Page 61 - Advanced OT Survey Student Textbook

Well, what about all the “innocent” Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites that God commanded
Joshua to kill? Was that not God murdering without cause? Deuteronomy 9:5 says God drove these
societies out of the Land because of their wickedness. They were utterly defiled. The Canaanites were a
hideously nasty munch. Their culture was grossly immoral, decadent to its roots. They practiced
divination, witchcraft, female and male temple sex, homosexuality, transvestitism, pederasty (men
sexually abusing boys), sex with all sorts of beasts, and incest. Sodom was a Canaanite city which God
destroyed for the cause of wickedness.

One of the gods of the Canaanite was Molech. He was a bull-
headed idol with a human body in whose belly a fire was stoked
and in whose outstretched arms a child was placed that would
burn to death. They not only sacrificed infants, but children up to
four years old were burned alive to their god. As the flame burned
a child, the limbs would shrivel up and the mouth would appear to
grin as if laughing, until it was shrunk enough to slip into the
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cauldron.
The Canaanites has been reveling in these debasements for
centuries as God patiently postponed judgment (Genesis 16:16).
God was willing to spare the evil city of Sodom for a few righteous
people, but none could be found. God is slow to anger and always
fast to forgive. But eventually, God’s justice reaches a point were
blatant defiance and wickedness are not tolerated and righteous
and deserved judgment is doled out.

Such is the case with the societies of the inhabitants of Canaan. God’s desire to utterly destroy them
not only was because the Canaanites deserved judgment, but to prevent their wicked ways from being
learned by the Israelites. It was for Israel’s protection not to assimilate evil people into their society.

The conquest was an exercise of capital punishment on a national scale, much like the flood. It was a
consequence for hundreds of years of idolatry and unthinkable debauchery. Indeed, God brought the
same destruction on His own people when they sinned in like manner. His command to kill the
inhabitants of the Promised Land was a cleansing of the Land with just cause.

Israel did not obey God’s command to cleanse the land. Instead of completing the conquest of Canaan
and driving its people out as commanded, the Jews capitulated with the inhabitants (Judges 1:28-33).
Blending with their enemy’s godless culture, they quickly were corrupted by it and began practicing the
same evil:

Judges 3:5-7 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites,
and Jebusites, and they intermarried with them. Israelite sons married their daughters, and Israelite
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daughters were given in marriage to their sons. And the Israelites served their gods.

Disobedience always has consequences. The Canaanites debauchery brought them destruction, just as
Israel’s disobedience brought them death and captivity. We see God dealing not with individuals, but
with nations as a whole when grand designs are in play. When a community sins, there are
consequences for every member of the population, even the children. When Israel did evil, God brought

52 https://www.str.org/w/the-canaanites-genocide-or-judgment-
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