I recently watched an interview that Bill Maher did with a
member of the clergy. Mr. Maher
continuously kept bringing the interview back to two main topics that he
thought discredited Christianity: The Genesis creation account and the Killing
of the Canaanites. Bill Maher is very mistaken on both accounts. I have already
written about the creation account in the following two blogs: http://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/02/removing-barrier-genesis.html
and http://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2014/02/creation-or-evolution-false-dichotomy.html
Maher’s second issue, the killing of the Canaanites, can be an ethical and
moral barrier to Christianity. Obviously, it is difficult to understand how a
“loving” God could command the killing of an entire people group, especially if
it is considered genocide or an ethnic cleansing. For this blog, I am using Paul Copan’s 2011 book,
Is God a Moral Monster, for an
outline.[1]
In Deuteronomy, God tells Israel that He will “drive out many
nations before them” so that they can enter and take possession of the land
that was promised to them.[2] Included in God’s instructions is the command
to “completely destroy” the Canaanites. In other places, such as in the book of
Joshua, the text reports that “he left no survivor” and “utterly destroyed all
who breathed.”[3]
These commands and reports are obviously concerning; but was this genocide or
an ethnic cleansing of a certain people group? A careful reading of the
command as well as the entire Bible makes it clear that it is nothing of the
sort. The entire theme of the Bible is
redemption for all peoples of the world;
no exceptions are made. Matthew’s gospel
ends with the command to “make disciples of all
nations.” God tells Abraham that “all
the families of the earth” would be blessed through his offspring.[4]
God also commands Israel to treat foreigners with honor and respect, to love
strangers and aliens as yourself and to give them the same rights as
native-born peoples (this is remarkable and unique in the ancient Near East!).[5] God
wanted (and still wants) to redeem every
people group.
When God does give the command to drive the Canaanites out
of the land, He is not trying to get rid of a people group, God is instead systematically
getting rid of evil; judging sin and wickedness, not races or ethnicities. God
makes it clear that Israel must totally destroy all the religious objects in
Canaan and that He is using Israel to punish the Canaanites for their sin. No favor is shown to any particular people
group when it comes to punishing a nation for sinning; including Israel! The book of Deuteronomy, where God initially
gives the command to drive the Canaanites out of the land, also reminds Israel
of the times they sinned and were punished accordingly. In fact, most of the Old Testament is about Israel
messing up and being repeatedly judged by God. God punishes evil; He removed a
people group that sacrificed children.
God did not target a specific race or ethnicity.
The
Canaanites were an extremely violent people involved in idolatry, incest, gang
rape (including homosexual rape), adultery, bestiality, child sacrifice, and
many other evil and grotesque practices. Many of these crimes are still
punishable by incarceration today! It also wasn’t just limited to
a few people in the culture – it was everyone! The Canaanite gods were
bloodthirsty, sexually immoral beings, so the people that worshipped them were
also. The story of Sodom & Gomorrah
in Genesis 18 makes it clear that evil was pervasive in the entire culture as
“10 righteous men” could not be found. Lot’s
daughters we so ingrained in the culture that they thought nothing of having sex
with their father![6]
Molech was
a Canaanite god that required child sacrifice to prove devotion to him.[7]
Incomprehensible evil needs to be dealt with; if a nation today was
regularly sacrificing children, most people today would want it to be stopped. A common question asked of Christians is, “If
God is loving, why doesn’t God intervene to stop evil? He did with the Canaanites. Israel was used as
a tool to get rid of an evil, immoral people.[8] God later would use nations (like Babylon) to
punish Israel for their sins.
Even though the language used in the text may imply that all
the Canaanites are destroyed, the entirety of the Bible makes it clear that
this was not the case. Right along with
the drive-them-out command, there are also instructions for Israel not to marry
any Canaanites and not to make any treaties with them. Why would these
additional instructions be necessary if all the Canaanites were going to be
killed? Some of the Canaanite people actually end up participating in God’s
redemptive plan in both the old and new testament; Rahab, a Canaanite women, is
mentioned in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew.[9] This
would obviously be impossible if all of them were destroyed.[10]
God was not targeting nor calling for a complete destruction of a people group,
he was instead demanding complete destruction of the Canaanite’s evil practices
and religious objects.
Another reason that the killing of the Canaanites was not a
massacre, a genocide, or an ethnic cleansing was the way in which wars
commanded by God were actually fought. Israel
approached war in a totally different way than the other nations in the ancient
Near East. God didn’t allow Israel to have a standing army; Israel’s wars were
not done by professionals. Soldiers that
did fight in a “Yahweh war” were not paid and could not take personal plunder. If
a “soldier” lacked courage or had other reasons for not wanting to fight, they were
allowed to excuse themselves from battle.[11] Kings, tribal leaders, and high priests in
Israel were not authorized to call for a war; only prophets could call for a
war through a divine revelation from Yahweh. It is interesting to note that God
makes it clear to Israel that He will drive the people out of the land ahead of
them.[12] When the non-professional armies of Israel won
a battle, it was supposed to be obvious that Yahweh was responsible for the
victory, not the soldiers.[13] God
also says that He will do this little by little, not in one great battle.[14]
Clearing out the Canaanites was not a massacre; the
stereotypical model of an all-consuming Israelite army descending upon Canaan
and destroying everything in its wake is not what happened. God didn’t require
that every Canaanite be killed; the only requirement was that they be
sufficiently driven out of the land so they wouldn’t undermine Israel’s
spiritual and moral integrity.[15] As
mentioned above, Israel’s warfare methods were way more tame than anything in
the ancient Near East and many of the battles fought on the way to and within
Canaan were defensive. Israel also only
attacked military outposts, not general populations. According to Old Testament scholar Richard
Hess, only political leaders and
their armies were targeted by the Israelites, not the noncombatants. Some of
the most destructive language is used in the book of Joshua when describing the
conquest of Jericho and Ai. The ancient
Near Eastern language used here actually describes attacks on military forts or
garrisons, not general populations that included women and children. There is no archeological evidence of civilian
populations at Jericho or Ai.[16]
There is another nuance of language in the Old Testament
that can help explain what actually happened during the conquest of Canaan. The passages that talk about “not leaving
anything alive that breathes” and “utterly destroying them” is just common warfare
rhetoric and hyperbole of the ancient Near East; the Old Testament writers were
speaking the language that everyone would have understood. We still use this type of rhetorical language
when we talk about the results of sporting events. No one thinks that the Seahawks actually
“killed” the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
“The language is typically exaggerated
and full of bravado, depicting total devastation. The knowing ancient Near Eastern reader
recognized this as hyperbole; the accounts weren’t understood to be literally
true. Ancient Near Eastern accounts
readily used “utterly/completely destroy” and other obliteration language even
when the event didn’t literally happen that way.”[17]
The killing of the Canaanites, as well as the other God
commanded wars in the Old Testament, were not genocide, massacres, or ethnic
cleansing. The driving out of the
Canaanite people was a one-time event to rid the land promised to the Israelite
people of religious objects and evil, immoral people. Israel accomplished this with relatively
civil warfare when compared to the rest of the ancient Near East. Israel was also
not to model this behavior in the future, just as Christians are not supposed
to either! The driving out of the Canaanites was one of the gradual steps required
to bring Jesus to the promised land to accomplish the ultimate goal of effecting
blessing and salvation to all nations and doing away with evil for good.
[1]
Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster,
Baker Books, 2011
[2]
Deuteronomy 7:1-6
[3]
Joshua 10
[4]
Genesis 12:3
[5]
Leviticus 19:33-34 & 24:22, Numbers 35:15
[6]
Genesis 19:30-36
[7]
Leviticus 18:21 & 20:5, 2 Kings 16:3, 21:6, & 23:10, 2 Chronicles 33:6
[8]
Deuteronomy 9:4
[9]
Matthew 1:5
[10]
Matthew 15:22, Psalm 87:4-6, Isaiah 19:23-25
[11]
Deuteronomy 20:5-8
[12]
Deuteronomy 7:1, 7:22 & 9:4, Exodus 23:27-30
[13]
2 Chronicles 20
[14]
Deuteronomy 7:22
[15]
Deuteronomy 7:5, 7:25-26, Leviticus 18
[16]
Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster?,
Baker Books, 2011
[17]
Ibid.
