshing would come. Those are the days when “the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1). During those awe-inspiring times “the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water” (V. 7), and “sorrow and sighing shall flee away (V. 10). They will be days when “the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it” (Amos 9:13).

Since Adam and Eve partook of the Tree of Knowledge, the overall human experience has been and continues to be very painful. Humans taste daily the consequences of rebelling against God’s will and the curses that accompany sin. But, thankfully, God’s plan will soon proceed to the next stage when curses will be finally lifted, and blessings will abound throughout the earth.

WHAT IF GOD HAD PREVENTED CAIN FROM KILLING ABEL?

The first shocking human murder is described in Genesis 4. The event is exceptionally tragic for various reasons.  First of all, it is the first murder of a human being; secondly, it is a fratricide, that is a murder of a brother by a brother; thirdly, because it foreshadows a harsh reality of human existence that has characterized humanity ever since.

The event is also meaningful because, for the first time, God does not intervene in human affairs and allows the actual murder of an innocent person to take place, even though He clearly knew it was going to happen and witnessed its happening. God had warned Cain that sin lay at his door “and its desire is for you” (Genesis, 4:7). But God’s warning fell on deaf ears and Cain allowed his hatred to prevail, and “it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” (Genesis, 4:8).

But what if God had chosen to intervene and prevent Abel’s death? What if God had simply warned Abel of Cain’s intent and had asked him to stay away?

If God had intervened, a different pattern would have been set for God’s relationship with humanity. To be consistent, God would have had to intervene every time a potential murder was on the way, or before any wars occurred. If God had chosen the path to intervention and prevention, it would have also made logical sense for Him to also prevent thefts, lying, fornication, adultery, and so on.

Some might say that this approach would have been more reflective of a just and loving God. After all, God’s consistent intervention in preventing evil would have brought about a decent, peaceful and safe world free from sin and suffering. This reasoning seems to be sound, but is it?

When Adam and Eve took of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they placed all of humanity on a path of independence from God and of slavery toward Satan. The Bible makes it plain that Satan, not Almighty God, is humanity’s chosen god (II Cor. 4:4, Eph. 2:2). From the start God has been set aside by a rebellious humanity, and He “gave them up to uncleanness” (Romans 1:24) and “a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting” (V. 28). Adam and Eve, and their descendents, were going to be allowed to taste the horrors of sin in their entirety. Humanity would learn the hard way what it means to reject God and follow in Satan’s footsteps.

No doubt standing aside and watching untold evil and its tragic consequences from taking place has been and is very painful for a God of love. Yet, in the long term, God is showing a kind of love we do not understand. We humans can only see the immediate; God sees the very long-term, eternal benefits.  He sees that the learning of this eternal lesson will ultimately lead to eternal peace and joy. Thus, He is willing to suffer along with humanity as long as, in the end, humanity will inherit eternal blessings.

God, therefore, is allowing sin to be manifested for what it is: a destructive, pain-filled choice that hurts perpetrators and bystanders. God wants humans to see the horrors that Satan-inspired actions will bring upon humanity.  The long-term lesson is that sin destructive and that righteousness is, by far, the better way.

WHAT IF GOD HAD DESTROYED ALL OF HUMANITY BEFORE THE FLOOD?

For hundreds of years after Adam’s creation, humanity pursued a course of rebellion set by the two first humans. Sin abounded on the earth, but God did not intervene. As the centuries went by, “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6: 5). And God concluded that mankind did not deserve to exist any longer and thus the fatal verdict: “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth” (V. 7). But eight people found favor in God’s eyes: Noah, his wife, his three children and their wives. Thus the human race was preserved from total destruction, and we are here today because of the righteousness of the few and, most of all, because of God’s endless mercy.

But what if God had not spared Noah and his family? What if God had simply said, “Enough with these incorrigible humans; no more time will be wasted on them; I will destroy them all, once and for all”?

Needless to say, if this had been God’s verdict, the plan of God for humanity would have ended then and there, the rest of human history would have never taken place, and we would have never had a chance to exist, let alone long for eternal life.

But God did spare a seed in Noah and his children, and He did go on with His plan that later involved His Son’s coming to Earth and His death for all of humanity.

God and Christ must have a very special love for this very trying species called humanity, as both would have had a perfect excuse to scrap the plan and, consequently, not allow Christ to suffer all the agony He was destined to suffer.  Had Christ not been filled with unending love, He would have had a perfect opportunity to push for a “let’s-forget-about-it” approach so as to spare Himself the humiliation and the agony He was to endure thousands of years later.

The fact that both the Father and the Son did not scrap the human plan, but protected Noah and his family from total obliteration, is another stunning proof that God the Father and Christ are totally committed to bringing their plan of salvation for humanity to completion.  There is, therefore no doubt that, no matter what the impediments and barriers may be, God and Christ want humanity to inherit eternal glory, and that they are determined to do whatever it takes to make it come to pass.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT INTERVENED DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TOWER OF BABEL?

After the flood, “The whole earth had one language and one speech” (Genesis 11:1). Humans journeyed to the land of Shinar where they found a plain and dwelt there. There they built a very high tower so as not to be scattered over the face of the earth (Genesis 11: 4).

The Lord came down and saw the tower humans had built and became concerned. This was just the beginning of a long line of great human achievements and, from that point on, they would have achieved any project they would have aimed at. God’s assessment was from that point on, “nothing they propose to do will be withheld from them” (V. 6).   To counteract this trend, God’s verdict was to confuse their language, and to scatter them all over the Earth (V. 8).

But what if God had allowed humans to continue undisturbed? What if He had not confused their language and had not scattered them all over the Earth?

The human mind’s potential is immense. Scientists estimate that when it comes to storage of information alone, humans can probably store between 1000 to one billion times more than we do at present.[18] Our potential is becoming more and more evident, as humans from different countries pool their intellectual resources and achieve evermore-stunning feats.

Humans, unfortunately, don’t just conceive and create helpful technologies and innovations. Right along with the helpful ones come the destructive ones as well. Since early times, humans had the innate capacity to create the kind of technology that could destroy the Earth over a short period of time. The atomic age, most probably, would have been reached millennia ago; weapons of mass destruction would have abounded then and would have been used with disastrous consequences, long ago.

God’s plan for humanity involved a set period of time. Thousands of years were to elapse, before Christ would come to earth to die for humanity, and thousands more would have passed before humans would have needed the return of Jesus Christ to save them from total destruction (Matthew 24: 22).

God was compelled to confound the languages of mankind, to spread humans all over the globe, to keep their contact to a minimum, and to frustrate their communication by creating different languages. Had He not done so, humans would have wiped out themselves and all hope of salvation intrinsic to God’s plan of salvation for humans.

God could not afford to allow His great plan to be interfered with by the ingenuity and cooperation of humans. As always, He intervened wisely and, thus, His plan for humanity continues to evolve as planned.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT MADE ABRAHAM AND HIS WIFE WAIT A LONG TIME FOR A CHILD?

Sometimes the Almighty does things in very perplexing ways -- even with His very special servants.  In Genesis 17, He promised Abraham an offspring through whom he would become the “father of many nations” (V. 5). Yet much time went by and no child was conceived. Finally, God kept His promise, when Abraham and Sarah had grown very old and were physically unable to have children (Genesis: 18: 12-14).

What if God had kept His promise while both Abraham and Sarah were young? What if He had not made them wait into their old age and had granted their wish much sooner when Sarah was of child-bearing age?

Throughout the Bible, God makes it quite evident that He is the Omnipotent God. If He had allowed Sarah to become pregnant while fully able to bear children, the conception would have been both natural and uneventful. Because of Sarah’s old age, Isaac’s birth would not have occurred, unless God had intervened. But God wanted all to know that Isaac’s birth was very special and, therefore, He made it a miraculous event.

Isaac’s birth was meant to give Abraham undeniable evidence that the God he worshipped was, indeed, the supreme God. God also wanted future generations to understand that He is the Almighty, the God of the impossible (Genesis: 18:14). Also, because in Isaac all nations would have been blessed (Genesis 17:19, 18:18), God wanted all to realize that He would be miraculously involved with Isaac and his descendents to the end of times.

God promised a child to Abraham and Sarah and made them wait decades until the possibility of bearing children had become impossible. When all seemed hopeless, God intervened and made it evident that nothing was impossible for Him and that, as He was miraculously involved with Isaac from the start to the end of his life, He would have continued being involved with his offspring to the end of times, in a wonderfully miraculous way as well.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT DESTROYED SODOM AND GOMORRAH?

After His visit to Abraham and Sarah to assure them of a child, the Divine Messenger, and His angels “looked toward Sodom” (Genesis 18: 16).  Abraham accompanied them to a certain point where God revealed to him His plan to annihilate both Sodom and Gomorrah. The reason for the coming destruction of the two cities was the fact that their sins and their evil deeds were “grave” (V. 20).

Abraham attempted to convince God to spare the two cities, but their wickedness was so pervasive that not even ten righteous inhabitants could be found in them. Thus, God “rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah” (Gen. 19: 24), and “He overthrew those cities, all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground” (V. 25).

God’s intervention was, no doubt, radical. Because it was radical, some find it difficult to understand why a God of love would do something so seemingly cruel and destructive. After all, the entire population of the two cities was eradicated -- and that included the old, women and children. To skeptics, such an all-encompassing destruction appears unnecessary and capricious. But is that really the case?

What if God had simply punished the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in some other way, so as to get them to change, instead of destroying them?

Let’s first understand the extent of the wickedness prevalent within the two cities. God describes the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah as being “very grave” (Genesis 18: 20). One quickly understands how grave their sins were, by reading the story very carefully. The Scriptures tell us that, when the angels went down to the city of Sodom, Lot invited them into his home. We read that, upon entering Lot’s house, “the men of the city…both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house” (19:4). They then demanded that Lot bring out his angelic guests so as to “know them carnally” (V. 5). Lot, instead, offered to them his two young virgin daughters, but the men of Sodom refused the offer and arrogantly tried to force the two angels out so as to abuse them sexually.

This picture reveals a level of depravity that is difficult to conceive. Let’s note that “all the people” of Sodom, “from every quarter,” that is, rich and poor, young and old, were lusting after the two foreigners and craved to rape them. Their lurid lust was also accompanied by both aggression and arrogance.

From this picture alone, we may safely infer that the Sodomites were a totally brutal bunch, without conscience and self-control. We can also safely infer that within those two cities violence abounded, as did other sinful acts such as lying, cheating, stealing, adultery and all kinds of sexual depravity.

Sodom and Gomorrah were the nest of a virulent, evil virus that was spreading quickly through the area and onto other cities. Evil has a way of spreading far and wide, when left unchecked. The two cities had to be dealt with, not only because their evil deeds could no longer be tolerated by the God of righteousness but to also prevent their debauchery from spreading far and wide.

The New Testament tells us that another reason why God overthrew the two cities was because He wanted their destruction to be “an example to those who afterwards would live ungodly” (2 Peter 2: 6). God’s intervention was meant to be so powerful, and so drastic, that all would hear and tremble. He wanted generations to come to know that His will is supreme, that He will not forebear evil forever and that, though He is longsuffering, the day will come when He will extirpate evil in very dramatic ways. Jude warns that “Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude 7).

If God had not intervened, the evil in Sodom and Gomorrah would have continued, and it would have actually become much worse. As a result, the suffering that invariably accompanies evil would have multiplied; the influence of the two cities would have increased, and it would have affected a great many near and far; God would have been perceived as distant and uninvolved and, lastly, the great lesson of God’s ultimate punishment of evildoers would not have received the powerful emphasis that it received.

God’s intervention was, therefore, timely and appropriate. It shouts to all generations that God is a righteous God, that he will not endure depravity forever, and that He will finally punish evildoers by using, if necessary, very drastic means.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT TURNED LOT’S WIFE INTO A PILLAR OF SALT?

After visiting Sodom and Gomorrah, God had no doubt that the cities had reached the point of no return. The two cities were, therefore, condemned to total annihilation and only Lot, his wife and two daughters would have escaped. The warning to Lot and his wife and daughters was undeniably explicit: “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains lest you be destroyed (Genesis 19:17). Unfortunately, Lot’s wife dared to disregard the angelic warning, and looked back. As a result, “she became a pillar of salt” (V. 26).

But what if God had shown her mercy and had not punished her? Certainly that would have put into focus God’s patience and mercy, and it would have definitely prevented the scoffers’ insinuation that the Judeo-Christian God is not a God of love.

Was Lot’s wife simply committing a small act of disobedience? Was she, perhaps, simply looking back, because she was distraught over her children that were left behind and who were about to be destroyed?

Unless Jesus Christ had brought meaning into this event, it might have seemed perplexing. Having been present, Christ beheld the events as they happened and was fully aware of Lot’s wife’s true motives. Thus, He warns Christians at the end of times to, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32).

Why should Christians “Remember Lot’s wife”? Just like Sodom and Gomorrah, before Christ’s return the world will be saturated with evil. Christians are warned to come out of the world and not be a part of it. God gives us the following warning, in the last book of the Bible: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4). To “share in her sins” means partaking of the horrendous destruction that will befall sinful humankind at the end of times.

The warning is again explicit. Come out of sin and do not desire to return to it. He who loves the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4) and thus a friend of Satan. Not heeding such a command means bringing upon oneself terrible consequences—like Lot’s wife.

Christ’s warning to remember Lot’s wife is a warning for us not to long for the sinful world we left behind. Lot’s wife was not simply looking back at Sodom out of curiosity, or only because she was distraught and made a fatal mistake. Lot’s wife did not want to leave Sodom and its sinful ways. Her carnal mind had grown accustomed to the pleasures that Sodom had to offer. She had become a part of it, and regretted leaving it behind.

How much had Sodom affected Lot’s wife? We do not know. We do know that since she had lived among degenerates, she had been influenced by them and did not seem to mind.

Contrariwise, the New Testament tells us that while in Sodom Lot “was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked” (II Peter 2:7), but there is no mention that his wife felt the same way. Could it be that Lot stayed in Sodom as long as he did because his wife wanted to stay?

It may be meaningful to note that the verse that follows Peter’s description of Lot’s anguish over the sins of the Sodomites, also addresses God’s attitude towards two different kinds of people: the righteous and the unrighteous. “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” (II Peter 2: 9).

All indications are that Lot (The godly) was delivered, while his wife (The unjust) was punished. God is consistent throughout time. He warns the unjust and then He severely punishes, if they are beyond redemption. Lot’s wife was beyond redemption, and thus she was dealt with as she deserved. She was also an example of moral degeneracy and rebellion that we must not emulate. Let’s, therefore, heed Christ’s warning and let’s “Remember Lot’s wife.”

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ALLOWED JOSEPH TO BE SOLD BY HIS BROTHERS AND TO BE BROUGHT TO EGYPT?

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: Also he made him a tunic of many colors” (Genesis 37:3). This is the preface to a tragic story that led Joseph’s older brothers to hate him and to finally sell him as a slave to the Egyptians. The rest is a magnificent story of great trials, and immense final rewards for Joseph who, for years, had been overpowered by a vortex beyond his control.

What if God had not allowed Joseph to be sold into slavery? What if He had simply intervened and had not permitted Joseph’s brothers’ evil plans to succeed?

The biblical story tells us that, though initially Joseph suffered greatly, the end result was very positive for both him and his family. As the years went by, Joseph rose to the position of Pharaoh’s First Minister. Furthermore, the children of Israel were allowed to live in Egypt, so as to escape a deadly famine that was prevalent in Canaan.

On the negative side, Israel became a slave to future Pharaohs “who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). But centuries later, God had the opportunity to declare his great glory by pouring his wrath upon Egypt and by manifesting to all the nations that He was the Omnipotent God.

Had God intervened and had He prevented Joseph from being sold, some of the most inspiring and meaningful parts of the Bible would have never been written. We would have never read about God’s miraculous interventions to save Joseph’s life and to finally elevate him to number two in Egypt. We would not have been inspired by God’s dealings with Moses. We would have never been awed by the great plagues God rained upon Egypt. There would not have been a crossing of the Red Sea and there would not have been a giving of the Manna. The giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai would have never taken place. The forty years in the desert and all the surprising twists and turns faced by Israel would not have been in the Scriptures. Lastly, the glorious entering of the Children of Israel into the Promised Land would have never happened either.

The selling of Joseph, and his slavery in Egypt, therefore, was the introduction to a series of stunning events brought about by God to astonish future generations. What at first glance seems to be God’s perplexing unwillingness to protect a faithful servant was, in reality, a critical and necessary part of a long and glorious chain of events that introduced the Almighty to the nations and to generations to come.

After Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers, he shares with them the following amazing insight: “And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45: 7-8).

Truly God was the great orchestrator who directed the whole chain of events. He allowed jealousy to saturate Joseph’s brother’s minds; He allowed resentment to build and, finally, He brought about the events that made it easy for Joseph to be sold to the passing caravan and be brought to Egypt. From the start, God was totally in charge of the script, and made it all come to pass according to His great plan.

FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT HARDENED PHARAOH’S MIND?

The manifestation of Moses, Prince of Egypt, as the Deliverer must have been a shock to all Egyptians. Moses, the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, was turning against Egypt and was demanding the liberation of millions of slaves. As the biblical narrative reveals, the new Pharaoh reacted with absolute refusal and continued to do so, even though the God of Moses manifested His undeniable superiority to all the gods of Egypt.

The book of Exodus reveals that Pharaoh’s irrational, self-destructive attitude was God inspired. “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 7: 3-4).  As a result, great destruction befell the mighty Egyptian nation, until the people of Egypt begged Israel to leave.

But what if God had not hardened Pharaoh’s heart? What if He had allowed Pharaoh to witness the first plagues and had become quickly convinced that it would have been futile, and suicidal, to resist such a mighty Being? Or why not simply give Israel favor by “softening” Pharaoh’s heart, and thus making the departure less dramatic?

The answer to these valid questions is that, had God made Israel’s liberation easy and uneventful, several critical and necessary aspects in God’s plan would have been left unaccomplished.

First of all, the great judgment of God would not have befallen a terribly sinful nation.  Egypt was a very idolatrous and degenerate nation. In fact, in Leviticus 18:3 God commands Israel not to emulate the Egyptians. “According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do.”  The rest of the chapter lists heinous sins that were quite common among the pagan nations of the time and that invariably invite God’s mighty judgment. The Egyptians, like the Canaanites, had reached their fill of sin, and God was ready to judge them with horrific punishments.

Secondly, the Egyptians had treated the Israelites harshly and cruelly. They had turned all of Israel into a nation of slaves and had, on certain occasions, such as the killing of the baby boys of Israel, shown callous cruelty. God remembered, and gave Egypt a just recompense.

Thirdly, Israel was being reintroduced to its great God, after four hundred years of separation. Because they were slaves, and because they lacked religious leadership, they had lost most, if not all remembrance of God’s ways. God needed to make it abundantly clear to them that He was their God and the supreme God of all the Earth as well. He also had to give undeniable evidence that He was superior to all the Gods of Egypt, and that He, and only He, was the ruler of all the Earth.

Furthermore, God had to show Israel that He was Lord and Savior; that He delivers the weak from the strong; and that great salvation belongs to Him only. This great truth was especially reinforced by protecting Israel from the great plagues, by sparing the Firstborn of Israel, and by protecting Israel from the pursuing, invincible Egyptian army.

Lastly, the great wonders God performed in Egypt were to remain as signs of His great power for all generations -- including our own.

If God had not hardened Pharaoh’s heart, all of these critical factors would not have been addressed. But all were addressed within a short period of time, simply because God, in His great wisdom, made the heart of one man impenetrable.

By hardening Pharaoh’s heart, God punished Egypt as it well deserved; He manifested Himself as the Supreme Ruler of Heaven, and Earth and as the Savior and protector of Israel; His great works were recorded so that Israelites and Christians would be reminded perennially of His mighty acts and of His mighty judgments over evil.

WHAT IF GOD HAD ALLOWED ISRAEL TO GO DIRECTLY INTO THE PROMISED LAND?

When Israel came out of Egypt, the people had no idea that their dramatic departure was going to be just the beginning of a very long journey. Rather than marching directly into Canaan, God made the bewildered nation roam around the desert for decades.

But what if God had allowed Israel to go directly into the Promised Land? Would not that have been a more merciful thing to do for a people that had just left slavery and was longing for its own land where to settle?

In Deuteronomy 8 we find several reasons why God decided to postpone the occupation of Canaan.

The first reason is that Israel needed testing. God needed to know if they were truly worthy of the land that flowed with milk and honey, and if they were deserving of being His representatives on earth. “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8: 2).

The second reason is the fact that God wanted Israel to learn the lesson that in this life total obedience to God is the most important thing, and that obeying God leads to wonderful benefits. “So He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (V.3).

The third lesson Israel needed to learn is that God is a miraculous provider of his people’s needs. Thus, Israel’s clothing did not get old for forty years (V. 4), and their health was protected so that not even their feet swelled in spite of all the walking (V. 4).

The fourth lesson was the fact that God loved His people and that chastening was only for its own benefit. “So you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you” (V. 5). The aim of the chastening was to lead Israel into keeping “the commandments of the Lord… to walk in His ways and to fear Him” (V.6).

Lastly, the final lesson was that if Israel obeyed God He would bless them in the end with a land overflowing with abundance where they would “lack nothing” (V. 7- 9).

These lessons were critical for Israel to learn and for Christians as well, since God is the same today as He was then.

When he calls Christians out of this world, He essentially allows them to go through their wilderness and tests their faithfulness. Paul tells us that what happened to Israel was recorded “for our admonition on whom the ends of the ages have come” (I Corinthians 10: 11), and that we should not sin as they did (V. 1- 9).

In Matthew 4:4, Christ, in response to Satan’s temptation, reiterated the critical importance of living by every word of God: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” What was true for Israel is true for Christians and all of mankind. A truly abundant and healthy life is contingent upon total submission to God, the author of life.

The New Testament fully supports the third lesson as well where we are told that it is God who provides for the needs of his chosen ones. “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ” (Philippians 4: 19). God want us to have “sufficiency in all things” so as to abound in “every good work” (II Corinthians 9:8).

Chastening for the good of the chastened is as much a reality for Christians as it was for ancient Israel. “For whom the Lord Loves He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12: 6).

Finally, just as the end result of the prolonged test was a land of plenty for Israel, Christians will be rewarded for their enduring faithfulness with a Kingdom of eternal bliss where they will also lack nothing. But Christians’ reward is greater than Israel’s, for they will inherit eternal life (II Corinthians 5:1-2), and they will be with Jesus Christ and the Father forever.

It should be quite evident, therefore, that not allowing Israel to enter the Promised Land immediately was critical in testing and preparing Israel for its reward. The decision also created a reference point for Christians who are now God’s spiritual called-out-ones, the New Israel, bound for its eternal Promised Land.

THE LAWS OF GOD

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ORDAINED SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS?

To our modern, sanitized, “civilized” minds, the idea of killing thousands of animals as a central part of worshipping God seems to be strange and cruel, especially given the fact that most of the animals to be sacrificed were “gentle” animals such as cows, sheep, goats and doves. Certainly, some may think, there must have been better ways to handle temple worship.

What if God had not ordained animal sacrifices as a central part of worship in ancient Israel? Would anything critical have gone missing?

To understand the reason why God ordained animal sacrifices we must address the following two questions. The first question is why did God ordain sacrifices? The second one is what could have been an acceptable alternative?

The answer to the first question is that sacrifices were both a gift to God and an atonement for sins, whether intentional or unintentional (Leviticus 1-7). The answer to the second question is that if God had not ordained which animals were to be sacrificed Israel could have adopted the ways of the Gentiles and could have sacrificed “unclean” animals such as swine and other scavengers, or they could have gone a step further and adopted the revolting ways of the Canaanites who had turned to child sacrifice. In fact the Bible tells us that on a few occasions the practice did, in fact, filter into Israel as well (II Kings 21:6, Judges 11: 30-31).

Knowing that sacrificing had the potential of deteriorating, God gave very specific ordinances to regulate it. Therefore, if God had not ordained and regulated sacrificing, Israelites would have, for certain, adopted the ways of the Heathen and would have ultimately sacrificed humans, as some did.

But there is more. If God had not ordained sacrifices, Israel would have been deprived of a great lesson that God was trying to teach Israel: sin costs even if it is done out of ignorance.

Sacrificing a bull must have been quite a financial sacrifice, as was sacrificing goats and lambs. On top of that, Israelites had to travel for days to get to Jerusalem to perform a sacrifice. The travel and the sacrifice amounted to a loss of much time and money. Thus, the people of Israel learned the lesson that sin is simply not worth it.

But it also taught them that being careless with God’s laws would also be quite costly. “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them…then let him offer to the Lord for His sin which He has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering’” (Leviticus 4:2-3). A bull was a costly sacrifice, and people of Israel would not want to incur such a loss too often.

Finally, and most importantly, if God had not ordained sacrifices, Christians would not have been able to fully comprehend the necessity of the sacrifice of Christ. God made it perfectly clear that only the shedding of blood could fulfill the requirements for sin. “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil…and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins…” (Leviticus 16: 15-16).

Though very helpful in teaching the seriousness of sin, sacrifices were not enough for cleansing humans of sins; there was a necessity for something greater, something much more powerful. Paul tells us what this something was in the book of Hebrews:

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:11-15).

Paul adds that all that sacrifices pointed to Christ and to the necessity of His intervention.

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins (Hebrew 10: 1-4).

Therefore, the sacrifices ordained by God were neither needless nor cruel. They were meant to keep Israel from following the gruesome customs of the Canaanites, they were intended to chisel in their minds that sin demands a payment and, finally, they were to foreshadow the greatest and all-encompassing sacrifice of all: Jesus Christ.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT GIVEN THE LAWS CONCERNING SEXUAL IMMORALITY?

The Ten Commandments are great laws that are meant to regulate our relationship with God and our fellow man. The only one of the Ten Commandments that regulates human sexuality is the one forbidding adultery. Other sexual sins are defined as such in the Book of the Law.

What if God had not emphasized that incest, homosexuality and bestiality, etc. were also sinful?

God dedicates all of Leviticus 18 to sexual sins. He prefaces the chapter by emphasizing that Israel was not to emulate the depravities of the heathen. “According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances” (Leviticus 18:3).

God proceeds to forbid incest and lists all the incestual acts that they were to evade. He also made sure that Israel had no doubt as to where He stood in relation to homosexuality and defined it as “an abomination” (V. 22). He then forbids bestiality for both men and women (V. 23), and concludes with a warning that doing such things would lead to their being vomited out of the land as the Canaanites were about to experience (V. 28).

If God had not listed the various sexual sins, Israel, without doubt, would have perpetuated some of the perversions learned in Egypt that some of them may have internalized. Once in Canaan, the disgusting, yet appealing behaviors that characterized the people that inhabited the land would have been emulated by Israel, to their own demise.  Israel needed cleansing, and God provided the education needed for the cleansing to take place. Israel also needed to know what is morally right and wrong. Atheists, of course, strongly disagree with this stance, but only God has the right to determine right and wrong, not humans, and so He did-- clearly, thoroughly and explicitly.

By not giving the instructions in Leviticus 18, God would have left Israel at the same level as the degenerate nations of the time. By instructing them as to what is unacceptable sexual behavior, God took the first step to elevate Israel above all other nations and warned Israel against behavior that would have led to their ultimate destruction.

Modern nations need to read and heed. Such wonderful knowledge is available to the millions who have to a Bible in their possession. The nations of the Western World, (North America in particular) know full well God’s divine expectation in regards to sexuality. They also know that trampling on those laws was in the past a sure way to invite God’s wrath. God does not change. His moral expectations are still very high, and His powerful interventions against sinful societies will be very drastic today as they were in the past, unless humans repent.

WHAT IF GOD HAD DESTROYED ISRAEL AND   HAD MADE MOSES A GREAT NATION?

After Israel left Egypt, God provided for the needs of His people with great and mighty interventions. Israel was finally poised to enter the Promised Land but, because of the fearful report brought back by the spies, Israel refused to proceed and again murmured against Moses and Aaron. In fact, some among them selected a leader to bring them back to Egypt.                                          Because of Israel’s lack of faith, God became angry and threatened to wipe them out and build a nation from Moses’ descendents. He said to Moses: “I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they” (Numbers 14:12).                                                But Moses refused God’s offer and interceded on Israel’s behalf with such sincerity and intensity that God heeded his word and reassured Moses that He would again show mercy to Israel. “I have pardoned, according to your word” (14:20).                                      But what if God had not heeded Moses’ words? What if He had destroyed all of Israel and had built a new nation from Moses’ descendents?                                                                                                        If that had occurred, the ramifications would have been enormous, indeed. Though true that the descendents of Abraham would have continued being the inheritors of the promises to their ancestor, it is also true that the promise given to Judah by Jacob regarding the Messiah would not have been fulfilled. In Genesis 49 we read: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the people” (Genesis 49:10).                                                     Of course, God could have made the Messiah emerge out of Levi (Moses was a Levite), if He so wished.  After all, He can modify His prophecies whenever He wants, if rebellion comes into play. Yet, if He did change His plans, things would have been quite different.                                                                                Moses had a point in emphasizing to God that if He had destroyed Israel it would have been quite hard to convince the nations that God was a merciful God.  On the other hand, though exceptionally longsuffering, God is not a pushover and did consequence Israel anyway. The generation of murmurers who had left Egypt was condemned to forty years of wondering in the Wilderness, until they all died. Only their children would have been allowed to inherit the land (Numbers 14: 22-38).                  Moses’ beseeching God and God’s merciful reply is marvellous because it reinforces the fact that heartfelt, sincere, prayers do indeed avail much with God (James 5:16). Yet, we also see that God is patient -- but up to a point. There is a point when God is patient no longer and does administer a punishment, especially if humans become insolent and ungrateful.                                 Lastly, if God had destroyed Israel, we would have been deprived of the rich and inspiring history that fills the Old Testament. For instance, we would have never heard of special people like Samson, David, Solomon and other unforgettable characters.                                                                                                                                                     Had it not been for the fervent intervention of a humble and faithful man named Moses, the history of the Holy People would have been dramatically altered, our view of God might have been negatively affected, and His longsuffering and merciful nature would have been somewhat negated. The event is very meaningful indeed.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ELEVATED THE SERPENT IN THE DESERT?

As Israel was journeying toward the Promised Land, the people became very discouraged (Numbers 21: 4). As a result, they “spoke against God and against Moses…” (V. 5). God in anger “So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.” (Numbers 21: 5-6).

The trauma of the event quickly brought the people to a state of sobriety, and they begged Moses to pray to God that the serpents be taken away. God commanded the people to make a “fiery serpent” and to “set it on a pole,” so that whoever would have been bitten and would have looked at it would have lived (V. 8).

What if God had not asked that the serpent be created and then be lifted up? What if He had simply used another less unusual approach to heal the people?

Obviously God could have intervened and killed all the snakes, but, strangely enough He allowed them to continue their job of terrorizing the Israelites for a while.

Whatever God does no matter how strange it might seem to our limited human understanding is wise and just. The fact that God allowed the snakes to continue biting Israelites appears to indicate that God had something very important to teach the Israelites. Of course, one can surmise that God allowed the snake to continue biting the Israelites because the time of punishment was not yet over. Yet God seems to also have wanted to reinforce the wonderful and reassuring lesson that even when severely punished by God one can turn to Him for mercy and that he is liable to be heard.

The New Testament tells us that the serpent was also a foreshadowing of something yet future and grander, that is Christ as the Savior of humanity. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” ( John 3: 14-16). The serpent was, therefore, symbolic of Someone to whom all people of the earth “bitten” by serpents (Satan and his demons) could turn to for salvation. It had, therefore, a profound typological significance that was to be explained in the New Testament.

God does things for wonderful reasons that may, at times, not relate necessarily to the immediate at all. The raising of the serpent had immediate significance and benefit, no doubt, but it also manifested the reality that God might show His mercy even while He dispenses punishments. Most of all, though, it foreshadowed a meaning with universal implications: the salvation of humanity through Christ

FROM THE     CONQUEST OF   CANAAN TO THE JUDGES

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ALLOWED ISRAEL’S DEFEAT AT AI?

All along the way to the Promised Land, God had proven to Israel that He would provide for their needs, as long as they submitted to His will and obeyed His laws. Soon after they entered the land of Canaan, the mighty city of Jericho stood in their way. God would allow a miraculous entrance into the city by making its walls crumble and by making the defeat of its inhabitants certain. What God required of them was that they were not to take and keep anything found in the city. “And you, by all means keep yourselves from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it” (Joshua 6:18).

Unfortunately, one Israelite did not heed the warning and went against God’s injunction, thus attracting God’s wrath. “But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel”(Joshua 7:1).

The consequence of this secret action was that God pulled back His protection. When Ai, a small city, was later to be taken, even though two to three thousand men were sent to conquer it, the inhabitants resisted them mightily and “they fled before the men of AI.” As a result, “The hearts of the people melted and became like water” (Joshua 7: 4- 5).

Joshua was shocked by the turn of events and turned to God for clarifications and help. God’s answer was:

Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you (Joshua 7: 11-12)

As punishment, Achan was to be taken and be stoned to death, for having done “a disgraceful thing in Israel” (Joshua 7: 15).

What if God had totally disregarded Achan’s sin and had not punished the whole nation of Israel? What if He had just stricken him dead “privately” instead of turning the situation into something “national”?

Some scoffers might point to this situation as incomprehensible and clearly excessive. But was it really? The covenant made between God and Israel included all the people and they all had agreed to obey God. In return God would march before them and give them total victory. There were to be no exceptions.

If God had bypassed Achan’s sin, He would have missed the opportunity to remind the new generation of Israelites what the Covenant was all about. The old generation had tasted the bitter fruits of rebellion that had kept them from entering the Promised Land. The new generation had not witnessed God’s response to disobedience yet. God took the opportunity to enlighten them.

The primary lesson to be learned by the Israelites was that God saw all things, even the secret actions of men. Achan thought that his secret action would have gone unseen by God; he lived to see otherwise.

They also had to understand that God expects total righteousness from His people. The command, “Be you holy for I am holy,” stood stronger than ever. God does not compromise with righteousness and obedience. His people are to totally submit to Him at all times.

Furthermore, they had to learn that God is very stern toward rebellious, sinful people; that He will intervene very strongly against such sinners, and that He would show no mercy toward them. Those who know the truth and rebel “willfully” against God will pay severely. This is an eternal truth.

Lastly, they were to never forget that sin affects not just the sinner but also the whole group. When sin entered the family of Israel, the whole family paid the consequences. God’s blessings would be pulled back and a curse would follow the nation. All had to make sure that the whole body of Israel was healthy and sin free, so as to allow the blessings to fall upon the nation.

If God had not intervened dramatically, we Christians would not have had the opportunity to see these same lessons reinforced, and would not have been reminded that they apply to Christians as well.

Christians, too, must never forget that God sees all things and that no sin is hidden from His view. We must never forget that to God willful, arrogant sins are very serious transgressions, and that severe punishments will always ensue (Hebrews 10:27-31). Sin affects innocent bystanders, not just the sinner. By withdrawing His blessings from a family member the whole family will suffer and this applies to church bodies as well.

If God had not punished Achan, His hatred for rebellious sin would not have been spotlighted. By punishing Achan, God made clear to them and to generations to come that God detests rebellion and that if it takes place the consequences will be severe. This was true for Israel as it is true today for Christians as well.

WHAT IF GOD HAD SAVED JEPHTHAH’ S DAUGHTER’S LIFE?

One of the most heart rending and perplexing stories in the Bible is the story of Jephthah and his daughter. Jephthah was the son of Gilead and a harlot. His brothers, sons of Gilead’s wife, drove Jephthah out so as not to share their inheritance with him. “Then fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with and went out raiding with him” (Judges 11: 3).                                                                                              Some time later, the children of Ammon made war against Israel, and so the elders of Israel went to seek out to convince him to come back and lead the army against the Ammonites.  Jephthah accepted the offer and became the leader of the army. Before the confrontation between the two armies took place, Jephthah made the now infamous vow: “If you will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s and I will offer it up as a burnt offering” (Judges 11:31).

God delivered Israel and gave them a great victory and “the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel” (Judges 11:33). Ecstatic Jephthah returned home “with timbrel and dancing,” but, unfortunately, the first one to welcome him was his only child.  Jephthah was devastated by what he saw and “tore his clothes” and said to his daughter, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot go back on it” (Judges 11: 35).

Jephthah’s daughter reacted with a total spirit of submission. She simply asked her father that she be allowed to wander on the mountains for two months to bewail her virginity (Judges 11:38). At the end of the two months, “she returned to her father and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed” (Judges 11:39).

(At this point it is crucial that we emphasize that some scholars have proposed that in reality Jephthah’s daughter was simply prevented from marrying and thus the reason why she went for two months to “bewail her virginity.” This author and other major scholars disagree. Jephthah did not “promise” to keep his daughter from marriage, he promised to “sacrifice” the first living being that came through his door at his return. This author appreciates the attempt of some to soften what would an otherwise be an excruciating and agonizing event, and to perhaps even justify God for not intervening, but the phrasing of the story leaves no doubt that what happened was much more serious than simply preventing the young lady from getting married.)

While all this was transpiring, God watched the whole story and did not intervene. This is perplexing. After all, had He not intervened with Abraham and Isaac? Is God not averse to human sacrifices? Did God not cleanse the land of Canaan of its inhabitants because, in large part, they “passed their children through the fire;” that is, they sacrificed their children to their gods? How could that same God, therefore, allow Jephthah to sacrifice his own daughter?

Let’s go back to Jephthah’s original mistake. Jephthah vowed to God that he would sacrifice “anything” that would come out to welcome him upon his return. By that he also included humans—most probably his servants. Could it be that that was the reason God allowed him to go through his excruciating experience? Jephthah’s callousness may have deserved a sobering consequence. His seeming callousness and cruelty toward others appears to have ended up rebounding onto himself.

What if God had intervened? What if God had sent an angel to stop him from his horrific act like He did with Abraham?

If He had intervened, we would have been reassured as to God’s seeming kindness and forgiveness, but what would have happened to Jephthah? What would have happened within Israel? What effect would it have had on the multitudes that would have heard about it in Israel?

We can speculate that if Jephthah would not have been consequenced, he might have remained hasty and foolish. Israel would have had a written record that God overlooks foolishness all too easily. Oaths are promises made before God and they must not be made hastily. The book of Deuteronomy emphasizes the seriousness of making vows to God. “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God surely will require it of you, and it would be sin to you” (Deut. 23:21).

If God had intervened, the seriousness of the event would have been undermined. The fact that oaths must not be taken lightly would not have been emphasized nor the reality that foolishness has a way of bringing about disastrous consequences. Therefore, what appears to have been an incomprehensible act of callousness on God’s part once again shows much wisdom and justice, as do all of His actions.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ALLOWED SAMSON TO BE TAKEN BY THE PHILISTINES?

Samson is one of the greatest figures in the Bible. The story of this great man of God has been told countless times as a story of great courage. Yet when looked at closely one might feel puzzlement at the fact that God would, seemingly, abandon this great servant in the hands of the Philistines who blinded him, humiliated him and then finally killed him.

What if God had not allowed Samson to be taken? What if He had delivered him from the Philistines and had not allowed any harm to befall him?

Samson was clearly born to do great things on God’s behalf. He, like few others, was born miraculously from a woman who could not conceive. He was set apart by God as a Nazirite and was to leave his hair uncut. Getting his hair cut would have meant certain loss of strength. Therefore, revealing this secret would have placed Samson at great risk.

In Judges, chapter 14, we are told that Samson went down to Timnah and, upon his return home, he asked his parents to get him a specific Philistine woman as wife (V. 1).  His parents reacted negatively. “Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” (V.3).  Samson did not relent and replied: “Get her for me, for she pleases me well” (V.3).

Verse 4 clarifies the reason why Samson did not relent: “But his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord---that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.”

Clearly God was the orchestrator of all those events. He was up to something big, and Samson was going to be His instrument.

Most know what follows. Samson took several opportunities to agitate the Philistines and then took advantage of their reaction to defeat them. Finally, he got involved with Delilah, a cunning, manipulative Philistine woman, who extracted from him the secret of his strength. As a result, while he was asleep, his hair was cut, he was captured, his eyes were put out, and he was brought down to Gaza bound with bronze fetters where “he became a grinder in the prison” (Judges 16: 15-21).

In time his hair grew back and so did his strength. One day, the Lords and a large number of Philistines were celebrating in the temple. The people asked that Samson be brought to perform for them. Samson asked that he be placed between two pillars.  He pushed both pillars down and, as a result, the whole temple collapsed and “the dead that those he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life” (V. 23-30).

What if God had not allowed this scenario? God could have easily prevented Samson from revealing his secret, and He could have sent his angels to deliver Samson, but he chose not to. Why?

Samson was born to bring about terror among the Philistines, therefore God allowed certain events to take place and used Samson’s errors and foolishness to lead to a situation that would humiliate them. It is not necessary to believe that God inspired every last mistake that Samson made. It is just as reasonable to assume that God used Samson’s errors, or some of his errors, to bring about His aims against the Philistines.

Did God need to have Samson imprisoned? Was there really a need for his eyes to be gouged out? Could not God have used Samson to defeat thousands of Philistines, including all their Lords without Samson’s demise? Of course He could have. Yet, it appears that God allowed Samson a level of choice in the situation and that, in having this freedom, Samson made some very foolish mistakes that he dearly paid for. God can even use the errors and frailties of his servants to bring about His will. But He does allow consequences to ensue, so as to mature us and transform us.

God could have intervened to protect Samson, but He chose to allow Samson to go through his crucible so as to be perfected for whatever purpose He may have had for him in his Kingdom. God used many circumstances to perfect Samson while using this great servant to bring about the deserved punishments upon the wicked Philistines.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ALLOWED THE DEATH OF NAOMI’S HUSBAND AND HER TWO SONS?

The Book of Ruth begins with the tragic death of the three men of the house: Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, and his two boys, Mahlon and Chilion. As a result, in what appears to be a short period of time, Naomi was left without a husband and her only children, while Ruth and Orpah were left without husbands.

Naomi showed her concern for the two daughters-in-law by insisting that they go back to their respective families. Orpah leaves Naomi and returns to her family; Ruth refused to abandon Naomi and accompanied her back to Israel to look after her.

One would expect very little good to come out of such a tragedy; but much good can follow even the greatest of tragedies -- if God is involved.

But what if God had not allowed the death of the three men? What if He had shown mercy to the three women and had left the three men alive?

Without doubt, Naomi must have beseeched God for mercy, but God did not answer her prayers and allowed all three men in her life to die, thus leaving her old, and potentially alone and destitute.

No doubt, God could have prevented the three deaths and, if He had done so, their lives would have gone on and nothing particularly eventful would have transpired for any of them. God looked down and decided to use the tragedy as a lesson that would show us that He can bring forth wonderful fruits even out of the most desperate situations.

The death of the three men quickly turns the spotlight on the heroes of the story. Naomi quickly emerges as a woman of kindness who had deep concern for the welfare of others. Though she was old and in need of care, she does not insist that the two younger daughters-in-law stay with her to look after her; rather, she invites them to go back to their respective families so as to rebuild their lives.

Ruth’s nobility of heart becomes evident in the fact that she refuses to abandon the old woman and makes the following astonishing oath: “Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me” (Ruth 1: 16-17).

The true mettle of human beings is often shown in the crucible of life and during the many tragedies that life brings about. The true mettle of these two women, and Ruth in particular, shone forth amidst the gloominess and anguish of a most horrible situation. Thus, the true worth of these two special women was revealed as a result of a most trying time, and God saw and was very pleased.

Seeing the dignity and the heart of both women, God decided to reward both.  As a result of the love and kindness Ruth showed toward Naomi and her conversion to the true religion, God bought about a series of circumstances that finally led to her marriage to another person of great dignity: Boaz.

Boaz, overwhelmed by Ruth’s character and determination, redeemed her from another uninterested relative and married her. The result was the birth of a child named Obed who became Jesse’s father, who later became David’s father (Ruth 4:17).

Naomi was rewarded with a daughter-in-law who loved her and faithfully looked after her. She was also given the joy of becoming the nurse to Ruth’s child. Her attachment to the child was so great that the neighbors would comment, “There is a son born to Naomi” (Ruth 4: 17).

Initially God chose not to listen to Naomi’s prayers, and He did not prevent the death of her husband and two children. He did allow a great tragedy to befall Naomi’s family, a tragedy of such magnitude that no good thing seemed to ever possibly come out of it.

Yet, in His great wisdom, God directed the events so that Naomi would be greatly rewarded for her kindness, so that a most wonderful Gentile woman would be engrafted into King David’s lineage to become an ancestor to the Savior Himself.

FROM SAMUEL TO SOLOMON

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT KILLED THE TWO SINFUL SONS OF ELI, THE HIGH PRIEST?

Eli, the High Priest, had two sons who were “corrupt” and “did not know the Lord” (I Samuel 2:12). They took from people meat offered to God by force and “lay with the women who assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of meeting” (V. 22). Because of their heinous sins, God hardened their hearts, and they would not heed their father’s rebukes (I Samuel 2:25).

God, finally, used a prophet to announce his verdict on their behalf: “Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them” (I Samuel 2: 34). God’s longsuffering had reached its limit, and the axe finally fell inexorably upon both men.

What if God had not punished Hophni and Phinehas? What if He had simply rebuked the two men without intervening drastically?

From the very beginning of His dealings with Israel, God had made it perfectly clear that his expectations for holiness were high and unchangeable. The highest expectations were directed at the priests who represented God and who were to teach and demonstrate His ways to the people.

Being children of the High Priest, Hophni and Phinehas had the great responsibility of honoring their father and the God of their father. Instead, they arrogantly, and knowingly, rebelled against their father’s wishes and the will of God. God had warned all of Israel in the book of Numbers that any person “who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be cut off; his guilt shall be upon him” (Numbers 15:30-31). Thus, from the very beginning, God made it very clear that dishonoring Him intentionally would lead to severe consequences.

If God had not condemned Eli’s sons to death, His word would have been questioned, as would have been His expectations. Without doubt, the Israelites knew what Hophni and Phinehas were up to and, most probably, wondered why both their father and God were tolerating their scandalous behavior. The people of Israel could have easily concluded that if it was OK for religious leaders to sin it was OK for everyone as well.

If God had not intervened, God’s holiness would have been greatly questioned; all of Israel would have fallen into moral degeneracy and the priesthood would have lost total respect. This could not be allowed. Therefore, God finally intervened and “the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died” (I Samuel 4: 11).

The death of Eli’s children must have made plain to all that, though God is longsuffering, He will finally intervene drastically against unrepentant and insolent sinners – especially those who are His representatives. If God had not intervened, this crucial lesson would not have received the necessary emphasis and many would have been emboldened to sin without fear of retribution.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT DECREED THE DEATH OF DAVID’S ILLEGITIMATE CHILD?

The story of David and Bathsheba is one of temptation, sin and ensuing anguish. Because of a shocking act of adultery, Bathsheba became pregnant and had a child by David.  God’s sentence was that the child should not live. Though David fasted and begged God to spare the child’s life, God remained resolute and allowed the child to die (II Samuel 12:14).

But what if God had spared the child’s life? What if He had shown mercy to David, Bathsheba and the child and had foregone the punishment?

No doubt, God’s decree was sore, but there was a lesson that He had to teach David and future generations. David had to learn the great lesson that sin is detestable in God’s eyes, and that He will punish sinners, no matter what their rank may be. Moreover, God wanted David to learn that, though much had been given to him, much was expected from him and that, as God’s anointed, he had the duty to set a righteous example for the whole nation. If God had allowed David to escape his punishment, that lesson would have never been learned, and David might have continued to rebel against God’s will in the future.

Furthermore, David’s servants who were aware of his sin, and the whole nation that would have finally found out about it might have concluded that God has double standards, and that rulers receive special treatment, even when they commit heinous sins.                     In fact, when Nathan the prophet confronted David, he stressed the fact that, as a result of David’s sin, God’s enemies had received an occasion to blaspheme (V. 14). This was unacceptable to God.                                                                                                  God was willing to forgive David, but He decreed that he had to be consequenced to silence the opposition. God had to make clear to all that sin is reprehensible to Him, no matter who the perpetrator may be, and that He judges all humans equally.

Had David been allowed to escape the just consequences to his evil deed, all believers throughout the ages may have been emboldened to conclude that God had a slack approach toward sinners and, consequently, might have adopted a relaxed approach toward similar sins.  Worse of all, many might have concluded that God had double standards, and was, therefore, unfair and unjust.

Clearly, the punishment for David and Bathsheba’s sin was heavy. But if God had allowed David to get away with it, the long-term ramifications would have been disastrous for many.  God knew this and intervened, lest there would be any doubt in anyone’s mind that sin is detestable in His eyes, and that transgressions to His Holy Laws carry strong penalties, even if great biblical characters such as David perpetrate them.

WHAT IF GOD HAD PUNISHED ONLY DAVID FOR   TAKING THE CENSUS, INSTEAD OF ISRAEL?

One of the most perplexing events in the Bible is found in II Samuel 24. Herein we find that David appears to offend God by ordering Joab to take a census of Israel and of his army in particular (V. 2). Joab tried in vain to discourage David from taking the census. Finally Joab relented and fulfilled the King’s wishes.

In verse 10 we find that “David’s heart condemned him, after he had numbered the people.”  In fact, he confessed his sin and begged God for mercy. “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly” (V. 10).

But God does not forgo His intended punishment for David. Instead, God sends Gad the Seer to explain to him that his punishment was unavoidable, and that he would have three punishments he could choose from:

1.     Seven years of famine on the land.

2.     Three months of fleeing before his enemies.

3.     Three days of plague in the land.

Wisely, David hands himself over to God’s mercy and asks that his punishment would not entail falling “into the hands of man” (V.14). Thus, God “sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time” (V. 15). The result? “Seventy-thousand men of the people died” (V. 15).

What if God had not punished Israel for David’s sin? What if God had punished David instead of Israel? After all, was it not David that sinned? Why, therefore, would God punish the innocent?

Though seemingly perplexing and unfair of God, the truth reveals otherwise. II Samuel 24: 1 is the key that opens our understanding: “Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, ‘Go number Israel and Judah.’” God was, therefore, angry at Israel. Though the scriptures do not give us the details, God’s anger is invariably related to moral deterioration and abandonment to sin. This is the motivating factor for God’s decision to move David against them, that is Israel.

I Chronicles 21:1 tells us that Satan was also manipulated by God to be involved in this event, as he “stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.” Therefore, it appears that God inspired Satan to inspire David to do what was unacceptable before God: number Israel. David became a part of God’s plan and the result was the three punishments that, interestingly enough, would have become great punishments on the sinful nation of Israel not on David.

What if God had not punished Israel? What if God had punished David severely and had left Israel untouched?

Given the fact that God was angry at Israel for their sins, the seventy thousands that were killed by the great plague, without doubt, deserved to be killed. There cannot be unrighteousness with God (Romans 9:14).  The innocent cannot be punished, if they have not sinned and have not deserved their punishment. The plague was a perfect way to pick and choose among the people and to consequence the unrepentant sinners.

If God punished David directly He would have not dealt with the focus of His anger. If He had spared the sinners within Israel, they would have deteriorated and their poison would have infected others. God’s mighty intervention reminded Israel that He would not bear any degeneracy among a people who were to be Holy. David was also reminded that God will intervene when and how He sees fit.

The event also spotlights the nobility of David’s heart. By not being the recipient of the punishment, David could have stood quietly by until the scourge was over. Instead, he turned to God in prayer and said: “Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who had sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, O Lord my God be against me and my father’s house, but not against your people that they should be plagued” (I Chronicles 21: 17).  This heartfelt prayer gave undeniable evidence to God that David was neither selfish nor calloused, that he was repentant, and that he was willing to take responsibility for his own actions. This was further proof to God that David was clearly the right man for the job, and a man worthy of being an ancestor to the Messiah.

Thus, by punishing Israel in this most peculiar way, God proved, once again, His intolerance of sin, His power to manipulate Satan’s mind, His just intervention against unrepentant sinners, and His great wisdom in testing key figures, such as David. Furthermore, by allowing this story to be included in the Bible record, God has given scoffers, throughout the ages, an opportunity to stumble, and believers an opportunity to exult at God’s justice and brilliance.

FROM ELIJAH TO NEHEMIAH

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ORDAINED THAT ISRAEL BE TAKEN INTO CAPTIVITY?

After many warnings by many different prophets, God finally decreed that Israel be “vomited” out of the Promised Land as the Canaanites had been. Thus, “the king of Assyria…carried Israel away to Assyria…” (II Kings 17: 5-6).

What if God had not allowed the total exile of Israel from the Promised Land? What if He had simply punished them locally and had foregone the exile altogether?

The story of Israel, and God’s dealings with it, is a wonderful study in the character of the Almighty. Through His dealings with Israel, He manifested His total reliability by keeping His promise of delivering Israel out of Egypt. He also revealed His love and righteousness, by giving Israel laws that would have elevated them above all the other surrounding nations, and that would have brought great blessings on them generation after generation.

Furthermore, God manifested His longsuffering nature by warning Israel through His prophets before punishing. Finally He intervened but with the sole intent of sobering them into repentance.

Lastly, His dealings with Israel manifest that, though God is longsuffering, He has His limits, and that the day will come when He will finally bring about very stern punishments upon humans, if they refuse to repent.

It is important to note that II Kings 17, the chapter that describes the Israel’s exile, also gives an exhaustive list of the sins embraced by Israel. The chapter also describes God’s many attempts to bring Israel back to sobriety before having to finally send them into exile.

The list of Israel’s sins is quite extensive and serious. The people forgot that God had delivered them from Egyptian slavery and “feared other gods” (V.7). They walked in the way of the nations that had been cast out of Canaan (V. 8). Furthermore, they built high places and burned incense to idols (V. 11-12). Because of their rebellious attitude, God warned Israel and Judah “by all His prophets (V. 13), but they did not repent and, instead,  “stiffened their necks” (V. 14).

In spite of all the many warnings, “They rejected His statutes and His Covenant…they left all the commandments” (V. 15-16) and “made for themselves a molten image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal”(V.16).  Lastly, they “caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire (Sacrificed their children to other gods), practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger” (V. 17).  Thus, the final judgment: “You shall be plucked off from the land…” (Deuteronomy 28: 63).

God had made a covenant with Israel centuries before, and had promised to pour great blessings on them if they obeyed and great curses if they disobeyed. The curses are listed in Deuteronomy 28 in increasing severity. Israel did not heed the many warnings and was finally eradicated from the land, as God had promised centuries before.

If God had not sent Israel into exile, His word may have been questioned, and His inevitable intervention toward obdurate sinners would not have received proper attention. Paul reinforces this reality in the New Testament: “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives” (Hebrew 12: 6). Israel needed to see that God had reached His limit, and that they had pushed Him to the point of no return.

If God had not intervened and had not kept His promises of total exile, God’s longsuffering nature might have been misunderstood for weakness, or might have concluded that God is willing to turn a blind eye to persistent sin.

God’s people must know that, though they may be special in God’s eyes, and though He is very patient toward their frailties, if they sin willfully and stubbornly He will finally intervene powerfully and dramatically—and that is true for spiritual Israel as it was true for ancient Israel.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT HUMILIATED SENNACHERIB?

One of the most arrogant despots described in the Bible is Sennacherib. The Bible tells us that, “in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib King of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them” (II Kings 18:13). In II Kings 18:17-23 we read that Sennacherib’s messengers went to Jerusalem to ask Hezekiah and the people to surrender.

As the inhabitants of Jerusalem looked down upon the surrounding army, Sennacherib’s messengers yelled out to them: “Do not listen to Hezekiah lest he persuade you, saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria?” (V.32-33). The messengers continued: “Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand” (V. 35).

Because Hezekiah and the people did not surrender, Sennacherib again sent his messengers to warn Hezekiah that his God would not have been able to shield him from his power. Thus, Sennacherib sealed his fate for having dared to elevate himself above God Almighty Himself.

The rest is history. Hezekiah turns to God and beseeches Him for his intervention; God heard and effectively humbled Sennacherib. “And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty five thousand; and when the people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead” (19: 35). Sennacherib, humiliated and afraid, returned to Nineveh, and, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch, his god, two of his sons killed him (35- 37). Thus ended the life of the man who dared to show insolence toward the great God of Israel.

But what if God had not intervened so drastically with Sennacherib? What if He had simply terrorized both him and his army, so that they would have simply fled back to their land without there being a great slaughter.

The sin of Sennacherib was exceptionally grievous, not just because he dared to invade the Holy Land, but because he dared to show arrogance and insolence toward the Almighty.  God is longsuffering, but His patience seems to quickly come to an end, when He encounters arrogance and insolence. Nobody can rise up against Almighty God and escape His wrath. Sennacherib dared to insinuate that his power was actually greater than that of the God of Israel. This kind of sin inevitably brings about very serious consequences.

God will not allow arrogance from anyone to go unpunished. Sennacherib had to learn, like Nebuchadnezzar, that there is only one Supreme Ruler, and that no one can dare oppose Him. Because of his extreme insolence and because of the cockiness of his servants and his armies, God intervened in a way that would leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the True Sovereign must not be contended with.

Throughout the Millennia, all tyrants have assumed that they were invincible, and that no power in Heaven or Earth could stop them. This kind of insolence inevitably brings them to their own destruction. The lesson is there for all to read, but many have not heeded it. There is only One Supreme Ruler who determines who rules and who will not. There is only One Supreme King who rules the nations and who determines the rise and fall of all empires. The story of Sennacherib is a reminder of this great truth. But will the arrogant ever heed the Word of God?

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT SENT JUDAH INTO EXILE?

Even though the Northern Ten Tribes had been taken into captivity, Judah did not heed God’s warning and chose to assume that the same punishment would not befall it as well. After all, they had been spared before, and it all appeared as though God would continue favoring them. Did they not have the Temple among them? Did they not sacrifice to God? Were not God’s priests active among them? All should have continued as before, and God would have ignored their sins.

But God does not ignore prolonged, entrenched, arrogant sinning. The people of Judah had hardened their hearts, and were bent on continuing to rebel against God—and God knew it. Thus, His fury finally befell Judah as it did Israel, and they, too, were taken into captivity.

But what if God had not decreed that Judah be taken into captivity? What if He had decided to spare the Judeans and had left them in the land?

Though Josiah had cleansed the land of idolatry, and though he had killed the sinful priests that had led Judah astray, the people of Judah had not truly repented of their many sins. Consequently, God remained bent on punishing them severely and on taking them away to Babylon -- but not immediately. In fact, Josiah died in battle, and was followed by Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, three very evil kings (II Kings 23: 31-32, 35-37, 24: 8-9, 19). Finally God unleashed His wrath through the King of Babylon, and all of Judah was taken into captivity (II Kings 25:1-21).

Captivity is a terrifying experience. People are captured; they are taken by force from their homes and their land; they are then made slaves, and they are treated with disdain and abuse. In spite of the great grief that was to befall Judah, God did not prevent it. In fact He orchestrated it and made it happen as He had warned.

No one can deny that God waited patiently for Judah to repent, but they did not. God sent His prophets to warn Judah but without success (Ezekiel 21-23). The prophet Zephaniah describes the rebellious spirit of the people of Jerusalem and of Judah, by extension, in chapter three. “Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city! She has not obeyed His voice, she has not received correction; She has not trusted in the Lord, she has not drawn near to her God” (Zephaniah 3: 1-2). Thus, God waited and hoped in vain, and the result of their obstinacy was disastrous.

If God had not finally punished Judah, He would have been perceived as unjust and unfair. He had poured His judgment upon Israel, and He had to treat Judah the same way. In the Law, God had warned all of Israel of the disastrous consequences that would have befallen arrogant disobedience (Deut. 28). As with the Northern Tribes, He also warned the people of Judah, and they failed to respond. Finally God was forced to intervene and punished the nation with exile.

Again we see a God who waits very patiently for His people to repent, but, finally, He intervenes and does so quite drastically. We also see a God who is consistent and shows no favoritism. That was the case for Israel; it was the case for Judah, and it will be the case for any nation who knows God’s will and chooses to rebel against it.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ALLOWED THE PUTTING AWAY OF FOREIGN WIVES?

After having allowed a prolonged and arduous captivity for the children of Israel, God fulfilled the prophecy made through Jeremiah to move Cyrus, King of Persia, to allow their return to the Holy Land. Ezra, Nehemiah and thousands of others returned to the Land of Israel bent on rebuilding the nation and the Temple of God in particular.

While in the process of rebuilding, the leaders of the people went to Ezra with a very serious concern:

The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is intermingled with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hands of the leaders and rulers have been foremost in their trespass” (Ezra 9: 1-2).

The transgression was serious, and it needed immediate addressing. Consequently, the males of Israel were asked to attend a meeting in Jerusalem within three days so as to deal with the problem. The problem was discussed Jerusalem; the verdict was direct and drastic: all pagan wives and their children had to be put away

This verdict involved hundreds of Israelites, including several leaders. The decision must have been heartrending for the men, women and children involved -- but it had to be done.

What if God had not allowed this most seemingly cruel event from taking place? What if He had intervened and had not allowed the families to break up? Would not that have been more appropriate and merciful?

To understand God’s lack of intervention, we must go back to God’s view on intermarriage found in the Book of Deuteronomy. In chapter seven, God firmly asserts that upon the conquest of Canaan the Israelites were to totally destroy the people of the land, and they were to abstain from intermarrying with them. “Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter, nor take their daughter for your son” (Deut. 7: 3).  The reason? “For they will turn your sons away from following me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly” (7: 3-4).

The Bible tells us that Israel refused to do as they were told; they left many Canaanites alive and, finally, some of them intermarried. The result was not just the forming of marital relationship with foreign wives but, also, the embracing of their gods and their ways. Over time, this brought about moral deterioration, the worship of foreign gods, and distancing from God’s ways and from God Himself. Ultimately God’s wrath was kindled and captivity ensued.

Decades later, Israel was being given another chance. To start anew God demanded total repentance from the old ways. God expected, in particular, that the people free themselves from one of the root causes of their former problems: allowing themselves to become polluted by accepting foreign wives and by embracing their ways. Refusing to cleanse themselves from this root cause meant leaving the cancer in the body and, thus, moving again toward attracting God’s wrath and another inevitable captivity.

Undeniably, the move was drastic and painful, but it was not as cruel as we may perceive it to be. What did putting away their foreign wives and children really mean for the men of Israel? Were the wives and children sent back to their peoples? If so, were they sent back empty handed? Would God allow them to be sent away and become destitute when He is so consistently for providing for the fatherless and the widows throughout the Bible?

We can safely assume that if the foreign wives had converted to the God of Israel and had rejected their own gods, they would have been left undisturbed. If they had accepted God’s laws, they would not have been a stumbling block. On the other hand, if they had refused to abandon their gods, they would have had to be dealt with by being sent back to their own people. In being sent back to their families, the men of Israel would have provided for them, and would, without doubt, have continued providing for them in the future.

The important point is that it was crucial that the cancer be totally eradicated, so as to keep it from spreading. Huge numbers of Israelites had been killed in battle by invading armies; others had died while traveling to the land of captivity. Some had perished while attempting to settle in the new land. To prevent this great calamity from reoccurring, the price paid by the few for the benefit of the many was by far less painful.

The putting away of wives and children by returning Israelites, therefore, may appear to be have been cruel and painful, but it was a necessary step to prevent a much greater calamity from befalling the nation of Israel. The returning leaders understood the ramifications of the matter and took the right step, and, by so doing, God blessed their efforts greatly.

THE GOSPELS

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT SENT HIS SON TO BE A  PROPITIATION FOR HUMAN SINS?

We do not know when it became obvious to God and Christ that humanity would have required a Savior. When they did, the Father and the Son may have discussed and considered different options. The option that was finally chosen would have entailed great anguish for both the Son and the Father -- and both knew it.

But what if the Father had decided not to let it happen? What if he had concluded that sending Christ was too much of a price to pay for puny humans? What if, after weighing the options, the Father had said: “It’s a no!”? What would have been the ramifications of that decision?

The thought that God the Father might have not allowed Christ to come and die for us humans is highly perturbing. If Christ had not died for us, we humans would have remained under the penalty of death -- with no recourse. The end of all human life would have been a horrifying eternal punishment. Human life would have been nothing but a hopeless and painful ride. Satan would have remained victorious.

Fortunately, God the Father decided to prevent this horrendous fate for humans and made the fateful decision: His Son would have divested Himself of power and glory; He would have grown among men free from sin; He would have taken upon Himself the death penalty on humans’ behalf. The decision was probably the most difficult decision ever made. Yet our great Father chose to go along with it and, thus, He put into action a plan of salvation of which we all are beneficiaries.

Truly a God who would give His Firstborn for a temporary, mortal creation is a God of endless love.  A Son who is willing to divest Himself of His glory and offer His life for His brothers and sisters is a brother who overflows with love. The well-known verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son,” takes on new meaning, when one considers that God and Christ did not have to go ahead with their plan. The expression “God so loved the world” reveals great intensity of love and a profound concern for us humans. Undeniably, we human beings are  very special to both our magnificent Father and our loving Brother Jesus Christ.

WHAT IF GOD HAD ALLOWED JESUS TO GET      MARRIED AND HAVE CHILDREN?

Jesus was a healthy and strong young man. He was a carpenter and was “in all points tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). Thus, He was human in all aspects, with all the needs that humans have—including the need to love and to be loved. No doubt He continually had to fight temptations relating to the beautiful Jewish young ladies that lived in His area. As a human being, He too would have liked their companionship and affection, yet He had to fight such thoughts and not one such temptation was ever allowed to take root in His mind.

But what if God had allowed Him to live a normal human life? What if He had allowed Christ to marry a pure and blameless young lady and have children? Would that have made any difference to God’s plan?

If Christ had married a human being, the ramifications would have been nothing short of gigantic. First of all, He knew the reason for His human existence. His future had been pre-ordained, and it included a gruesome death at the relatively young age of thirty-three. Had He married a young woman, Christ would have suffered terribly at the knowledge that she would have had to face up to His future gruesome end. If He would have had children, accepting His own death would have been much more difficult, knowing about their great suffering and that He would have had to leave His children behind.

Christ could not allow Himself to have such potential barriers to His vital sacrifice. We know that He begged His Father to allow “the cup” of death to pass from Him (Luke 22:42). Clearly His march toward death was a fearful thing. How much more difficult the whole experience would have been, if He had to leave his wife and children behind.

Another point to be stressed is that if Christ had children they, too, would have had a divine nature within themselves. They, too, would have been part God beings. Consequently, after Christ’s departure, this would have led His disciples to revere and worship them as divine. In time, the focus of the Church would have become Christ’s physical descendents rather than God the Father and Christ Himself. It is quite possible that such a status could have led some of Christ’s descendents to arrogance and to total dictatorial control and abuse over God’s people. God would have never allowed such a scenario.

Theologically it is well understood that Christ was already figuratively married to His Church. The Church is labeled in the Bible as the “Bride of Christ.” (II Cor. 11:2, Rev. 19: 7-9). Christ was, therefore, stayed totally committed to His bride for whom He was dying and with whom He would spend eternity.

God the Father knew full well the ramifications of allowing a human relationship between Christ and a woman to take place. God knew that no obstacle should have been in Christ’s path, beyond the essential. It was also imperative that the focus of the Church be kept on the Father and Jesus Christ and no one else. God’s plans regarding Christ’s mission were well thought-out, as is the rest of God’s plan of salvation and, because God’s plan is well thought out, it will continue unfolding perfectly to the end.

FROM THE BOOK OF ACTS TO REVELATION

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT SENTENCED TO DEATH ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA?

The Church had just been established and confirmed by an undeniable manifestation of Divine Power. Hundreds had been converted, and God showed His great might by allowing the newly converted to speak in tongues and to prophesy.

Among the many who were converted were two disciples by the name of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold their possessions and brought some of the proceeds to the Apostles making all believe that they were giving all they possessed. God through Peter decreed that because they had been lying to the Holy Spirit they were to die publicly. As a result of their public death, “great fear came upon all the church, and upon all who heard these things” (Acts 5:11).

But what if God had forgiven Ananias and Sapphira? What if He had shown mercy on them and had not allowed the Church to experience such a shocking and traumatic event, immediately after having experienced unspeakable joy?

Before He rose to Heaven, Jesus asked his disciples to go to Jerusalem and promised them a very special gift (Acts 1:8). Christ kept His promise on the Day of Pentecost

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2: 2-4).

The result was excitement and great bonding among the newly converted. Many sold their possessions and gave the proceeds to the Apostles, so that the needs of the brethren would be looked after (Acts 4:34-35).

Experiencing such astonishing power must have left the disciples in awe. They were, beyond doubt, the chosen ones, and God was making it evident to all in Jerusalem with undeniable signs. But feeling favored could have led to a spiritually superior and, perhaps, even a slack attitude. Some probably did not yet understand that being chosen also meant carrying the great responsibility of being God’s righteous representatives. They had not been chosen to simply enjoy the spiritual benefits of their calling, but to shine on God’s behalf.

Ananias, and Sapphira rejected righteousness and adopted deceit. Because of this God decreed that they receive a most stern punishment: death. Their death was also to be a warning to all that the New Way was not to be taken lightly. Thus God allowed fear to fall upon the whole group. To make sure the lesson would remain for all future Christians to remember, the story was included in the Holy Scriptures.

Furthermore, this was an ideal opportunity to sober up the Church and to make them remain conscious of the fact that though God gives much He demands much as well. Consequently God was going to watch the actions and attitudes of each and every one of them. The critical message was to be loud and clear for all that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

The Church began with great signs and wonders. The first Christians were the recipients of great gifts and great accompanying joy. In His wisdom, God saw fit to allow the death of Ananias and Sapphira to sober up the Church and to remind the newly-converted Christians that, though the great God gives great gifts, He also demands total righteousness. That lesson is as valid today as it was then.

WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT ALLOWED THE GREAT SUFFERINGS OF PAUL?

Before his dramatic conversion, the apostle Paul was an aggressive and brutal man. Being a fanatical Pharisee, he was an avowed enemy of Christians and persecuted them without pause. “Saul (Paul) was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord and gladly consented to the death of Stephen” (Acts 9:1; 8:1). Yet God in His mercy began unfolding a plan that was to bring Paul to Christ and then turn him into a dynamic, unstoppable force for the spreading of the Gospel around the Roman Empire.

But God also had in store a long series of trials and tribulations that were to make his Christian experience an enormously difficult and challenging one.

What if God had not added all the many trials to Paul’s Christian experience? What if He had simply helped him carry his Gospel responsibilities without the many trials he also had to endure?

Paul’s life was overturned when Christ appeared to Him on his way to Damascus. A bright light shone and he fell off his horse. Immediately he lost his sight and became blind. The forceful, brutal man was now ready for some transforming.

After three days of blindness, Christ sent a messenger to Paul telling him the good and bad news. He had been chosen to bring the Gospel to “the Gentiles, Kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). This was the good news; the bad news was that he was going to suffer “many things” for Christ’s name’s sake --and he did. Most of the Book of Acts is the story of Paul’s sufferings as he goes about preaching the Gospel. Paul finally summarizes many of  his trials in II Cor. 11: 24-27:

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Besides many persecutions, Paul also had to bear an infirmity we know little about which he described as follows: “a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me” (II Corinthians 12: 7). He fervently beseeched God for healing, but he got a firm “No!” each time. All in all, Christ’s prophecy about Paul’s sufferings was fulfilled.

Obviously if God decided to add all the suffering to Paul’s life He had His very good reason. It appears that to bring about a true lasting transformation, Paul needed intensive therapy -- and that is exactly what God provided.                                                                        Paul was forceful and fiery. God made sure he had plenty of trials that would produce much longsuffering.                                       Paul was harsh and judgmental. God made sure that his many painful experiences would tenderize him and make him more tolerant.                                                                                                           Paul had tendencies toward pride and arrogance. God made sure his pride was squeezed out of him.

Paul understood that God knew what He was doing and that His intentions were only good.  Paul knew that all things would have worked out for his best and, thus, took all the afflictions with a most positive attitude. “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak then I am strong” (II Cor. 12:10).

Paul needed God’s intensive and transforming program. He had to be cleansed, purified, solidified and perfected. Had God not arranged for the many trials and afflictions to befall him, he would not have been a proper and mighty tool in God’s hands and God would not have used him as powerfully as he did.                                             Because Paul endured and did go along with God’s training program, at the end of his life he was able to confidently assert: “For I am already been poured as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day…” (II Timothy 4: 6-8).

WHAT IF GOD WOULD NOT ALLOW THE CATASTROPHES OF THE LAST DAYS?

Though believers look forward to Christ’s return, they do not look forward to the catastrophic events described in the Book of Revelation and elsewhere in the Bible. The “End of the Age” was described by Christ as a time when “there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).                                                  This time of great punishments to befall humanity is described in the Bible as “The Great Tribulation” and “The Day of the Lord.”  The prophet Isaiah tells us that those days of global anguish “will come as destruction from the Almighty” and that “every man’s heart will melt and they will be afraid” (Isaiah 13: 6-7).                               In the Book of Revelation we are provided with the shocking details of that horrific time that will bring about the death of billions of humans and will leave the Earth in a state of total chaos and destruction.

The Day of the Lord is one more event that scoffers use to insinuate that the Christian God is a brutal and sadistic being. Some believers, instead, may wonder why such a catastrophic climax is even necessary. After all, they might ask, why would a God of love conclude this age in such a traumatic way?

What if God would not climax the end of the age with destruction? What if He would conclude man’s time with the mere peaceful return of Christ without all the destruction described in the Book of Revelation and elsewhere?

First of all, let’s ask why God would show so much fury at the end of the age? Is it simply a capricious decision on God’s part to simply dramatize Christ’s return? Could it be that there is much more behind it all?

Let’s note, first of all, that Christ describes the days preceding the time of the end as a time when “lawlessness will abound” (Matthew 24:12). In his epistle to Timothy, Paul gives us a more detailed description of the kind of extreme degeneracy that will prevail among humans in those days: “For men shall be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God” (II Timothy 3: 2-5).

In short, at the end of the age, the inhabitants of the Earth will be cruel and fierce. Wickedness will reach levels probably never seen before. In the end times, the God of righteousness who is Lord over all things will bear human degeneracy no longer and will intervene to sober up all of humanity.

It is critical to note that the punishments that will befall humans are not sudden but gradual. The intensity of God’s intervention will multiply only because of human arrogance and its stubborn unwillingness to repent.                                                                     Let’s note humanity’s reaction to the catastrophic plagues that will rain upon them and that will kill hundreds of millions of humans:

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts (Revelation 9:20-21).

Humans in those days will be so bent on evil that they will persist in their wickedness, even though God makes His displeasure more than abundant and evident through horrible punishments.

Though the great plagues of the last days will serve to show humanity that God will not forebear evil forever, and that He will finally crush it dramatically, they will also serve to introduce Christ to the whole world in a most memorable and dramatic way.

Christ foretold that unless He would finally intervene, “no flesh would be saved” (Matthew 24: 22). Before the Earth will be totally incinerated, Christ will make His grand entrance with thousands of angels and resurrected saints and will set up His Kingdom with headquarters in Jerusalem from where He will assert His power and will over the whole Earth.

No doubt the end of the age will be a horrific and traumatic time for humanity. Yet such a dramatic conclusion is clearly merited by an exceptionally evil and arrogant world. If God would not intervene with great punishments, human wickedness would reach levels never before seen, as would the human anguish that follows such levels of depravity.                                                                                                        Furthermore, God’s re-establishment of His supremacy, His expectations and inevitable punishment of the wicked would not receive the necessary focus, and Christ’s return would not receive the kind of dramatic emphasis it deserves.

For thousands of years, humans have been left to their own devices. They have chosen to serve the great deceiver, Satan, and the end result has been and will continue being, pain and anguish for untold millions up to Christ’s return. The great events of the last days are God’s statement that His turn has come to rule the Earth, and that He, and He alone, is God and that He alone is to be worshipped, and that only His standards of righteousness must prevail.

Michael Caputo

Minister since 1985

Author of the award-winnging, God Seen Through the Eyes of the Greatest Minds

MICHAEL CAPUTO'S BOOKS ON AMAZON

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BIBLE PROPHECIES

The Great Tribulation: How to Escape, or Survive the Great, Future, Worldwide Catastrophe--and Not Be a Traitor

False Prophets and the Antichrist

Seven Lessons from the Seven Churches in Revelation

The Churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea in Revelation: Two Attitudes; Two Destinies

Who Are the Two Witnesses of Revelation? A Sensible Possibility Supported By Scriptures

Why Does the Lord Jesus Delay His Coming? Three Reasons Why He Has not Returned Yet

INSPIRATIONAL

What Will Christian Do For Eternity? The Ten Phases of Eternity

Jesus Christ: A Personal Autobiography

The Apostle Paul: How Did the Great Apostle endure Persecutions, Abuse and Other Great Trials? (KINDLE/PAPERBACK)

When Suffering, Persecutions and Tribulations Come Your Way (KINDLE/PAPERBACK)

God Seen Through the Eyes of the Greatest Minds

The Young King and the Cross

Einstein, Galileo, Newton: What Did the Greatest Scientists Believe About God?

ANSWERING THE CRITICS OF CHRISTIANITY

Is God Cruel?: An In-Depth Analysis of God's Apparent Acts of Cruelty in the Bible (KINDLE/PAPERBACK)

God and Catastrophes: When Catastrophes Hit Humanity, Where is God?

What if God...? Thought-Provoking Reflections About God (KINDLE/PAPERBACK)

Was Jesus Christ Really Resurrected? An Objective Analysis of the Compelling Evidence

The Ten Commandments: Great Proofs of God's Existence

CHRISTIAN LIVING

How Not to Get Divorced: Powerful Principles to Help You Prevent Divorce and Have a Happier Marriage

The Works of the Flesh: Understanding and Defeating the Works of the Devil (KINDLE/PAPERBACK)

"Be You Holy": How to Grow in God's Holiness in an Unholy World

MISCELLANEOUS

Human Nature: Good, Neutral or Evil? A Biblical Perspective on the Nature of Man

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Table of Contents

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

FROM GENESIS TO EXODUS

FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN

THE LAWS OF GOD

FROM THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN TO THE JUDGES

FROM SAMUEL TO SOLOMON

FROM ELIJAH TO NEHEMIAH

THE GOSPELS

FROM THE BOOK OF ACTS TO REVELATION

MICHAEL CAPUTO'S BOOKS