Christian Motivational Blog

 “I like Jesus because He is loving but I don’t like the God of the OT because he is too wrathful and angry”? 

Have you heard people make this statement? For years I struggled with this question myself. 

Why did God tell the Israelites that “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)

Recently I heard an illustration that helped me understand why God commanded Israel to completely remove the Canaanite nations. While no analogy is perfect, it shed light on why partial obedience would have defeated God's purpose. 

Some analogies

A recent Rutgers University study confirms that urban rodents across the Northeast are evolving. An estimated 84% of tested mice and rats now harbor genetic mutations that effectively allow them to survive anticoagulant poisons (rodenticides) used for decades. 

You have probably heard that antibiotics are becoming less effective due to antimicrobial resistance. This happens when bacteria naturally mutate and evolve to withstand the drugs meant to destroy them. This natural process is dangerously accelerated by human activities.

These examples illustrate an important principle. When the source of corruption is only partially dealt with, it often returns stronger than before. That principle helps explain God's difficult command concerning Canaan. 

What does this have to do with God?

The God of the Old Testament commanded the Israelites to totally destroy the Canaanite people living in the promised land. This biblical concept is known as "the ban" (or in Hebrew, herem). It describes a practice where things or people hostile to God are separated from normal use and devoted entirely to divine judgment.

The biblical narrative presents these killings as a punishment for the deep depravity and evil practices of the Canaanite culture, such as rampant idolatry and child sacrifice. God says that if these people are not removed, they will teach His people to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods and thus sin against the Lord. (Deuteronomy 20:16-18)

Why does God Command This?

Here are four principles that help explain this command.

God's Patience

First, God is patient. He granted 400 years of grace to the Canaanites (Gen 15:13-16). They had heard of God’s awesome power as displayed through His miracles (Joshua2:10-11: 9:9). This should have prompted their repentance, but instead the Canaanites continued in their debauchery. God had given them ample time to turn from their wicked ways.

God's Judgement

The destruction of the Canaanites was God’s judgment on them for their horrible abominations. The Canaanites weren’t guilty of minor offenses. Leviticus 18 describes them as a culture of adultery, incest, homosexuality, bestiality and human sacrifice. 

God’s Protection

God could have used other means to punish the Canaanite people for their ongoing sins. But as the Israelites move into the Promised Land, God chooses to use His people as his instrument of judgment in order to instruct them in order to protect his people and their relationship with him.

God's Goodness

Finally, God’s judgment of the Canaanites reminds us of God’s goodness. No one is innocent before a holy and just God. We all deserve the same judgment that fell on the Canaanites. But because of God’s great love for you and me, he has offered mercy instead of judgment. 

The total destruction of the Canaanites was not inconsistent with the goodness of God but instead was the righteous act of a perfect and holy God against sin. In actuality we should all be placed under the ban of total destruction for the sins we have committed. Instead God the Father put the ban on Jesus Christ His Son. The suffering that Jesus experienced on the cross was horrendous. But it is what we deserve for our violations of a perfect holy God. Yet if we put our faith in Jesus’ sacrifice in our place we no longer have to experience this much deserved wrath of God.

Consequences of Disobedience

In the book of Judges we see the results of the Israelites not following God’s instructions for the ban. During Joshua’s lifetime the Israelites began to enter the Promised Land. But they did not complete the job in the way that God commanded. Instead they killed most of the people of the various kingdoms and towns but not all of them. We will see later in Judges that the people groups that were not completely destroyed end up being a cause of much trouble and conflict for the Israelites in the future. 

The Example of the Amalekites

The entire story of the book of Esther is likely a result of a 500 year old conflict between the Israelites and the Amalekites, one of the many groups living near Canaan. Haman, who is described in the book of Esther as an “Agagite”, is believed to have descended from Agag the king of the Amalekites. Haman desired to get revenge for a five century old conflict by killing all of the Jews in Persia and he was almost able to trick King Xerxes into doing so. 

If we look back at Exodus 17:8 after God rescues His people from Egyptian slavery, we learn that as the Israelites were wandering in the desert for 40 years due to their sin, the Amalekites came and attacked them, unprovoked. The Israelites defeat but do not completely wipe out the Amalekites at this point.

Later, in 1 Samuel 15:2 we see the prophet Samuel telling King Saul to attack the Amalekites and “totally destroy everything that belongs to them”. Saul defeats the Amalekites but He does not destroy everything. 

Esther takes place five centuries later. We see how a small act of disobedience in not killing every Amalekite leads to much conflict later on. Throughout the book, Ester and her cousin Mordecai who are both Israelites work together to expose, prevent, and reverse Haman’s evil plot to destroy the Jewish people. 

Worshiping God is Good for Us

The Westminster Shorter Catechism starts with the question “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.”

God doesn’t command us to worship Him for His benefit but for ours. In fact God did not have to create humankind at all but did so because He wanted a relationship with us despite knowing in advance how sinful we would be. But in order for Him to have a relationship with us, we need to be cleansed of our sin by the sacrifice of a perfect offering which Jesus Christ provides.

So we see that the command to destroy the people of Canaan is to make sure that their sinful lifestyles do not negatively influence God’s people by pulling them away from a relationship with Him. And a relationship of dependence on and trust in the Lord is what is best for us today as well. 

Recognizing God’s Blessings in Our Lives

The more we understand about who God is, the more we grasp our own sinfulness and the fact that we do not deserve a relationship with God. Understanding this helps us appreciate His love for us and His purpose for our existence. 

When we look at the destruction of the people of Canaan in the past or of people today in events such as natural disasters, disease, or untimely death we tend to think that it is unfair for those people to have suffered. 

But the truth is that we should all experience these horrible events because of our sinful hearts. What is unfair is the fact that God allows us sinners to continue to exist at all. Because He is the God of the universe the slightest rebellion against his law should result in our immediate death. Yet God is amazingly patient and does not punish us as we deserve and as He easily could.

Some Christians, when asked “How are you?” answer “Much better than I deserve.” This change in our attitude toward suffering and trials can help us realize that we do not deserve any of the blessings that we take for granted every day. This new understanding would make an enormous change in our perspective on life and on the difficulties we face each day. We would realize that even on the worst day we are still “Much better than we deserve”.

References

https://www.newsweek.com/mice-are-evolving-what-it-means-for-rodent-problems-in-us-cities-12119397 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9459344/

https://www.str.org/w/why-a-good-god-commanded-the-israelites-to-destroy-the-canaanites

The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.