Was God Unjust for Ordering the Destruction of the Canaanites?

 

 

This is God’s creation. He is at liberty to set the rules: Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Therefore salvation is always a matter of receiving the free gift of God.

Regarding the nations outside the Promised Land:  Deuteronomy 20:10 "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.”

However, there were no terms offered to those in the Promised Land (apart from repentance): Deuteronomy 20:16–17, God commanded the Israelites, “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.”

 God had given them, the Amorites and Canaanites, much chance to repent: Genesis 15:13-16 Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Even after Israel had entered the Promised Land, they still could have repented as had Rehab: Joshua 2:10 “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, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.

The Gibeonites also saw the glorious hand of God working in Israel but used deception to avoid their due destruction: Joshua 9:9 They said to him, "From a very distant country your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord your God. For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt.”

The Canaanites could have repented: Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

However, they would not repent even though it would cost the lives of their children and women. They were “without excuse”: Romans 1:19–20 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

To protect Israel from contamination: Deuteronomy 20:18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.

Consequences of Disobedience: Judges 2:1–3 Now the angel of the LORD …said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” (Largely rewritten from: https://www.gotquestions.org/Canaanites-extermination.html 

Why weren’t the rest of the Canaanites not like the repentant prostitute Rehab? She became an Israelite and was even included in the lineage of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

God’s Righteousness

 

God wants to be known and loved for who He is:

He is entirely righteous: Psalm 9:7–10 But the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness. The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

 

We cannot put our trust in Him unless we know who He is—that He is love and righteousness. Therefore, Jesus prayed: John 17:26  “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

 

To know Christ is to love Him and to partake in His love. But how can we love Him if we believe that He is unjust if:

We are born condemned with a sin nature (original sin) or

The sentence of eternal suffering exceeds our earthly sins and God’s love?

 

But what if we are mistaken in these matters and are libeling and distorting God’s love and righteousness by presenting a false Gospel? Instead, what if our Savior merely allows us to have what we want, allowing us to receive the fruits of our choices:

Psalm 9:15–16 (KJV The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.

 

God judges by eventually allowing us to have our own way to pursue evil, reaping what we sow, refusing to confess and to turn from their sins?

John 3:17–21 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is [self-] condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does [practices] wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

 

Although The Father gave all judgment unto the Son, the Son claims that He didn’t come to judge. How then are those who reject Him to be judged? By His Words:

John 12:47–48 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

 

How do words judge? His Words of truth and light (splendor) convicts and exposes us, and we flee from what we have long repressed. “Without excuse” (Romans 1:20)  for rejecting God and deserving condemnation we flee:

Romans 1:32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Romans 2:15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.

 

Consequently, we are self-condemned by rejecting God, practicing evil, and fleeing from His reproach, while spending the rest of our lives trying to prove that we are okay:

Proverbs 1:29–32 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them.

 

Jeremiah 2:19 Your evil will chastise you and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God…

 

Flee: Isaiah 33:14–15 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil. (Psalm 1:5; Luke 21:36)

 

Does this also pertain to eternal judgment? Isaiah 2:19–21 And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty…. (Isaiah 2:10; Luke 23:30; Hosea 10:8; Rev. 20:11)

 

Why would the unbeliever flee from “the splendor of his majesty?” The light of “the face of him” who is seated on the throne” is terrifying. It exposes the truth about ourselves that we have long repressed:

Revelation 6:15–17 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

 

Our righteous God need not proactively condemn. Instead, the unbeliever will chose eternal torment rather than to dwell in His presence. Will He allow them to instead choose their complete destruction?

Matthew 10:28b Rather, fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

John 3:16 ... whosoever believeth in him should not perish (Greek: destroyed) ...

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death ...

Philippians 3:19 whose end is "destruction" ...

2 Thessalonians 1:9 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction ...

Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition (destruction).

Revelation 20:14 This is the second death...

Hebrews 10:26-27 NLT Hellfire will consume the wicked.

2 Peter 3:7 Ungodly will be destroyed.

 

Is God unjust for allowing us to live or die by our own choices? He has given all the temporal gift of life. He has enabled the unbeliever to have their reward now:

Matthew 6:2 …”Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” (Mat. 5, 16)

 

There is nothing unjust about Christ giving more mercy to some (Mat 20). This is His banquet. He is free to invite whomever. In light of this, we can say with confidence that our Savior is perfect in love and righteousness. This knowledge frees us to proclaim that God is completely righteous and merciful.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.