Why does God command the people of Israel not to kill, but then He orders them to kill enemies of Israel… even the women, children, and livestock?  Then Jesus tells His disciples to "turn the other cheek."  I haven't been a christian for very long, but I've always been confused about this.

Sincerely,
Double Standard

Dear Double Standard,

The Hebrew word used for ‘kill’ in the Ten Commandments literally means ‘murder’.  There is a difference between killing someone in self-defense and pre-meditated, intentional murder of another human being.  The Bible has plenty of examples of faithful people going to war (David killed Goliath in battle – 1 Sam 17:49-50).  The Bible is also full of examples of capital punishment for certain crimes (Num 15:35).  Num 35:15-16 makes a distinction between accidentally killing someone and premeditated murder.  A police officer may have to kill someone while serving the community, but that isn’t murder.  There is a difference.

It is wrong for an individual to purposefully seek to harm another unless they are acting as an agent of the government (God has given national governments the authority to use ‘the sword’ of punishment – Rom 13:4) or reacting in self-defense.  God commanded the nation of Israel to kill in times of war, but He condemns vigilante murder.  The teaching of “turn the other cheek” (Matt 5:39) is an individual command that applies to everyday living.  The context has nothing to do with war-time actions.

Is it okay to smoke weed?  Genesis 1:12 says, “...and the earth brought forth grass and HERB, yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”  I have cancer, so it helps with the pain.

Sincerely,
Cancer Patient

Dear Cancer Patient,

Consuming marijuana for “recreational” purposes is wrong.  Yes, God created every green herb on day three (Gen 1:11-13), but He didn’t create them to be used inappropriately.  God condemns drunkenness and insobriety (Rom 13:13, 1 Cor 6:10).  If any drug, including marijuana, is used to create a state of drunkenness – then, yes, it is a sin.  If your doctor prescribes a drug for pain, as a treatment, etc. – that is a different matter.  We are very sorry to hear of your cancer, and it is appropriate to follow doctor’s orders in such matters.

God created everything in this world for our good, and He created us for good works (Eph 2:10).  Abusing the plants and herbs that God has blessed this world with harms us and is a sin.  When we don’t treat our bodies with respect, we harm ourselves as well as displeasing God (1 Cor 6:19-20).

(This question is a follow-up to “The Decision Of A Lifetime”).

Thank you for your answer regarding Joshua 24:15.  Now a follow-up question: after what Joshua said about making a choice, and this was the time for the Israelites to decide… suppose that some did decide to serve other gods.  My question is: would God be angry at them for opting to serve other gods, or would He just accept it calmly without doing any harm to them and focus on Joshua and his people choosing to serve Jehovah?  Like someone said, this is like a father, son, and uncle (the father's brother).  If the son chooses to live with the uncle rather than the father, the father would feel either angry, jealous, or heart-broken (or maybe all) because the son gives more attention to the uncle than to the father.

Sincerely,
Idol Curiosity

Dear Idol Curiosity,

God would have been, and is, upset when people choose to worship other gods.  Idolatry is always wrong (1 Cor 10:14).  Joshua knew that choosing other gods would have been a horrible decision… and he told Israel that (Josh 24:23).  Joshua was simply reminding them of their freedom to choose – and how important it is to make that choice deliberately.  God gives every one of us the choice between life and death – His desire is that we choose life (Deu 30:19).

Where did Cain's wife come from?

Sincerely,
Matchmaker

Dear Matchmaker,

Eve is the mother of all living (Gen 3:20).  In the beginning, there were only Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve had multiple children (Gen 5:3-4).  In the genealogies of Genesis 5, none of the daughters are named – only the sons.  This is because Jewish genealogies (and Genesis is a Jewish book) follow the male lineage – we never know the dates or names of the daughters that are born.  Cain was Adam’s firstborn son (Gen 4:1).  When Cain went to find a wife, the only logical person he could marry would be his sister.  Therefore, Cain’s wife was also his sister (Gen 4:17).  It is morally repugnant in today’s society for someone to marry his sister, but it wasn’t that way in the beginning.  In the beginning, they had no other choice.  God told the family of Adam to “go forth and multiply” (Gen 1:28).  When Adam’s sons and daughters intermarried, they fulfilled God’s command.

Today we worry about children having deformities if the mother and father are too closely related.  This is because of genetic mutations and defects in our DNA.  Adam and Eve wouldn’t have had these defects.  When God made Adam and Eve, they were genetically perfect, and their descendants wouldn’t have had to worry about biological deformities.  God didn’t prohibit close intermarriage until almost 2,500 years after Adam and Eve (Lev 18:9-17); it took that long for genetic mutations to increase enough to become a real issue.

So the conclusion is… Cain married his sister.

I have a question regarding the passage of Joshua 24:15.  According to this passage, Joshua is giving the people a choice of which god to serve while he says he'll serve only Yahweh.  But in earlier chapters and passages, God's anger burned against any believer who served other gods.  So did Joshua really mean what he said, or was he just testing the loyalty of the believers?

Sincerely,
Idol Curiosity

Dear Idol Curiosity,

Joshua is making an emphatic point that serving God is a choice… and we must all make that choice for ourselves.  We must remember that this was the last speech Joshua ever gave to the people of Israel – not long after this, he died (Josh 24:28-29).  This was Joshua’s last chance to penetrate the hearts and minds of the generation that was to follow, and he didn’t waste it.  Joshua desperately wanted the Israelites to serve God with all sincerity and truth (Josh 24:14).  This speech is the last serious discourse of a faithful man to the children that were to follow.  The choice would soon be theirs – he wished to impress the gravity of that decision to them.