Let’s talk about Saul’s refusal to kill King Agag. Surely it was a good thing that Saul spared his enemy’s life—love your enemies, and all that, right? But. . . no. God’s not happy, and it’s not because he’s a different God in the Old Testament. Saul’s story says something that is still true about God’s character today.

Many Old Testament passages detail God’s instructions to Israel to utterly wipe out the pagan nations living within Canaan - every man, woman, child, and animal. But the New Testament says that God is love.

What are we to do with this apparent contradiction of God’s character? How are we to understand biblical violence?