Did God Command Genocide?

Ever since atheist Richard Dawkins published his best-selling tirade against God and all who believe in him in The God Delusion, it seems commonplace to hear religious and irreligious people alike refer to the conquer of Canaan as God's genocide. Does the God of the Bible deserve a place in history among the likes of Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler for his systematic extermination of the Canaanites?

God Versus Humans

The first point to keep in mind is that God is the author, creator, and sustainer of life, and as such, he alone has the right to take people from this world anytime he pleases. Secondly, as sinners, we don’t hold any claim on God’s mercy and grace. Every day that we live on earth is an undeserved gift. When we begin to take that for granted and demand that God owes us more time here, we have lost all perspective on reality. God is the sovereign Lord; we are not. We have no right to demand life, nor do we have any right to take life. Those privileges belong to God alone. We do well to keep that in mind as we consider these passages.

God’s Plan to Bless All People

The account of the conquest of Canaan is recorded in Joshua and Judges, but to understand what's going on we must first go back to Genesis. When God set apart Abraham and his descendants to be a nation through which he would bless all nations, He promised them the land of Canaan. From the very beginning, God’s plan was to bless all people. He would make Abraham’s offspring into a nation, which requires people, land, and laws, and he would use that nation to bless all other nations of the earth. In Genesis 26:4 God said to Isaac, “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” We find the same thing in Genesis 18:18 and 22:18. God intended to give the land of Canaan to Abraham so that Abraham’s offspring would be a blessing to all nations.

The Wickedness of the Canaanites

However, Abraham’s descendants would not inherit this land for another four hundred years. Why? Because, according to Genesis 15:16, "the iniquity of the Amorites [was] not yet complete". The Amorites were a tribe living in the land of Canaan, and God said their iniquity—their sinfulness—had not reached completion. He wanted to give them more time. In fact, God gave the people in Canaan more than four hundred years to turn away from their wicked ways! But their abominations only increased. When their evil was complete, God sent the Israelites to conquer the land as judgment for their wickedness. This is reiterated in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Moses spoke to the Israelites on behalf of God, saying,

"When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you." (Deut. 18:9-12)[1]

"Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things[2] for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity." (Lev. 18:24-25)

The Canaanites practiced divination, witchcraft, idolatry, child sacrifice, incest, adultery, pedophilia, homosexuality, and sex with animals. We know from archaeology that they constructed life-sized metal idols, heated the metal to burning, and then placed their babies on the searing metal to scorch them to death.[3] They were consumed with evil, and yet God gave them hundreds of years to repent. Eventually, as judgment for their sin, He sent the Israelites to attack, expel them from the land, and destroy all their idols.

Damned If He Does, Damned If He Doesn’t

By the way, it’s not unusual for non-Christians to tell me they cannot possibly believe in a God who allows the kind of evil we see in the world. And yet, the exact same people tell me they cannot believe in a God who would command the conquest of Canaan. Do you see the problem here? They can’t believe in a God who allows evil to go unpunished, but they can’t believe in a God who puts an end to evil by bringing judgment upon those who engage in the most despicable of human behavior. You can’t have it both ways!

The Canaanites were pure evil. They had four hundred years to turn away from their wickedness, but they only grew worse over time. They seared their babies to death. They were consumed with evil. So God punished them.

Many Were Spared

It’s also important to notice that God did not command the Israelites to kill everyone they encountered. Even as they entered the Promised Land, they were commanded to spare Seir, (Deuteronomy 2:4-6); they were commanded to spare the Moabites (Deuteronomy 2:9); they were to spare the Ammonites (Deuteronomy 2:19); and they were to spare the Gibeonites (Joshua 9). Why? Was it because these people were following hard after the one, true God? No! It’s because they were not partakers of the egregious level of wickedness of the other groups, which needed to be judged and ended.

Furthermore, God gave opportunities for repentance right up to the very end. In Joshua chapter 2, when Joshua sent spies to stake out Jericho before the attack, they came across a prostitute named Rahab. She said to the spies, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan….for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” And then she asked them to save her family. Did you catch that? Rahab said she and all the people had heard what God did to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt. God provided a series of overwhelming displays of divine signs and wonders so that both Israelites and their enemies could know he is God and respond accordingly. The Canaanites knew the truth and they were given every opportunity to repent, and yet they chose to continue in their evil ways. Rahab, however, repented, and she and her entire family were spared.

Others Were Not Spared

At this point people will often say, “Okay, but was it really necessary for God to command the deaths of every woman and child too?” Of course, only God knows what is necessary, but as a woman I can tell you that women participate in evil too. Women can become hardened in sin and commit awful atrocities just like men do, including those committed by the Canaanites which caused God to finally act. Women engage in homosexual sex. Women commit adultery. Women sacrifice their own babies. In fact, at least in the West today, women are more complicit than men in killing their own babies. The Canaanites killed their babies after they were born, while women today usually kill them before they are born, but regardless of the babies’ age and location, we are guilty of the same sin. Women can do all kinds of evil, and in fact, it seems to me that women are the gatekeepers of morality in a community and culture. If we are willing to have sex with men before marriage, then that becomes a normal practice. If we are willing to abort our babies, that quickly becomes acceptable to many men too. If we are willing to sell our bodies, men are willing to buy. But if the women of a society have high moral standards and refuse to compromise, so go the men as well.

The question of the Canaanite children being killed is a little more difficult, but again, we have an extremely limited perspective while God is all-knowing. Would these children have grown up to be as evil as their parents? The four hundred years of preceding history sure indicate they would have. It may be that these children were spared the suffering of this life as well as eternal suffering because they never reached the age of accountability. I don’t know that for sure, but it’s a possibility. What we do know is that God is just and merciful, and that no one ever receives a punishment greater than what they deserve.

Hagiographic Hyperbole?

Another possibility is that the commands to completely wipe out the Canaanites were not intended to be literal. Some scholars are convinced that the language commanding the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites was what is known as hagiographic hyperbole. Just as we might say today, “The Tampa Bay Buccaneers completely destroyed the New England Patriots,” so it was also common in that time to speak of destroying one’s enemies, blotting them out, leaving not one remaining. This type of hyperbole was used to describe military victories in the Ancient Near East and it would explain why phrases like “destroy the Canaanites” were used interchangeably with phrases like “drive them out of the land.” It would also explain God’s condemnation of the Israelites in Judges, not for failing to end every Canaanite life, but for failing to drive the inhabitants out of the land. If you’re interested in this topic, check out the book, Did God Really Command Genocide? by Paul Copan and Matt Flannagan.

Time-Specific, People-Specific, Divine Judgment on Horrific Evil

Whether you accept the hypothesis of hagiographic hyperbole or not, what I really want you to remember is that even if God did command the killing of literally every man, woman, and child, this was a time-specific, people-specific, divine judgment on horrific evil that was long-delayed as God gave the Canaanites 400 years to repent, having even allowed them to know of his great power and goodness as displayed through the twelve plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. They had every opportunity to repent, and those who did were spared. Those who didn’t were not.

Context Matters

The larger story provides additional perspective. Throughout the Bible, from start to finish, we see a God who is concerned about people of all nations, but intolerant of all forms of evil. Beginning with the call of Abraham, God's intention is for Israel to bless all nations.[4] In the Levitical laws the Israelites are commanded to welcome and embrace foreigners into their community as long as they leave their foreign gods behind.[5] In the lives of Rahab, Ruth, and Naomi we see God caring for foreigners and even including them in the Messianic genealogy.[6] And in the story of Jonah, God is slow to anger and quick to forgive even the Ninevites, who were wicked and despised enemies of the Israelites.[7] In the New Testament God's plan to bless all nations comes to fruition as Jesus commands his followers to take the good news to all nations.[8] And in Revelation we see a great multitude from every nation, tribe, and tongue standing before the throne of God celebrating in worship together.[9]

God does not object to any skin color, ethnicity, or national origin, but he does object to sin. When the Israelites later fell into the same types of sin as the Canaanites, God judged them using the same method of conquer and removal from the land by a foreign power.[10] Yet in each case the judgment was limited in time, location, and scope.[11] For those of us who have ever struggled with why God allows evil to persist in this world, this is good news. He doesn't allow it to continue unchecked forever.

God’s Grace Revealed in Christ

But that's not the end of the story. Later God would come to earth himself in the form of a man, not to punish sin as we all deserve, but to provide a way for even the greatest of sinners to be spared the judgment we've earned by offering to exchange his perfect righteousness for our iniquity.

God is not a moral monster. He is slow to anger, quick to forgive, and always ready to embrace anyone who calls on the name of the Lord to be rescued.[12] Many of the Bible accounts demonstrate God's love and forgiveness, but others remind us that He is also holy and just. He will not tolerate unrepentant sin forever, so the best time to ask for forgiveness is now.

_______________________________________

[1] See also Deuteronomy 7:1-5 and 9:5; All Scripture references are from the ESV, unless otherwise noted

[2] "These things" refers to the behaviors described in the previous verses: incest, adultery, sex with animals, sex with children, child sacrifice, and homosexuality

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch

[4] Genesis 22:18; 18:18; 26:4

[5] Leviticus 19:34; Leviticus 24:22; Deuteronomy 10:18-19

[6] Joshua 6:22-25; Ruth; Matthew 1:5

[7] Jonah, esp. 3:10

[8] Matthew 28:19-20; Acts and the Epistles

[9] Revelation 7:9

[10] The northern tribes of Israel were defeated by the Assyrians and dispersed throughout the ancient world (2 Kings 17). The southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were conquered by the Babylonians and taken into captivity for approximately 70 years (2 Kings 25).

[11] Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster? (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011). 1. Archaeology has shown that Jericho and Ai were small military outposts not consisting of civilian populations. 2. The objective was likely to expel the Canaanites from the land, not to kill everyone. The language that indicates total destruction is nearly identical to other records of Ancient Near East military hyperbole. 3. This explains why Joshua was said to have completed his task and the Canaanites were said to have been utterly destroyed though multitudes remained alive. It also explains why God told the Israelites to devote them to complete destruction and then warned the Israelites not to intermarry with them (you can't marry them if they're all dead).

[12] Romans 10:11-13