Search ATF's Blogs

Monday 12 March 2018

Canaanites could have repented | Genocide in the Bible series (Part 4)



This was no ‘spur of the moment’ decision by God. In Genesis 15:13-16, God tells Abraham that his descendants will be slaves in a foreign country for 400 years but that they will return to the land of Canaan after “four generations”. The reason given for this delay is because “the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure”. Similarly, the judgment on the Amalekites was given in Deut 25:17-19 but fulfilled only under Saul in 1 Samuel 15:2… a gap of 300 years. But, during this intermittent period, do we see evidence of God sending witnesses to the gentiles?

At the time of Abraham there is evidence that the Canaanites had some knowledge of the true God:

·         The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were close to Canaanite territory, and the deliverance of Lot were evidence of God’s judgment against sin (Genesis 18-19).

·         Abraham lived among them and was a wealthy and powerful man (he was even able to rescue Lot from the united forces of four kings according to Genesis 14). His faith in God should have been a witness to the Canaanites.

·         The mysterious Melchizedek was king of Jerusalem and also “priest of God Most High” (Genesis 14:18). He must surely have taught his people about the true Creator God (Genesis 14:19).

It seems that over the period from Abraham to Joshua, the Canaanites had gradually rejected what they knew about God and moved deeper into sin. It was only when their sin reached a certain level of severity that God decided to use the Israelites to bring judgment on them.

Probably the clearest sign that the warnings had gone out to the Canaanite kingdoms is seen in Joshua 2:8-13; in the words of Rahab the prostitute who gave shelter thereby saving the lives of the 2 spies sent by Joshua ”Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. 12 Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, 13 and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”

Rahab the prostitute was able to discern from what she and other Canaanites had heard about Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and victories over other Amorite kings, that God was giving the land of Canaan to the Israelites and, because of her faith in God demonstrated in her statement and her rescue of the Israelite spies, she was saved from destruction and included in the nation of Israel. She even became an ancestor of King David and, eventually, Jesus Christ! Sadly, she is the only Canaanite we read of coming to faith in God, although surely others had the opportunity.

Let’s not forget the Gibeonites in Joshua 9 who literally bent over backwards in literally tricking the Israelites to spare them… why did they do this? Just like Rahab and the other tribes living in Canaan, the Gibeonites had heard of the juggernaut tribe of Israel.

We see many such instances strewn across the length and breadth of the Scriptures, refer to the words of the soldier at the time of Gideon (Judges 7:13-15), the Lord in His mercy had even revealed to the soldiers of the Midianites in a dream that they would be defeated by Gideon but still they persisted in their war with the Israelites resulting in an utter defeat.
Even during the time of Solomon we see Queen of Sheba in 1 Kings 10 where she comes to visit him having heard of the blessings of the Lord on him.

Unlike us, God knows the future. God knew what the results would be if Israel did not completely eradicate the Amalekites. If Israel did not carry out God’s orders, the Amalekites would come back to trouble the Israelites in the future. Saul claimed to have killed everyone but the Amalekite king Agag (1 Samuel 15:20). Obviously, Saul was lying—just a couple of decades later, there were enough Amalekites to take David and his men’s families captive (1 Samuel 30:1-2). After David and his men attacked the Amalekites and rescued their families, 400 Amalekites escaped. If Saul had fulfilled what God had commanded him, this never would have occurred. Several hundred years later, a descendant of Agag, Haman, tried to have the entire Jewish people exterminated (see the book of Esther). So, Saul’s incomplete obedience almost resulted in Israel’s destruction. God knew this would occur, so He ordered the extermination of the Amalekites ahead of time.

In regard to the Canaanites, God even clarified the reason behind the command to totally eradicate them from the land… God commanded, “In the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them — the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites — as the LORD your God has commanded you. 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” (Deuteronomy 20:16-18). The command to eradicate was given so that the corrupt practices of the Canaanites do not defile Israel too… much like a single rotten fruit in a fruit basket soon infects the entire basket. The Israelites failed in this mission as well, and exactly what God said would happen occurred (Judges 2:1-3; 1 Kings 11:5; 14:24; 2 Kings 16:3-4). God did not order the extermination of these people to be cruel, but to prevent even greater evil from occurring in the future.

Inspite of all their horrible abominations, the Lord was long suffering and patient… when their iniquity was “full,” divine judgment fell. God’s judgment was akin to surgery for cancer or amputation of a leg as the only way to save the rest of a sick body. Just as cancer or gangrene contaminates the physical body, those elements in a society—if their evil is left to fester—will completely contaminate the rest of society.

Still we see in all the instances of “mass killings”, the love of God in the form of clear witnesses, time given to repent and salvation by grace through faith:
1.       Flood: Noah was the witness to the known world before the flood, we read in 1 Peter 3:20 “who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.” A clear timeline of 120 years was given – Genesis 6:3 and even the name Methuselah, the man who had the max known lifespan, his name meant “at his death, the flood will come”… just imagine, every time anyone called his name, it served as a reminder to mankind of the incoming judgment. To be saved from the flood, all that was needed was to enter the Ark… but except the close family of Noah, no one chose to enter the ark.
2.       Sodom and Gomorrah: As seen in Genesis 18, Abraham bargains with God to spare the cities even if 10 were found righteous but even that minimal number was not found amongst the depravity… 2 Peter 2:7 says that Lot was the righteous witness to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
3.       Egyptians and the Red Sea: The 10 plagues were possibly the greatest witness of the presence and power of God… the repeated pleas of Moses to Pharaoh to repent resulted in nothing. In this instance, we see possibly the clearest sign of the heart of God to embrace all who reach out to Him… Exodus 12:38 “A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.”
  
Contrary to the vitriolic rhetoric of someone like Richard Dawkins, the God of the Bible is a God of justice, long-suffering, and compassion.

You can’t read the Old Testament prophets without a sense of God’s profound care for the poor, the oppressed, the down-trodden, the orphaned, and so on.  God demands just laws and just rulers.  He literally pleads with people to repent of their unjust ways that He might not judge them.  “As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ez. 33.11)

On another occasion God saved some thirty-two thousand people who were morally pure (Num. 31:35). (5) Finally, the battle confronting Israel was not simply a religious war; it was a theocratic war. Israel was directly ruled by God and the extermination was God’s direct command (cf. Exod. 23:27-30; Deut. 7:3-6; Josh. 8:24-26). No other nation either before or after Israel has been a theocracy. Thus, those commands were unique. Israel as a theocracy was an instrument of judgment in the hands of God.

The book of Revelation teaches Christ will come to earth and literally destroy millions because of the rebellion and unbelief of man’s heart. In fact, the tribulation period, which is described for us in Revelation 6-19, will among other things, demonstrate the true nature of man and just what lengths he will go to in his sin and rebellion when left to himself. Christ spoke of this time in Matthew 24. So the Old Testament is not alone in demonstrating God’s wrath and judgment against sin.


Nothing could so illustrate to the Israelis the seriousness of their calling as a people set apart for God alone.  Yahweh is not to be trifled with.  He means business, and if Israel apostasizes the same could happen to her. As C. S. Lewis puts it, “Aslan is not a tame lion.”

(... To Be Continued in Part 5)

No comments:

Post a Comment