How Can a Loving God Send War?

How could God send horrific wars on people in the Bible? This question has troubled Bible readers for thousands of years.

One answer is that God did not send these wars. He only allowed them. But that is not what the Bible says. The Bible says he sent the Assyrians to punish Judah (Isa. 10:5-7). He ordered the Israelites to slay the Canaanites (Deut. 9:1-3).

Another response is that God used a hyperbole when he told the Israelites to kill the men, women and children. This approach says God did not literally mean for the Israelites to do this. But that is not correct. First Samuel 15 shows that God meant it literally when He told Saul to slay the Amalekites.

Another reply is that the Bible is not true. Atheists, skeptics and even some who believe in God say a loving God could not have ordered these calamities. But the Bible proves that it is the inspired Word of God by its prophecies and many other evidences.

What many overlook is that the people who died in these wars brought the wrath of God on themselves. The land of Canaan was filled with idolatry, human sacrifice, incest, homosexuality, bestiality and other evils (Lev. 18-20). It is true that they did not have the written law of Moses like the Jews. But they had the moral law of God written on their hearts by nature (Rom. 2:14-15). They knew these things were wrong.

The Jews could have avoided the suffering we read about in the Bible. Jeremiah pleaded with the Jews for forty years to repent. They stubbornly refused. That is why God poured out His wrath on them by sending the Babylonians into Judah to destroy it. And, as he assured the prophet Habakkuk, He eventually punished the punishers for their sins (Jer. 50-51).

But what about the innocent babies and children who died in the wars sent by God? We could ask the same thing about babies that died in the flood or in Sodom. It is tragic that the innocent suffer in this life for the sins of others. But God is the giver of life (Acts 17:25). If He has the right to give life, then He has the right to end life. Only He can make that determination, and we must be content to submit to that fact.

Kerry

West End church of Christ • February 8, 2026