In part 9 I concluded that genocide was neither commanded nor carried out in the Book of Joshua. There were clearly some battles and people were killed, but that is not the same thing. Most battles were launched by the Canaanites. At the end of Part 9 I provided a link to a Paul Copan article I believe is helpful and I don’t aim to repeat his thoughts.
Part 2 touched on a constant theme that runs through Scripture, albeit presented in different ways - ‘God invites humanity to enjoy all the benefits He provides; the offer is extended freely, it is not earned by our moral purity or anything we may do; there is a condition of obedience; and the penalty for unfaithfulness is exclusion from the benefits of the covenant.’ That theme is played out in the story of the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan.
Parts 6 and 8 also showed that despite what appears to be a clear, unmistakeable exclusion Canaanites were welcomed into the congregation of Israel with God’s blessing. As I have reflected on this story I have remembered many themes I see played out in different ways throughout the Bible. But I will conclude for now with two thoughts, covenant and evangelism. I may intermittently return to those other themes.
In Judges 2:20-23 God explains He did not drive the nations out in order to test Israel, to see if they would be remain faithful to His commands.
So the Lord burned with anger against Israel. He said, “Because these people have violated my covenant, which I made with their ancestors, and have ignored my commands, 21 I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died. 22 I did this to test Israel—to see whether or not they would follow the ways of the Lord as their ancestors did.”23 That is why the Lord left those nations in place. He did not quickly drive them out or allow Joshua to conquer them all.
As seen in Pt 2, and restated above, God's covenants generally include a test of obedience. Now they were in the Promised Land the Israelites were faced with a choice, obey God or follow after the religious practices of the Canaanite tribes. Judges records their sorry history of failure.
Part of God’s will for Israel, and by implication, the surrounding nations, is seen in Deuteronomy 4:5-8.
"You must obey these laws and regulations when you arrive in the land you are about to enter and occupy. The LORD my God gave them to me and commanded me to pass them on to you. If you obey them carefully, you will display your wisdom and intelligence to the surrounding nations. When they hear about these laws, they will exclaim, 'What other nation is as wise and prudent as this!' For what great nation has a god as near to them as the LORD our God is near to us whenever we call on him? And what great nation has laws and regulations as fair as this body of laws that I am giving you today?
This reflects God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:18, ‘... through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.’ God intended His people to demonstrate through their faithfulness to Him the attractiveness of His way. As they marvelled at the wisdom and fairness of God's way the surrounding peoples would be drawn to Him. Like Rahab, the Gibeonites and later Ruth, they could also forsake their gods for Israel’s. God had delivered Israel from the oppression of Egyptian slavery and in the process demonstrated to them His power to protect them and to provide all they needed and more. What a story they could have told.
It was not God’s intention to destroy the Canaanite nations. In Joshua we see not hatred and genocide, but God’s plan to bring them under the protection of His love.
After the death of Solomon the nation was divided into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and Judah in the South. Both were ravished by their enemies. Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the survivors were taken as captives to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.
At this time the Canaanite peoples were still living in the land and were still living there after the Jews had returned from their captivity in Babylon (Ezra 9:1,2). It seems that their fate was better than that of Israel's.
Bible Quoted: New Living Translation
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