THE JUSTNESS OF GOD IN THE

DESTRUCTION OF THE PEOPLE IN CANAAN

 

The purpose of this study is to show God's righteousness and

justness in his destruction of the people of Canaan at the time

the Israelites entered that land after their exodus from Egypt.

 

Since this study involves the character of God, let us first

see what he has revealed about his righteousness in his word:

Isaiah 45:21 And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God

and a Savior; there is none but me.

Isaiah 61:8 For I, the Lord, love justice...

Jeremiah 9:24 ..."I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice

and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the

Lord.

 

Secondly, let us see some of the practices which he has

declared as wickedness--the things which are detestable to him:

Deuteronomy 17:2-5 If a man or woman living among you in one of

the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil...has worshiped

other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the

stars of the sky,...If it is true and it has been proved that

this detestable thing has been done in Israel,...stone that

person to death.

Deuteronomy 27:15-25 Cursed is the man who carves an image or

casts an idol--a thing detestable to the Lord,...Cursed is the

man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the

widow...Cursed is the man who sleeps with his father's wife...

Cursed is the man who has sexual relations with any animal...

Cursed is the man who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his

father or the daughter of his mother...Cursed is the man who

sleeps with him mother-in-law...Cursed is the man who kills his

neighbor secretly...Cursed is the man who accepts a bribe to kill

an innocent person.

Deuteronomy 16:21, 22 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole...

and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the Lord your God

hates.

 

It can be seen from Scripture that the peoples of Canaan and

the surrounding regions were practicing these things:

Genesis 19:4, 5 Before they [Lot and the angels] had gone to

bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young

and old--surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are

the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we

can have sex with them."

Deuteronomy 18:9-12, 14 ...do not learn to imitate the

detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among

you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices

divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,

or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults

the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the

Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God

will drive out those nations before you...The nations you will

dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination...

1 Kings 14:23, 24 They [Judah] also set up for themselves high

places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and

under every spreading tree. There are even male shrine

prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable

practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the

Israelites.

 

So we can see that a problem would (and in fact did) develop

with God's people living in a land where their neighbors

practiced such rites and religions, things that would be

destructive to the Israelites' relationship with God (see

Ps 106:34-39). Those who embraced the evil practices of these

neighbors faced the same divine destruction (Dt 7:26).

It must be remembered that in those days a person could not be

"born again"--that is, receive a new spiritual existence that is

in intimate contact with God--and thereby receive the indwelling

Holy Spirit. He had to practice a very disciplined life adhering

strictly to the Law to prevent wandering away from God (Dt 7:11;

Nu 31:1-17).

Since this was the case, God had to provide a sheltered,

isolated environment for his people to prevent their

self-destruction by being polluted by the wickedness that was

around them. This is why God told them not to spare any nearby

towns (Dt 20:10-18).

As to the apparent severity of God's punishment by total

destruction of the nearby towns and kingdoms, note that God says

that destruction would come to those who committed such

detestable things (Isa 3:10, 11; Dt 7:1-10). So, besides giving

the Israelites the land of Canaan as an inheritance, God also

commissioned them as his agents to carry out his judgement on the

evildoers (Lev 4:19). We can see from Romans 13:4 that God uses

man as his agents to carry out punishment on the wicked.

I think that I should address a commonly misunderstood aspect

of Scripture at this point. The sixth commandment of the Ten

Commandments (Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17) in the King

James Version reads, "Thou shalt not kill." Those who have heard

and read the Ten Commandments may consider God's command to the

Israelites to destroy the inhabitants of the cities of Canaan as

a contradiction. This apparent paradox arises because the

writers of the King James Version incorrectly translated these

verses. The Hebrew word used in each listing of the Commandments

is *ratsach*, which means to murder or pierce, not to kill which

comes from other Hebrew words. The Hebrew *ratsach* was

translated as "kill" in these verses also: Nu 35:27, Dt 4:42, 1

Ki 21:19, and Hos 4:2. The same word was translated as "murder"

or "murderer" in the following verses: Nu 35, 2 Ki 6:32, Job

24:14, Ps 94:6, Isa 1:21, Jer 7:9, and Hos 6:9. In Matthew 19:18

Jesus quotes Ex 20:13/Dt 5:17 this way, "...Thou shalt do no

murder...." The Greek word here is *phoneuo* which means, To do

murder.

But lest we think that God would not have mercy on a nation

that would repent see Jeremiah 18:7, 8; and Jonah 1:1, 2, and

3:4-10. Remember, God took no pleasure in the destruction of

those people (Ex 33:11), but his holiness demanded the punishment

for their extreme wickedness.

In the verses where the Israelites were commanded to totally

destroy the city--kill every thing that breathes and burn the

town, the Hebrew word for "destroy" and "devoted ('accursed' in

the KJV)," according to footnotes in the NIV, "refers to the

irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often

by totally destroying them."

 

 

 

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL

VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.

Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

 

Copyright 1988 by Allen T. Fincher

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