A Good Question: The Destruction of the Canaanites

How is it that God commands the destruction of whole people groups in the Old Testament?

This question is a very important one. As I answer the question, I will stand on the following presuppositions:

1. The Bible (the canon of Scripture known as the Old Testament) is a true and accurate account of the history of the Israelites. If it is merely a fabrication, a myth, or perversion of the facts of history to suit some nationalistic or idealistic set of beliefs, then our question is easily answered.

2. The God of the Bible is good. From this premise, we assume, comes the charge that it is an affront to the goodness of God that an entire people group be annihilated or at least commanded by his authority to be annihilated. If the God of the Bible is in fact a capricious and vindictive entity by his (or the Bible’s) own admission, then our question doesn’t follow.

3. God is just. He rules rightly against evildoers and rewards the righteous. He does not punish the righteous for crimes they have not committed. (I admit that these are relatively facile representations of God’s attributes, but I simply can’t go into greater detail in this discussion.)

4. God is merciful. Even in his just judgments, God’s activities towards his creatures are tempered by compassion and love. The commands to destroy whole groups of people doesn’t seem to be in keeping with his mercy.

Let’s look at the passages in question.

Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations-- the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you-- 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.

Deuteronomy 20:16 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy them-- the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites-- as the LORD your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

1 Samuel 15:2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'"

These Passages in Light of Progressive Revelation

In trying to understand these texts we should pay careful attention to the nature of progressive revelation. This means that we are to understand these passages in the context of their specific place within the Scriptures and the work of God within that biblical and historical framework. These commands were given to God’s people in the early stages of redemptive history. The nature of God’s activity and revelation in their midst was different than it is now. God was dealing with the Israelites as an ethnic and federal entity seeking to survive amidst warring and hostile nations. What we learn through the Israelites in the Old Testament are shadows of a better and richer spiritual identity that is given to God’s people through the cross of Jesus Christ: The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-- not the realities themselves (Hebrews 10:1). We are no longer a nation with physical boundaries, engaging in physical warfare, and ordering ourselves as a civil entity. We are a spiritual people, called to live under the governance of the civil authorities of the land for the sake of the good news of Jesus: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. . . Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. (1 Peter 2: 9,13-14). While we may seek to understand how it is that God operated in this way in the Old Testament with his people (though there are certainly principles and truths that are still applicable and in operation for us today), we affirm that this is not the way in which God operates among and through his people, the Church, today.

These Passages in Light of God’s Providence

We need to admit that God did command ‘total destruction’ of these two people groups (the various Canaanite clans or groups in the former, the Amalekites in the latter). But the language used introduces a challenge for proper interpretation. There are very strong words used to describe the ‘destruction’ of these people (kachad, haram). Yet, there is also a call to ‘dispossess’ or ‘drive out’ the people (garash, yarash). Such a call to ‘dispossess’ the people of the land seems inconsistent with a call for total annihilation. From my understanding of these various texts, I believe that God is calling for a destruction of the ‘culture’ of these people, and for the occupation of the land by the Israelites. This destruction is a just judgment for sin. The call for destruction might also be seen as a significant warning to God’s people that anything less will result in an erosion of the culture and righteousness of the Isrealites if they continue to live in any sort of proximity to the godless cultures they are called to eradicate. From the standpoint of providence, we know that in neither of these instances did the Israelites obey God and carry out such an order. We know by God’s providence that such destruction was not brought upon the Canaanites or Amalekites. The very thing that God warned his people of did indeed come to pass, ie. intermarriage, syncretism, idolatry, and the attending judgment of God. Perhaps God was commanding his people according to His foreknowledge knowing that they would disobey and that such a command and warning would ultimately serve to judge them.

These Passages in Light of Their Extraordinary Nature

We must recognize that these commands of God are by no means ‘normative’ in the context of Israel’s warring with other nations in the Old Testament. This is by no means the way in which Israel is to deal with all of her enemies, and indeed was not the way Israel dealt with all of her enemies throughout Old Testament history. There are many accounts throughout the Scriptures of Israel’s military campaigns and relationships with other nations. In light of these passages we find that these commands given to Israel at the time of the occupation of Canaan and at the dawn of Israel’s monarchy are not in any way to be interpreted as some sort of normative guide for dealing justly with pagan nations. This doesn’t mean that these commands are unjust per se. Nor would their extraordinary nature excuse them if they were indeed unjust. It only serves to keep us from us from understanding all of God’s activities in and through his people, and in the lives of other people groups, through the grid of such rare and extraordinary cases from OT history.

The Answer: God’s Just Judgment and Mercy

We know objectively that the cultures of the Canaanite and Amalekite people were indeed very perverse and sinful. The sins of these cultures include ongoing child and human sacrifice, incest, bestiality, homosexuality, war crimes, brutality, and murder. These sins were a part of the culture as a whole and infiltrated every corner of life. When such patterns of sin become common place and unchecked in a community, the whole community faces the consequences of God’s just judgment for such sin. Those who might be innocent of the sins of their leaders, fathers, friends, etc. then become victims of that sin in suffering the attending consequences of these behaviors. And, judgment is a just and good consequence for sin. Children are innocent when their parents divorce, yet they still suffer the consequence of that sin. Why and how God allows for such suffering as a consequence of sin is another question. But we know that innocents do suffer, and they suffer due to the punishment and judgment of God upon a people as a consequence of their sinful hearts. The Bible says that God ordains such suffering, in fact using it for greater good and His own glory (Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28).

We also know and are full of praise to God for always intermingling mercy and grace with such right judgment upon sin. So, along with the judgments of God, we find that we shows mercy in manifold and diverse ways. But, there is a short answer to the question, “Why did God command such destruction for these cultures?” The answer is judgment. To display his justice and righteousness. To glorify himself in the just punishment that is due to those who reject him and turn from him. In a way, our question applies to all of us. It applies to the whole human race who will one day stand before God and answer for their rebellion, for their faithlessness, for their sinful behavior, and hard hearts. And destruction and punishment will fall on all who have not turned to God in repentance and faith in the One God has set forth as the only way for atonement.

In the Old Testament God had been dealing with the Amalekites for centuries before commanding punishment and destruction for them (Genesis 36;12,16). They knew who the Israelites were, they knew that Yahweh was to be worshipped alone, and his people were to be blessed. Yet they continually invaded and sought to oppress God’s people (Judges 6:3-5; Exodus 17; Deuteronomy 25). The same historical enmity can be said of God’s interaction with the Canaanites.

We find in the Scriptures that before judgment comes warnings, calls to repentance, and merciful patience. When these are not heeded, when the sinful heart and the corporate response is one of rebellion and rejection of God, then judgment comes. We see this happen historically to the nations in the Scriptures, and it happens to Israel in the Assyrian destruction of the northern tribes and the Babylonian captivity of Judah. It will happen to every nation in the march and progress of time until “the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time-- God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15).

What judgment will come upon our land, a land that has sanctioned the murder of over 40 million innocents in the name of choice and sexual liberty? Now, there is a good question! Sadly, I am afraid there is not too much mystery about its answer.

A Jealous God? Some Thoughts on Remembering Our First Love

Our first four months of marriage got off to a rocky start. No, we weren’t questioning our vows or despairing over whether we did the right thing or not. We were married at the end of May and I was supposed to be accepted into the University of Florida in June for summer classes. A couple of weeks into marital bliss and I found out that, because of bureaucratic glitches and other things (like a couple of below average grades my freshman year in Community College- but I like to think it was just because of a faulty bureaucracy), I was not accepted into my college at the University of Florida. This meant that we would not be able to live in student housing. This meant we would not have a place to live. After speaking with the dean and putting on the old Braun charm- I wept and begged – she told me that I would be accepted on the condition that I take a summer humanities course at the community college and get an A. It so happened that this class was taught by an openly gay Marxist atheist who wasn’t fond of born again Republican youth pastors preparing for seminary. All this was par for the course during the summer of 1995. So we spent our first summer together wandering from one house-sitting job to another, working part-time jobs, with me in school every Wednesday night cowering in the back of the room praying for an A.

The class time that summer was spent mainly in attacking Christianity and Western Civilization. It was not uncommon for the students to show up on Wednesday nights armed with some new glitch they found in the Bible or some horrific crime perpetrated in God’s name some time in the past. As the token fundamentalist doofus, I was the main target each week and was expected to know the intricacies of Old Testament history and Levitical law at the drop of a hat, being the spokesman and representative of some 400 years of protestant biblical criticism, responsible for the actions of all those everywhere who bear the name of Christ.

On one occasion the debate turned to the Ten Commandments. One student asked me why God tells us in the tenth commandment that we should not covet, but in the second commandment He tells us that He is a jealous God. Rather than getting into the obvious difficulties and logical fallacies of this young man’s argument, I decided that I could use this question to relate a bit about what it means to be a Christian. His comment also caused me to examine the nature and character of God and why I am happy He is a jealous God. My response went something like this (at least this is the way it is replayed in my head):

“I was married just a month or so ago. On May 20th I made serious vows to this woman because I love her with a powerful and deeply intimate love, a love that involves commitment, integrity, and trust. Would you agree that I would be justified and right to feel angry and jealous if she came to me one evening and told me that she had met someone new and was forsaking our vows to each other? Some of you have been betrayed and hurt in relationships based on trust and integrity. Was your hurt- your jealousy- wrong? The bible tells us that from the beginning God has been calling a people to himself for a loving, personal, and intimate relationship. The bible describes the relationship between God and His people as a marriage relationship. But God’s people often wander from the one who created them for Himself and loved them with an unrivaled passion. They turn to petty and trivial delights which never satisfy and give no love in return. The fact is that God’s words in the tenth commandment are established in the second. When we covet our neighbor we are turning away from our God and his provision for us. But he is jealous- he won’t let us forsake him for long. He will seek us out and bring us back into a loving and personal relationship with Him. Ultimately, the coming of Jesus Christ to pay for sin and provide forgiveness flows out of the jealousy of God. He eagerly desires our love and our fellowship. He has renewed the vows, so to speak, in the work of Jesus Christ. This is why the New Testament calls the church a Bride and Jesus Christ the Bride-Groom. So, I am glad that my God is a jealous God.”

No one walked the aisle that evening, actually, no one seemed to buy my response. But my professor was intrigued by what I said. We had a long discussion about it after class, and I could tell that something of what I said rang true for him. From then on, we actually began to develop a sort of quasi-friendship (always tempered by his suspicions about my Christian commitments). I did get an A that summer and ultimately I was accepted to UF and we lived in married housing. But I began to think hard about my remarks that night. How often do I break the second and tenth commandments? How often do I turn from the loving relationship provided by my heavenly Father through His Son, worshipping the gods of self and materialism, coveting my neighbor and questioning God’s loving hand in my life? 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” In 4:19 we read, “We love because he first loved us.” God was so jealous for my affection that He sent His only Son to restore me as His bride, and reconcile our sin-fractured relationship.

If all this is true, then why do I not spend more time in adoration of my Bride-Groom? Why do I so often bring the idols of pride and self aggrandizement into worship with me? The relationship between a bride and her bride-groom is one of adoration, intimacy, and righteous jealousy. But so little of my worship is characterized by heart felt adoration for the God who bought me at such a price. My worship often is so shallow and skin deep, concerned more about my earthly needs than God’s heavenly demands. I rarely am jealous for more time with my Savior and my God. My time in worship is governed and prioritized mostly by the trivial urgencies of my own design rather than the eternal realities revealed in God’s Word.

And what is the remedy? In a word, repentance. This is the message of a jealous God to His adulterous bride in Revelation 2: 4-5, “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” I recall that first summer Tori and I spent together. Our marriage became a word picture for me to relate the truth of the gospel to hostile unbelievers. As I often have to reflect upon my love vows to my wife in the mundane pace of daily life, so I also need to remember the zeal with which I have served my Savior in the past. Not because I am duty bound by legal obligation, but because I was saved from sin and made a son by my heavenly Father who is a jealous God.

A Good Question: Moses' Punishment

In Numbers 20:1-13, Moses did not obey God and was punished by not being the one to take the Israelites into the promised land. How is this applicable to me today? My understanding is that I receive grace from God for my disobedience through Christ's sacrifice and my repentance. Is the importance of the passage in Numbers to signify the consequences of our actions? Is this relative to the time when I will stand before God and my works will be tested with fire to see which remain - 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. The passage in Numbers struck me because my perception of Moses is that he was a holy man who was faithful to God, but also was disobedient like all men are. To have the entrance into the promised land taken away because of one disobedient act seems large and makes me think about my disobedience and resulting consequences.

This is a very good and very important question. I will try and answer as straightforwardly as I am able. Sorry if I am a bit verbose. But then, I am a pastor.

The question essentially is this: In Numbers 20:1-13, Moses did not obey God and was punished by not being the one to take the Israelites into the promised land. How is this applicable to me today?

I think that we need to ask ourselves, ‘Is this the RIGHT question?’ before we try and answer it. In many ways I think, “How is this applicable to me today?” is the wrong question to ask until we ask and answer a lot of other questions. Of course, I am sure that as part of your individual study you have done some of this spade work. I am frustrated sometimes by bible studies that don’t call for much study and prep and often jump to conclusions and applications of God’s Word in a pretty facile way.

But, let’s walk through some good questions for biblical interpretation:

1. How is this applicable to MOSES then?
2. How is it applicable to God’s people then (in the day of Moses)?
3. How is it intended to be applied to God’s people who first read this story?
4. How is it intended to be applied (or has been applied) in other references to this story in
5. Scripture? (or, how do other Scriptures deal with this passage or similar ones?) How did God’s people interpret this and apply it through biblical and church history?

Now, when we ask these questions, we do not always get the answers we might think we need or desire. That is part of the process. We also need to recognize that just doing all this work doesn’t always insure better interpretation. All of it is a work of the grace of God as we patiently submit to His Spirit in trying to understand and apply His word. What we are doing when we ‘interrogate’ the text this way is trying to keep from ‘subjectivizing’ (made up word) Scripture, or the ‘what does this mean to me’ syndrome. We need to know what it means to ‘me’…but you can’t get there without first finding out what it means to them, what it meant to others, and then what it means to us.

Let’s look at question 1. God had given specific instructions to Moses as the leader of the people. He was to follow God’s instructions specifically and truthfully. Many others (Egyptians, rebellious Israelites) were manipulating God’s people with proud displays of power and authority in order to bring glory and honor to themselves. In the context of the wilderness wanderings, where the daily survival of God’s people is at stake, not to mention the future plans of God to make a kingdom of priests to serve Him, it is crucial for God’s leader to be faithful. This breach of faith, as silly or trivial as it seems to us (and I agree, it doesn’t seem to be too grievous a sin from my limited perspective). But God, who sees into the thoughts and intentions of the heart, saw that Moses was acting against the holiness of God in the sight of the people. And there were consequences for such sin. God did not bar Moses from heaven. God did not curse Moses for generations. God simply said that because of this sin (and I believe a complex of sin and rebellion in the people as well) there would be a delay in entering the Land, and that generation as well as the leader of that generation would not enjoy the temporal blessings of the land of Canaan.

In answer to questions 2-3: I believe that Moses (and an editor after him) recorded this episode in order to warn the Israelites who would read in the next generation and generations to come that their sin has real, physical, and ultimately eternal consequences. God asked for covenant faithfulness, to obey his law, to worship Him only, to bring offerings and seek reconciliation and restoration through sacrifice as God had instructed, to not harden their hearts. Moses was a great man, favored by God, godly and righteous. But he presumed upon the power of God, he manipulated the word of God, he dishonored the holiness of God. There were grievous consequences for such actions. This is a serious warning for all of God’s people throughout Scripture- but most certainly a direct warning to those who first received these stories and were just entering the land or just establishing themselves as a nation set apart for God.

Now for questions 4-5. There are a variety of passages that speak to this period in Israel’s history. They might not directly refer to Moses’ sin but they do generally point out the sin and rebellion of Israel in the desert. Psalm 95 and its commentary in Hebrews 3-4 (also 1 Corinthians 10) are important for us to read. The writer of Hebrews is calling us to be faithful to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. If there were consequences for the disobedience in the wilderness, then what about those who have seen and heard Christ and rebel? This is an argument from the lesser to the greater. I think sometimes we use the grace of Christ as a license for sin. It should be just the opposite. The grace of Christ should compel one redeemed not to sin but to serve. Does this mean we will never sin? Of course not. It means we will respond to our sin with tender hearts. We will honor the holiness of God revealed and applied to us in Christ with hearts seeking forgiveness and grace. If we know the grace of Christ, will we harden our hearts? What does it mean when one says they have believed in Christ and understand His wonderful work on the cross as payment for sin and abiding power to love and serve the living God? This is a grave situation. Worse than the rebellion of Moses and God’s people in the wilderness. This question is not ‘will you sin’? It is, what is your heart’s response to sin? Is it a broken heart that seeks grace and mercy? Or is it a hard heart, presuming on God’s grace and mercy? This hardness of heart on this side of the cross is a dangerous position. Paul says it well, ‘shall we go on sinning that grace might increase? May it never be’. God’s grace is inexhaustible, because it is sovereign, and not dependent on our action but our faith. And even this faith is a free gift of God. If we harden our hearts, it is not that we need more grace, or have somehow exhausted God’s grace, it is that, perhaps, we have not received that grace.

All of this is a question of grace from first to last. God is the God of grace. And He is the sovereign who sees men’s hearts and accomplishes his glorious will in our lives according to his mysterious and incomprehensible plan. This is why we find these seemingly weird punishments for sin. Why does God do this to Moses? Aren’t these consequences harsh? Why is God easier on David (it seems, though there are some rough consequences for his sin)? David committed adultery, murdered a man, and much, much, more. Yet, he continued as king. And what about poor Uzzah in 2 Sam. 6:7? God struck him down for trying to keep the ark from falling! It seems to me that I’ve sinned worse than that!

The ultimate answer to these questions must be that God did it all for His glory. He graciously applied these ‘punishments’ in order to accomplish His purposes. He did it to reveal his holiness and power. He did it to work graciously in the lives of people for years to come. He did it according to the ‘kind intention of his will’ (Eph. 1).

Your final statements are very important to consider:

The passage in Numbers struck me because my perception of Moses is that he was a holy man who was faithful to God, but also was disobedient like all men are. To have the entrance into the promised land taken away because of one disobedient act seems large and makes me think about my disobedience and resulting consequences.

Moses was a ‘holy man’ only insofar as his holiness is found in Christ, like yours and mine. And even the slightest disobedience before a righteous God is deserving the gravest judgment (Matthew 5:22). The entrance to the promised land was by grace. Moses didn’t ‘deserve’ it. No one did. Moses received the temporal consequences of his sin. And even that was a gracious act of God! And God brought great glory to himself in applying them. But, I believe that Moses will be in heaven. By grace.

Let’s look at this in terms of our own sins and the ‘consequences’ we might experience because of them. Let’s say I go out this evening with a group of friends and have a few beers (of course, this is all hypothetical!!!!). I don’t feel all that inebriated and think I can drive home ok. On the way home I am pulled over. I fail the sobriety tests. I am cuffed and taken to jail. I am convicted of a DUI. I am removed from my position as pastor, or put under some sort of discipline by the elders of the church. There is shame and embarrassment upon my family and the whole church. Now, can I get angry with God? Can I say, ‘God, others have done worse than me! Why am I experiencing all this for such a trivial thing as one beer too many? This is too harsh! I don’t deserve this!’

I think that the word would tell us that we don’t deserve any of this in the first place (Romans 12:3)! And what about the infinite ways in which God would use such a situation to bring glory and honor to himself? What of the gracious activity of God in such a situation that I don’t see? What if I had crashed my car and killed innocent people or myself? Perhaps God desired that I not be in ministry but in some humbler situation because of my sin in order to learn his grace and power in a more profound way? All of this would be his gracious discipline in my life (Hebrews 12) for His glory. As we begin to ponder all of this, we certainly recognize that His ways are not our ways! And His ways are far greater and more wonderful than any design of ours. We see that his grace is at work in all things! The Christian is driven to love and embrace God’s grace in the most difficult and confusing situations and experiences. This is why the Christian faith is not about ‘deserving’ but about humble repentance and brokenness. A broken will and repentant heart. Brokenness over our sin, rather than an indignant heart over its consequences. Humble submission to God’s purposes and plans rather than proud assertion of our designs and expectations.

So, Moses was repentant of his disobedience. He accepted the plan of God in the discipline he received. And God graciously and gloriously uses it all to work powerfully in our hearts and in bringing honor to Himself. God used Moses’ sin and situation to provoke you to consider your sin. God used it to call you to lean not on your righteousness, but to lean wholly on God’s grace through faith. God used it and other warnings in the word (1 Cor 3:12-13) to consider your life and actions and decisions in light of their eternal value. None of this is particularly easy or simple. It is not always fun. But it is glorious. And God is honored in it all.