ACROSS history, sacred texts have often been invoked to justify acts of extreme violence — from religious wars to so-called honour killings. These acts are sometimes framed as obedience to divine law, rooted in the legal codes of the scripture, especially in the Mosaic era. In the Old Testament, God commanded Israel to execute judgment on nations steeped in moral corruption (Deuteronomy 20:16–18; Leviticus 20:2–5). But understanding those commands requires context.
The divine intention behind Mosaic law was covenantal, judicial and specific to a nation chosen to reveal God’s holiness in a morally decayed world. These laws were not expressions of cruelty, but instruments to preserve a people and restrain systemic evil. When modern groups lift these ancient judgments from their covenant context to justify personal or political violence, they distort divine justice into human vengeance.
God’s commands in the Old Testament were never license for individual retribution or domination. They were sovereign judicial acts carried out through divine authority, not private zeal. The tragedy of modern misuse is that it divorces judgment from holiness and replaces obedience with extremism.
The Old Testament reveals a God whose justice confronts sin with finality. Yet, even then, mercy was never absent. In the story of Jonah, God’s compassion toward Nineveh stands beside His justice toward Sodom. The same divine heart governed both. Justice was not arbitrary wrath, but moral surgery — painful, but redemptive.
Many fail to see the divine progression in scripture. The Old Testament introduces holiness through law; the New Testament internalises it through grace. The problem arises when we confuse temporal judgments for timeless personal mandates. God’s justice was never meant to be weaponised by human passion.
The key to reconciliation lies in understanding that divine justice always serves divine love. Judgment in the Old Testament was an expression of love’s defense — the protection of covenant purity and moral order. The same God who judged the nations also promised redemption through Abraham’s seed. The Cross of Christ is where both meet perfectly: justice satisfied, mercy released.
• Sunday Ogidigbo, Senior Pastor, Holyhill Church, Abuja. Twitter/Instagram/Facebook: @SOgidigbo. Email: [email protected]
In the end, every believer and leader must approach the scripture with reverence and discernment. Divine commands are not tools for hatred, but templates for holiness. God’s justice is not a contradiction of His love; it is its guardian.
• Sunday Ogidigbo, Senior Pastor, Holyhill Church, Abuja. Twitter/Instagram/Facebook: @SOgidigbo. Email: [email protected]
