February 16

February 16

Read Deut 4-8
Tomorrow Deut 9-11

Today is accountability day. Send me a quick email telling me what chapter you are on.

Today I want to deal with one of the most difficult ethical questions in the Bible: the genocide of the Canaanites.

Deut. 7:1-2 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-- 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.

The Hebrew word used here is “herem” to utterly destroy. The word is used to show what the exclusive property of the Lord is. Only God can make this pronouncement of what is to be totally destroyed. No human being can “herem” a people or country. This word would later be used for a group of women who would be the exclusive property of a king, “The King’s Harem.”

The question that faces us is, “Is this ethical?” Certainly this concept does not fit with the Western concept of God being a big, loving sugar daddy in the sky. But the harder question is the killing of the children and infants. If the Israelite children who were under age 20 were allowed to live in the desert, why would God demand the lives of these children? How do we reconcile this command with the concept of a loving, gracious God who asks us to turn the cheek to our enemies? This declaration offends our moral sensibilities; it literally jars our picture of God because it seems at odds with the revelation of God at other points in the Bible.

So what is the answer? Let me give you some initial thoughts. I have used some thoughts from Walter Kaiser, William Craig, and Gleason Archer.

1. The Holiness and Justice of God. God’s character demands just laws and just rulers in government. When a group of people deliberately violate God’s standard for an extended period of time they will eventually face the holiness and justice of God. It doesn’t matter what time, what country, what nationality. When we break God’s standards there is a price to be paid. That is why God literally pleads with people to repent of their unjust and wicked ways so that he won’t have to judge them.

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'

This verse was directed at Israel because they had fallen into the exact sin of the Canaanites. God’s holiness is not capricious. It stands opposed to sin regardless of the person committing it. That is why the US and western culture are in danger today. We have deliberately turned our backs on God and his laws. We wink at sin in our culture. To us sin is fun; it is something to play around with. But to God all sin is cosmic treason which is punishable by death.
Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death.
Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned.
That means that every one of us is under the wrath of God when we violate his commands. While we trivialize sin, God says that all sin has drastic consequences. The most horrific consequence is eternally being separated from God.

2. The patience of God. Did God give the Canaanites enough time to repent and get right with him? God gave them 430 years to respond to his love. Archaeologists have found that in Canaanite history both El and Baal were considered equal at one time. El being the God of the Bible and Baal being the god of the Canaanites. But over the next centuries Baal overtook El until only Baal worship existed. They had their opportunity to respond to the God of the Bible but they rejected his love and laws. 400 years is a long time to wait for someone to respond. God was fair. See Genesis 15:13, 16.

3. The Wickedness of the People of Canaan. Critics of God’s pronouncement of “herem” typically neglect one very important truth, the depravity of the Canaanites. According to the Bible and archaeological information, the Canaanites in the land widely practiced child sacrifice, incest, bestiality, and other behaviors that almost everyone in history, including today, rightly regard as unspeakably, grossly immoral. If the people of Canaan were akin to the peace-loving, civilized folks of different religions living in our suburban neighborhoods and working in our colleges, hospitals, and fire departments, then the Israelite claim that God had condemned those peoples as hopelessly degenerate would be rightly questioned. On the other hand, if the Canaanites and other peoples in the land were a degenerate society widely practicing bestiality and publicly burning their children to Molech, can we not understand why God would “herem” them.
But what about the young children? Since we don’t have an explanation of why they are included in this ban, let me suggest 2 possible theories:
First, after generations of the sort of moral degeneracy that characterized these peoples, it may be that even the smallest children were beyond civilizing. Apparently even they were abused and forced to participate in obscene conduct, such that they would have grown up psychologically and spiritually scarred-and perhaps threatened to perpetuate the cycle.
Second, the STDs and other infectious diseases that must have pervaded those cities may well have been carried by the smallest children, and if so, they may have posed a grave danger to the physical health of the Israelites. Imagine some of the nations today most ravaged by AIDS, but living more than three thousand years ago, with no access to even the most basic medical resources. It may be that infectious diseases were also ravaging the domestic animals in these cities, which would also explain why they were destroyed.
It's horrible to contemplate that things were so bad that it was actually necessary for even the youngest members of that society to be killed in order to stop the generational cycle of degeneracy and disease. But something along these lines seems likely to be the reason for God's order to leave alive nothing that breathed.
4. The age of accountability should be taken into account. Since God was so gracious and declared the age of accountability for the Israelites as age 20 could he not have done this for the Canaanites? I personally believe that God’s grace is extended to those who die in infancy, or as small children, the death of these children was actually their salvation. We are so focused on an earthly, secular perspective that we forget that those who die are happy to quit this earth for heaven’s incomparable joy. Therefore, God does these children no wrong in taking their lives.
5. The Nature of God and Being God. God is not to be trifled with. Again this goes against the current politically correct thought where we stand over God in judgment of him and his actions. But the God of the Bible is clearly someone you don’t want to mess with. He means business and he is to be feared. As C.S.Lewis pus it, “Aslan is not a tame lion.” God does have the right to take any life since he is the one who gave it. He is not under any moral obligation to prolong life and when he takes life he doesn’t have to explain to mortals why he did it. He is God and we are not. As Americans this grates against us since we think we are always in control. Control is just an illusion. God is God and we are not.
6. God’s past record of being gracious. When we look at the destruction of Sodom we see a God who gives his solemn promise not to destroy the city if there are ten righteous people there. The implications are clear; the Canaanites are not righteous people but have come under God’s judgment. Every human being is given a choice when it comes to being reconciled with God. God has made a way for us to be reconciled with him. It is through the cross of Jesus. If we reject the sacrifice that Jesus paid on the cross then the consequences of that decision lie with us. God will not force his will on any person.
In summary: The pronouncement of “herem” on the Canaanite people is harsh. But it was God’s way of preserving Israel’s health and posterity. God knew that if these Canaanites were allowed to live, they would spell the undoing of Israel. This is exactly what happened. The Israelites did not eliminate the Canaanites and their Baal worship, and eventually it became their undoing. In 586 BC God would say “Enough” to the nation of Israel just like he had said it to the Canaanites. And then it would be Israel who would face the wrath of God. God did everything possible to spare them from this destiny.
When will we wake up in the USA and realize how close we are to God saying to us, “Enough?” That is a scary thought. Now is the time for us to renew our commitment to God and follow him with our whole hearts.