Does God condone immoral actions?

 God's Morality

I am certainly not capable of truly contemplating God's Morality, however many people do and they do it in the form of questions which in many cases are the foundation of their unbelief. Some of the

Questions look like this. 

If God is Good, then why does he allow bad things to Happen?

If God is good why does Evil exist?

If God is so loving then why did he command people to be killed?

If God is Merciful, then  why did he kill everyone on the planet with a flood?

If God is Good why does he condone slavery?

If God is good then why do his laws seem immoral?

These are just a few questions that I have personally heard, some have personally been asked of me and have prompted me to want to attempt to answer these questions. I have said in some of my previous writings that of course I have presuppositions when providing my research, however I attempt to always provide accepted application of exegetical and hermeneutical concepts to my answers and interpretation of scriptures, and Biblical writings. 

I am not going to try to answer each of these Questions individually because most relate to the concept that God allows Evil and his actions and laws support that concept. I take the opposite stance and will provide my scriptural evidence to support my stance. 

During a recent outreach ministry with our church, I ran into an individual who really wanted to speak about things and professed immediately that he didn't believe. I asked him why and his answer was ( I am paraphrasing in quotes.) "I find it hard to believe that God would command someone to cutoff a women's hand just for touching a man's genitals, especially if it was in defense of her husband." Our conversation proceeded and he touched on many subjects, like war, and evolutionary probability and a few other elements and he professed that he was a recovering Alcoholic and that his Girlfriend's name was Iliana (which meant God's Answer), that he was in multiple car accidents, etc... His Girlfriend had told him that God was watching over him and protecting him but he wasn't having any of it. We left him and told him that Saul was an educated individual and still didn't believe but at some point in his life God will show him his truth and he will come to know the Lord. 

This interaction spurred me to write this post. Does God Condone Immoral Actions? I looked up the verse he was referencing and it is Deuteronomy 25:11-12 - "11 If two men fight together, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals, 12 then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her."  This is one of the laws that are written in the Bible and come in a series of laws that come before and after the verse. This would be one of the things to help determine the context and meaning of this specific verse. 

Context is a helpful way to determine meaning and support interpretation. In context the beginning of the previous law starts around Deuteronomy 25:5 - "“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her." The other verses after this 6-10 relate to the different elements of this law which could be considered factors that assist in furthering defining the base element of the law. 

I want to step outside of interpretation to point out how laws were handled during this timeframe which would included the ancient Hebrews and their interaction with judges and judgement. Some of this reference is from a Tulane Law School writing from May. 2017 which considered "Law in the Ancient World" which indicates a typical law basis concept of "...previous cases and judicial opinions determine how new cases are resolved". The significance of this is that laws were written, perhaps initially without a specific case identified, but written as scenarios, which when reviewed would allow the judicial body to make comparative decisions and judgements based on what the similarities were in the actual offense and the offense as described in the written law. This then would be the basis for judgement and would begin building additional "previous" cases which could then be used to determine future offenses in similar fashion. This type of Law administration was practiced across Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, Greece and China. 

Now if we go back to the verse and context you can start to see that we have two laws and if they are simplified to say what the law the first in general is about a Man dying with no heir and the wife is to be married to the next brother in the family in order to carry on the family name. The second is that a Woman who is a wife, should not grab another man's genitals in order to defend her husband, since this would potentially damage the carrying on of the family name. In context these two laws relate to the lineage and propagation of the family and the ancestral family name. Now lets look at the verse following these. 

The next law or verse is Deuteronomy 25:13 - "“You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light." This law is an indication of fairness and to have proper, accurate weights and measures. The typical interpretation is that when dealing with transactions things should be done honestly or fairly. Does this relate to the above? It could be considered such, in the thought that someone who is already fighting someone now has another assailant, that is now, however justified it might be to protect her husband, the manner in which it is accomplished is not necessarily fair fighting. The idea then would be this based on context. 

1. There is a fight happening.

2. There is a wife who decides to act on behalf of her husband.

3. There is a potential unfair action by the wife. 

All of these combined seem to make it that there is an issue against a family lineage, and an unfair action in the fight which has two implications. One, the action by the wife could impact the mans potential to bear children and causes an impact to the mans lineage. Two, the action is done in an unfair manner. 

Therefore we now fall into the level of punishment. Is the punishment just? To answer this we need to look at how punishment was handled in the Bible and in general in the Ancient world. Two concepts come to light. 

    One, which is Biblical which is an Eye for an Eye. Exodus 21:23-25 "23 But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." The Biblical support for like punishment is set in the earliest understanding of law and punishment in the Bible. 

    Two, is Talion, or in Latin "Lex Talionis" which is an early Babylonian concept which is also found in ancient Roman Law. Typically identified by the Latin representation and defined as, criminals should receive as punishment precisely those injuries and damages they had inflicted upon their victims. What this typically would require was, a person who caused injury, the punishment would be imposed upon the offending appendage. Meaning if the Hand caused the injury then the Hand would receive the punishment.  

Given this understanding, the Law is imposing punishment according to the understanding of how laws and punishment were enacted. The Idea then from those who are questioning the Biblical aspect of Laws and Punishment and then implying that they are now imposing a certain morality that comes from God are implying that God's Morals are in question because he is stating that immoral things should not be done. When in actuality, God and the Bible are stating emphatically that what is Morally wrong should be punished, and this one particular law should not be outside of that concept but should also be included to be reviewed in that manner and as such falls into the resulting punishment which would be immoral actions should receive punishment. 

Therefore from a resulting immoral action individuals should be punished appropriately and as was originally stated, there is the concept of "Eye for an Eye". As one can see the concept of this specific Law is very focused, however, when looked at it from the perspective of how Laws, Punishment, aligned with what God has put forth from a Moral perspective it does not indicate immorality but a standardized moral response. God has Moral Standards and those are what the Laws are based upon. 

If you Look at the above Questions with the Idea that God has Moral Standards you can see that it answers many of these. 

If God is so loving then why did he command people to be killed? (God did not command this he commanded adherence to Moral Standards)

If God is Merciful, then  why did he kill everyone on the planet with a flood? (God, punished those that did not adhere to his Moral Standards)

If God is Good why does he condone slavery? (God does not condone Slavery he demands a Moral Standard in how someone who puts themselves into indentured servitude)(This is also another idea that should be fully explored)

If God is good then why do his laws seem immoral? (God's Moral Standards exist and therefore, seemingly may be at odds of modern worldly morals)

There are two Questions that were not answered. 

If God is Good, then why does he allow bad things to Happen?

If God is good why does Evil exist?

These while not specifically addressed in this writing are easily understood within the concepts of Free Will and how man, creates evil through his actions which are not in alignment with God's Moral Standards. Additionally, Bad things happening are not something that God allows to happen, but are part of the aspects of the world and have purpose unto themselves which we may or may not be aware of the purpose. (this also is a topic for further exploration)