Tag Archives: Joshua

Did Joshua Kill Innocent Canaanite Adults During the Conquest? Part 3

Clay Jones, in this blog post, provides even more evidence that God, in the Old Testament, spares those who repent of their sin. Consider the story of Sodom and Gomorrah found in Genesis. Abraham asks God:

Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?

God offers to spare the cities if even ten righteous people can be found. We know how the story ends. Not even ten people could be found and both cities are destroyed. Jones writes:

The evil which seduced the people of Sodom and Gomorrah may have surprised Abraham and may surprise us, but it didn’t surprise God. Certainly we learn several things from this passage. One, Sodom and Gomorrah were completely depraved. Two, God knows hearts and therefore knows who will and who won’t repent. Three, God would allow entire cities to live if it meant that a handful of righteous wouldn’t die. Four, God was willing to give evidence of Sodom and Gomorrah’s wickedness so that He couldn’t be accused of killing the righteous with the wicked. And five, when God destroyed these cities, he only killed the wicked.

Jones then points us to the Book of Jeremiah.

The Lord warned Israel that if they let the Canaanites live that they would be seduced by their sin and then God would do the same thing to Israel. Well, we know that happened, and so the Lord sent prophets to warn them to repent—to no avail. Then the Lord said in Jeremiah 5:1-2: ‘Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city. Although they say, “As surely as the Lord lives,” still they are swearing falsely.’

Then in verses 3-5 Jeremiah reports that he looked but that he couldn’t find anyone who would repent. So in v. 6 he concludes: ‘Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them, a wolf from the desert will ravage them, a leopard will lie in wait near their towns to tear to pieces any who venture out, for their rebellion is great and their backslidings many.’ Notice that, just as with Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord made sure that the world would know that He knows when there are no good people in a city.

Finally, Jones points to the Book of Ezekiel.

Consider also this passage from Ezekiel 14:13-14, ‘Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.’ In the following verses the Lord says this is true when He kills with ‘wild beasts,’ or a ‘sword,’ or ‘pestilence.’

Then in v. 22 the Lord says, ‘But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it.’ Why will the people who witnessed their destruction be consoled by seeing these survivors? In the next verse the Lord tells us: ‘They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord God.’ Again, notice that the Lord cares that the people of that day realized that the people He had killed were depraved and deserved to die.

So what can we conclude? The Bible portrays the Canaanites as the most morally depraved individuals most of us could imagine. They are squatters on land that God has given Israel. God held Israel to the same standards as the Canaanites and He eventually pushed Israel out of the land when their sin reached a climax. Finally, we have very good reason to believe from several Bible passages that God would spare any individuals who repented of their sin and followed Him. Thus, no innocent Canaanites were killed by Joshua.

Did Joshua Kill Innocent Canaanite Adults During the Conquest? Part 2

God spares those who are truly repentant, those who truly love Him. Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan, in their book Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms with the Justice of God, offer several examples of Canaanites who were spared and who became members of Israel.

First, there is Rahab, the tavern-keeper in Jericho. Copan and Flannagan write:

The book of Hebrews states: ‘By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient’ (11: 31). Rahab was a Canaanite, yet she was spared because she was not like those who are disobedient, but rather responded in faith. The author of Joshua emphasizes that Rahab ‘lives among the Israelites to this day’ (Josh. 6: 25), 23 and Matthew lists her as an ancestor of both David and Jesus the Messiah (Matt. 1: 5).

Second, there is the example of Caleb, one of the two spies who gave a good report to Israel in Numbers 14. God says in Numbers 14: “Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it” (Num. 14: 24).

Most readers, however, fail to notice Caleb’s background. Copan and Flannagan explain:

Caleb, though from the tribe of Judah, has a Canaanite background! The text refers to him as ‘Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite’ (Num. 32: 12; Josh. 14: 6, 14). Who were the Kenizzites? They were one of the seven nations in Canaan and were listed along with the Hittites and the Perizzites who lived on the land God would be giving to Abram (Gen. 15: 18– 20). These were the peoples God commanded Israel to ‘utterly destroy.’ Yet Caleb the Kennizite was one of the few in the nation of Israel to see the Promised Land because ‘he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.’

Third, we have the example of the Shechemites. In chapter 8 of Joshua, the Shechemites are included in Israel’s covenant renewal ceremony: “All Israel with their elders and officers and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark . . . the stranger as well as the native” (v. 33 NASB).

At Shechem, those who heard the Law being read included not only ‘the assembly of Israel’ but also ‘the strangers who were living among them’ (vv. 33, 35). Sprinkle notes, ‘Joshua 8: 30– 35 narrates a covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem despite the fact that Shechem was a major power during the Late Bronze Age as the fourteenth century B.C. El Amarna tablets from Egypt indicate. This suggested to [John] Bright that Shechem was absorbed into Israel rather than being conquered, and so the covenant renewal ceremony was on the occasion of additional people being added to the covenant.’

In part 3 of this series, we will look at even more evidence, provided  by Clay Jones, that God spares those who repent.

 

Did Joshua Kill Innocent Canaanite Adults During the Conquest? Part 1

Some critics of the Bible complain that Joshua must have killed numerous innocent Canaanite adults during the conquest recorded in Joshua 1-12. Because of this, what Joshua did was nothing more than genocide. But the biblical picture is painted quite differently, and if we are going to accuse Joshua of killing innocent Canaanites, shouldn’t we at least read what the Bible actually says?

Paul Copan and Matt Flannagan, in their book Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms with the Justice of God, fill in the background for us so we can see what the true biblical picture is.

First, the Bible clearly states that the land where the Canaanites were living had been given to Abraham and his descendants, by God, hundreds of years before the conquest.

Israel had legal title to the land of Canaan based on the promise God had made to the patriarchs (Deut. 20: 16). The Canaanites were essentially trespassers or squatters (Josh. 2: 9– 11). The ultimate goal of Abraham’s calling was to bring blessing to the nations, and this promise includes permanent possession of the land (which, as Scripture progresses, expands into possession of the new heaven and new earth by God’s people).

Second, “Israel had to wait many generations— including having to endure slavery in Egypt— before it could take possession of the land because the Canaanites were not yet sufficiently wicked to judge (Gen. 15: 16).”

By the time of Joshua’s conquest, their wickedness had reached the point where judgment would finally occur. God waited hundreds of years for the Canaanites to repent, but they never did.

Copan and Flannagan add, “During the days of the patriarchs, Abraham’s people were forbidden to engage in violence against the Canaanite nations occupying the land.”

Third, the kinds of

wicked acts (Deut. 9: 4– 5) the Canaanites engaged in were not trivial: incest, adultery, bestiality, ritual prostitution, homosexual acts, and most significantly, child sacrifice (Lev. 18; Deut. 12: 29– 31). Most of these acts are illegal, even in modern Western nations. Any group practicing these actions would not be tolerated even in contemporary liberal societies, and in some jurisdictions, violators would be sentenced to death.

Fourth,

Israel’s own occupation of the land was conditional; Israel too would be ‘utterly destroyed’ if it engaged in the defiling practices of the Canaanites (Lev. 18: 25– 28). Indeed, later the Israelites would be judged— removed from the land through exile— because they violated the terms of the covenant.

Fifth, and maybe most importantly, we have many indications from the Bible that God spares those who are truly repentant, those who truly love Him. Copan and Flannagan offer several examples of Canaanites who were spared and who became members of Israel.

In part 2 of this series, we will look at these examples.

 

Commentary on Numbers 13-14 (Israel Refuses to Enter Canaan)

Since leaving Mount Sinai, the Israelites have traveled a few months toward the land of Canaan, or the Promised Land. They’ve arrived at the southern border of the Promised Land and are camped there. Verses 1-3 of chapter 13 indicate that God commands Moses to send out 12 representatives of each tribe of Israel to explore the land before the whole of Israel makes its way into the land.

We learn in Deut 1, however, that it was the people themselves that requested an exploratory party be sent out, so it seems that God acquiesced to this request rather than initiating it. The very fact that they did not trust God enough to enter the land, sight unseen, is testament to a potential lack of faith.

Verses 4-16 carefully list each of the twelve explorers that Moses sent out. Take note of Caleb son of Jephunneh and Hoshea (Joshua) son of Nun, for their roles will become critical as the narrative unfolds.

In verses 17-20, Moses gives the explorers careful instructions. They are to travel deep into the land and collect information on the condition of the land for agriculture, the strength of the people living there, and the fortification of their cities. They are also to bring back fruit from the land.

We see, in verses 21-25, that they did exactly as Moses commanded. Their journey lasted about 40 days and they likely covered 350 to 500 miles.

The explorers finally return and give their report. They describe the land as very rich for agriculture, but they report that the people are large and powerful, and that the cities are heavily fortified. Caleb, hearing the negativity from the other explorers, steps in and urges the leaders of Israel to go up and take possession of the land, regardless of the strength of the people living there. With God on their side, victory is assured!

The other explorers dissent from Caleb and claim that the people are too strong for Israel, that the Israelites will be devoured by the land. They scare the Israelites by saying that “we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

At the end of chapter 13 of Numbers, the Israelites are at a critical juncture. Will they listen to the negative reports of the 10 explorers, or will they trust God to drive out the Canaanites so that they can settle in the land that God promised them? The question is answered immediately in chapter 14.

Verses 1-4, in chapter 14, describe the outright rebellion of the people against God and against his appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron. They lament, once again, that God brought them out of Egypt. They are convinced that they will be killed in Canaan and their children taken as plunder.

R. Dennis Cole comments on the reaction of the Israelites:

The very people who had seen first hand the marvelous and miraculous demonstration of God’s omnipotence against one of the most powerful nations of the second millennium B.C. now longed to return to a world of bondage rather than believe a word of blessing. The sinful human tendency, even among Christians, to lapse back into the addictive ways of sin and despair after having seen the outward demonstration of God’s working on their behalf was evidenced in this setting.

Often in a state of rebellion against God, one loses the benefit of spiritual mooring, whereby wisdom and discernment become elusive and proper decision making is made extremely difficult. Worry and fear dominate one’s thought patterns. The Israelites had thus renounced and rejected God’s beneficence, by now suggesting that a return to Egypt would be a good thing rather than marching into a land that even the cynical scouts deemed as good.

Moses and Aaron fall down before God in submission and in an effort to assuage His anger. Caleb and Joshua try once again to plead with the leaders of Israel to stay the course and take the land, reminding the people of Israel repeatedly that God is with them! The Israelites will have none of it.

As they get ready to stone to death their God-appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron, along with Caleb and Joshua, God unmistakably appears over the tabernacle to intervene. He says to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

Moses then intercedes for Israel, noting that God is “slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.” He reminds God that He has already pardoned the Israelites many times since they left Egypt. But, Moses also knows that God cannot let this rebellion go unpunished. Moses has a profound understanding of God’s nature, which is a balance of mercy and justice. God is not either merciful or just, He is both.

So how will God both show mercy to Israel and yet give them justice after their lack of faith in Him? In verses 20-38, we see the consequences for three different groups of people. For the ten explorers who incited the rebellion with their report, God punished them with a lethal plague. For those adults over the age of twenty at the time of the rebellion, they would never enter the Promised Land; they would die by natural causes in the wilderness over the next 38 years. For the children under twenty years of age, they would be forced to live a nomadic life in the wilderness for 38 years while the adults in their midst died off. Only then could they enter the Promised Land.

In a final sad epilogue (verses 39-45), some of the Israelites determine to ignore God’s sentence on them, and instead take an army to attack the Amalekites and Canaanites, an effort to start taking possession of the Promised Land, the very thing they had just refused to do. Moses warns them that God will not be with them, and, sure enough, they are soundly defeated.

R. Dennis Cole concludes:

Sometimes the consequences of sin and rebellion are irreversible, and one must endure the experience of God’s judgment before a new course of action brings blessing. Sometimes those consequences endure for a lifetime, but even in those settings we must continue in faith so that our lives reflect redemption rather than further reproach.