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God condoned war and killing in the Old Testament.

Kirk M. Clayton

Humans built suffering and death into themselves when they rebelled against God and sinned.

Since suffering and death are inextricable from sinful humans, God's plan to save humanity involved suffering and death.

God used death and violence in the Old Testament sparingly and in a way that counterbalanced people's desperate need for salvation.

God's plan to save humanity was anchored in his becoming human himself, dying himself, and sharing his resurrection with everyone who believes that he has done these things.

The words hit Garrett with crushing force.

I'm sorry, the doctor said, you have cancer, leukemia to be specific.

Garrett and athletic 18-year-old sat with his parents in stunned silence in the doctor's office.

This was his senior year of high school.

Everything was supposed to be different, college applications, sports tournaments, prom, graduation.

But now everything changed.

Cancer, leukemia, possibly terminal.

From that moment of diagnosis onward, the focus and goal of Garrett's life was to survive, to live.

The doctor's purpose was to make a plan to keep Garrett alive and bring healing.

The words can hit us with crushing force, the soul who sins shall die, Ezekiel, chapter 18, verse 4.

The idea that God demands death, especially through the war and killing that seems so prominent in the Old Testament, can be difficult to comprehend.

God commands in Deuteronomy, chapter 20, verses 16-17 A.

In the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for and inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction.

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