God did not just decide to command the Israelites to destroy all the inhabitants of Canaan simply because he promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit it; he commanded them to do it because the Canaanites were wicked, evil, sinful people. ", Jesus Resurrection: Fact or Fiction? Why did God judge the Canaanites as wicked despite never appearing to them or giving them law? See the Papyrus Chester Beatty III recto (BM10683) from about 1175 BC as referenced in Lise Manniche, For an example of how embarrassing and dangerous this could be, see Robert M. Yerkes, The Mind of the Gorilla: Part III. The full text of this article in PDF format can be obtained by clicking here. What Do the Four Soils in the Parable of the Sower Represent? He blogs at, How J. K. Rowling Played, then Lost, the Polarization Game, GAFCON IV: Lessons from a Communion in Birth Pains, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Christian Nationalism, What to Do When Your Child Is Addicted to Video Games, Radical Christian Gentleness in an Era of Addictive Outrage, The FAQs: Anglican Group Calls on Church of Englands Leader to Repent, Whats the Earliest Evidence for Christianity? Rahab was later held up as an example of faithful obedience in the New Testament (Heb. This is an online Viewpoint articlefrom theChristian Research Journal. The evidence says no. 4:26; 7:4 ). God sought to reveal His standards of righteousness to a thoroughly corrupted humankind, and He chose Israel out of the nations to exhibit the requirements for relationship with Him (Deut. In fact, He waited almost 400 years, and until their society had become completely depraved, before He instituted His command of capital punishment. In Ezekiel 18:23 we read, Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? (see also Ezek. The second goal of the conquest was the judgment of the Canaanites. Some Christians have responded by driving a wedge between the Old Testament and the New, claiming that Jesuss ethics improved upon the brutal practices of ancient Israel. These people were not clueless about their responsibility to God; rather, they openly mocked His lordship and committed horrible acts that even the most hardened of us would deem worthy of judgment. Why did God command the genocide of the Canaanites? - GotQuestions.org Keil and F. Delitzsch, trans., James Martin, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. When a community sins, there are consequences for every member of the population, even children. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Why did some rules from the Old Testament cease to exist? . Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. / He lies with her seventy times seven / Mounts eighty times eight / [She conceiv]es and bears a boy.20. Clay Jones is assistant professor in the Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics program at Biola University and specializes in issues related to why God allows evil. Perhaps what the skeptic is really concerned about is whether the just destruction of the Canaanites is license for Christians to resort to killing the wicked. God didnt. Little of the Canaanites' textual records remain, perhaps because they used papyrus instead of the more durable clay for writing. He is passionate about understanding the Bible and helping others do the same. It has been suggested that such obliteration language was hyperbolic.{10} Commands to destroy everyone are sometimes followed by commands not to intermarry, such as in Deut. 16:9; cf. Thanks to his obedience unto death, our own sins are forgiven, and we can now stand in Gods favor by faith alone. After all, he spoke approvingly of the destruction of Sodom, a pagan city that also included men, women, and children (Luke 17:28-29). Inanna/Ishtar, also known as the Queen of Heaven, became the woman among the gods, patron of eroticism and sensuality, of conjugal love as well as adultery, of brides and prostitutes, transvestites and pederasts.10 As University of Helsinki professor Martti Nissinen writes, Sexual contact with a person whose whole life was devoted to the goddess was tantamount to union with the goddess herself.11, The Canaanites even remake the God of the Bible, El, after their own image and portray Him ceremonially as having sex with two women (or goddesses). Old Testament Mass Killings - bethinking.org Going by this definition alone, the destruction of the Canaanites would seem to have been genocide. Isnt that a better alternative? God had promised this land to their ancestor Abraham around 500 years earlier (Gen. 15:18-21), but it would be their responsibility, under the leadership of Joshua, to clear out the local inhabitants and take possession of the land. There is no denying that God, in the Old Testament, commanded the nation of Israel, His chosen people, to exterminate many nations of people. Driving them out wasnt simply a way of making room for Israel. The atheism of today wasnt an option. A common attack today on Christianity has to do with the character of the God of the Old Testament{1}. God knew it would take the destruction of the nations. Molech was a Canaanite underworld deity14 represented as an upright, bullheaded idol with a human body in whose belly a fire was stoked and in whose outstretched arms a child was placed that would be burned to death. What was to stop it? Killing of the Canaanites: What Does This Say About God? Maybe this was just an example of Ancient Near Eastern military language.{11}. Idolatry. In Genesis 15:16, God told Abraham that his descendants would have to remain slaves in Egypt for 400 years before taking possession of Canaan, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. So God was patient in dealing with the Canaanite nations, waiting until they reached the point of no return. Why did God wait 400 years to give the Israelites the land of Canaan? Please make sure all fields are filled out. Baal has sex with his mother Asherah,6 his sister Anat, and his daughter Pidray,7 and none of this is presented pejoratively. Instead, the Israelites worshiped the Canaanites gods and did evil (Judg. Later Lots own daughters get him drunk to have sex with him and so even Dawkins, in a surprising moment of moral clarity, writes, If this dysfunctional family was the best Sodom had to offer by way of morals, some might begin to feel a certain sympathy with God and his judicial brimstone.28.