Why Did God Order the Killing of Children? Understanding Honor-Shame, Idolatry, and Covenant Protection

 Why Did God Order the Killing of Children? Understanding Honor-Shame, Idolatry, and Covenant Protection


The Old Testament contains difficult passages — ones that disturb our modern sensibilities. Among the hardest are those where God commands the total destruction of nations, including women and children (Deut. 20:16–18, 1 Sam. 15:3). These are not stories to gloss over. They must be approached with reverence, cultural awareness, and a strong grasp of the broader biblical narrative.


Many have asked, why would a good God command the death of children? The answer lies not in arbitrary violence, but in the deep moral rot of ancient idolatrous cultures, the protective justice of God, and the values of the honor-shame world Israel lived in.



1. Honor-Shame Culture and Generational Identity


In the Ancient Near East, personal identity was communal and generational. A child was not seen as an isolated individual, but a carrier of family, tribal, and religious identity. When God ordered judgment against a nation like Amalek, Midian, or the Canaanites, He was not just judging isolated people, but a corporate system of rebellion and violence.


This is why a surviving child — even if innocent in the moment — could grow into a future threat. Scripture gives us examples:


“Then Hadad fled to Egypt...He grew up in Pharaoh’s house…When Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers…Hadad said to Pharaoh, ‘Let me depart, that I may go to my own country.’”

— 1 Kings 11:17–21



Hadad the Edomite, who had escaped a judgment decades earlier, later returned to harass Solomon. The seed of vengeance was kept alive. In a world defined by generational loyalty and honor-revenge cycles, to leave survivors was to guarantee future bloodshed.



2. Women Were Not Always Innocent


Modern readers often assume that women and children in these narratives were passive and innocent. But in many cases, women were used as deliberate tools of moral and covenantal destruction.


For example:


“Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord…so there was a plague.”

— Numbers 31:16


Balaam advised the Moabite women to seduce Israelite men. These women lured Israel into sexual idolatry, which led not just to fornication, but to covenant betrayal. Because of this, thousands died in a divine judgment.


Women in idol-worshiping nations were often complicit in cultural systems that:


Glorified sexual ritual as worship


Promoted intermarriage for political infiltration


Introduced idol worship that would later lead Israel into Molech worship — burning their own children alive (Jer. 7:31)



To tolerate these systems was to invite spiritual cancer into the covenant community.



3. Total War as Community Protection


God’s commands for total destruction (herem) were never about ethnic cleansing. They were about preserving Israel’s unique calling in a world bent on corruption. God was forming a holy people to bear His name and bring light to the nations. Any tolerance of spiritual compromise — especially sexual idolatry — would spread like rot in a vine.


“You shall not leave alive anything that breathes…that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices.”

— Deut. 20:16–18



The killing of children, while tragic, was not arbitrary cruelty. It was divine preventative justice in a context where:


Children would grow up trained in vengeance


Cultural honor demanded retaliation


Idolatry was generational and contagious


Israel’s survival as God’s covenant people was at stake




4. This Was a Unique Moment in Redemptive History


It’s vital to understand that these events were not patterns for all time, nor commands for believers today. They were limited to Israel’s conquest and preservation under the Old Covenant.


Now, in the New Covenant, God's people are not a physical nation with borders and swords. We conquer not by killing enemies but by loving them, forgiving them, and preaching Christ.


God no longer calls His people to wage physical war, because the war has shifted — from territory to hearts, from bloodshed to transformation.



Conclusion


God’s command to destroy whole populations, including children, can seem brutal from a modern, individualistic lens. But in the honor-shame, tribal world of ancient times — where idolatry, revenge, and generational loyalty ran deep — these actions served as tragic but necessary means of protecting covenant purity and preserving redemptive history. They weren’t about cruelty. They were about survival — spiritual and physical — for a people chosen to carry God’s name to the world.

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