Did God Sanction Genocide

Introduction

We are starting a new three-week series called Uncomfortable Questions. We are doing this series because we all have questions. Some questions are more uncomfortable to ask than others and therefore they go unanswered. Some of these questions weigh down on our soul and cause us great discomfort. Some of these questions are weaponized by opponents of the faith to delegitimize and denigrate what we believe.  

So, I thought it would be a good idea to try to answer some of those questions from the scriptures. We’re going to answer rather than explain it away. My prayer is that your faith will be encouraged over the next three weeks, that you will be able to do as Apostle Peter instructed “to give a defense or a reason for the hope that is in you.”  

You never know when you’re telling someone about Jesus and they say to you “why did God allow the killing of innocent women and children in the bible?” 

Would you worship a God who orders the killing of innocent men, women and children just for the fun of it? Would you worship a God who orders the killing of an entire nation without purpose?

These are the questions that come up when we encounter the conquest of Canaan at the hands of Israel in the book of Joshua and in others places throughtout the bible.

Many folks have asked the question: Did God sanction genocide in Israel’s conquest of Canaan?  

We live in a justice-oriented world where we are sensitive to issues of unfairness, injustice, discrimination, and exploitation. And no one should be more sensitive to those things than Christians.  

And these questions come up when we read the bible with that lens and interpret from that vintage point.  

Many critics and opponents of the faith have used this period in Israel’s history to delegitimize the bible, and to speak ill of God. They might say something like, the Jesus of the New Testament is a good guy, but the God of the Old is brutal, bloodthirsty, and a bane. 

This question of did God sanction genocide is especially relevant in our current political climate where modern day Israel is bombing terrorists and innocent civilians in Gaza, bombing nuclear facilities and innocent civilians in Iran. And people might be asking is that the same as what we read about in the scriptures, does God sanction what is taking place? To that we would say no because what is taking place today is very different from what we see in the conquest of Canaan.  

For this afternoon, we’ll answer the question of did God sanction genocide in Israel’s conquest of Canaan and after we’ll look at what does that event teach us about God? 

We’ll have the scriptures on the screen but if you have access to your bible, I want you to follow along. We’ll be all over the bible today. 

As an anchor we’ll read Deuteronomy 7:1-6. 

Deuteronomy 7:1–6 CSB

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and he drives out many nations before you—the Hethites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. You must not intermarry with them, and you must not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will swiftly destroy you. Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images. For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

Let me pray for God’s help as we dive deeper into this question.  

Did God Sanction Genocide? 

I know this will be a different kind of sermon for us, but it’s important that we talk about these things. So, try to stick with me. 

Let’s start with the definition of genocide.  

The United Nations Office of Genocide Prevention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” In essence genocide is eliminating a group because they belong to that group, either religious, racial, or ethnic.  

That’s what we are thinking about when we ask the question did God sanction or command genocide in the bible. Did God command every single Canaanite to be eliminated simply because they were Canaanites, or they were not worshippers of God.  

The simple answer is no. God did not command or sanction genocide in the bible and I’ll show us why in four points.  

Remember the definition of genocide.  

First, the conquest was not based on ethnicity. God did not send Israel into the land of Canaan because they were Canaanites. When we look in Deut 7:1, we see that it was not one single country that was driven out but multiple.  Look with me at 7:1.  

Deuteronomy 7:1 CSB

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and he drives out many nations before you—the Hethites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—

We usually use the phrase “land of Canaan” as a catch all for that whole region. It was a region with multiple nations. They weren’t weak and small nations either as we see in the 7:1. That’s what you would expect from a conquering nation. Most genocides take place when a more powerful nation or group attacks a weaker nation or group. It’s what we saw with the holocaust, we can argue it’s what we saw with the transatlantic slavery.  

But in Israel’s conquest of the promised land, they were the weaker and smaller nation. And they weren’t eliminating one nation but many which tells us that the conquest was not based simply on ethnicity, nationality, or race.

Second, the conquest was not based on religion. Look with me at Deut. 2:8-9, 19.

Deuteronomy 2:8–9 CSB

“So we bypassed our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road and from Elath and Ezion-geber. We traveled along the road to the Wilderness of Moab. The Lord said to me, ‘Show no hostility toward Moab, and do not provoke them to battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, since I have given Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’ ”

Deuteronomy 2:19 CSB

When you get close to the Ammonites, don’t show any hostility to them or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the Ammonites’ land as a possession; I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.’ ”

On Israel’s journey to the region of Canaan, God tells them not to engage in battle with the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites. If the conquest of the land was based on the simple fact that they had a different religion, then God should have sent Israel after everyone who did not worship him.  

Are you following me?  

So, we can easily see that the conquest was not God wiping out people simply because they had a different belief system.  

Do not hate people for their ethnicity and belief system and blame God for it. God of the bible has never done that. And anyone who does that in the name of God is a liar and misrepresents God.  

If the conquest was not based on ethnicity and religion, then what was it based on? I’m glad you asked.  

Here’s the third point, for why it was not genocide. The conquest was based on God’s promise. Look with me at Genesis 12:1, and Genesis 15:13-21.  

Genesis 12:1 CSB

The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 15:13–21 CSB

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hethites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

God promised to Abraham that the region of land that he was residing in would become the land of his future generations. The land that Israel conquered was a promised land to them by God. 

At the same time, God did not simply pick a random people, kill them in order to give their land away.   

Look at what God told Abraham in Genesis 15:16.

Genesis 15:16 CSB

In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

The people in the region hadn’t sinned to the extent that will justify the punishment of taking their land away. God gave Abraham that land but he will not take possession of it but instead his children will leave and go be a slave somewhere and when the time is right they will come and justifiably take possession if it.  

Here’s a great point church from this experience. What God has planned for you will be for you but sometimes it might take some time.  

So, on one hand the conquest was because of God’s promise and on the other hand, it was a form of judgment to the people in that region for their extreme wickedness. 

That brings us to our fourth point and then we’ll look at what this event teach us about God. 

Fourth reason we can’t think of the conquest as genocide is because it was a form of judgment due to the extreme wickedness of the people. Look with me at Deuteronomy 9:1-6. 

Deuteronomy 9:1–6 CSB

“Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and drive out nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens. The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them and you have heard it said about them, ‘Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?’ But understand that today the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; he will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the Lord has told you. When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness. You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

God made it clear that the wickedness of the people was so great that it is the reason for the displacement and not because Israel was deserving of the land.  

And because of this wickedness, he commanded that men, women, children, and animals be devoted to destruction.  

It is always due to unrepentant sin that God moves to judgment. It’s not because of ethnicity, or belief system, but instead due to sins that were not confessed, repented, and forgiven.  

This isn’t different from how God deals with the world at large. God did not deal with the Canaanites in a way that’s different from how he deals with the Americans, or the Jamaicans, or the Nigerians.  

That bring us to what does this event teach us about God.  

What Does This Teach Us About God? 

We see three things in this conquest that is still true about God today.  

First, God is patient. God gives time for repentance before judgment. He’s not impulsive like you and I. We read earlier in Genesis 15 how he gave the Amorites 400 years to repent before the conquest. We see it throughout the bible with Israel, Nineveh, and many other nations. We see it in the New Testament when Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9.  

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

The desire of God is for sinners to repent of their sins so they might escape his judgment. He is the sovereign God who has authority to judge as he sees fit, but he waits, giving time for repentance.  

That same patience is still at work today. Aren’t you glad God is patient? Waiting for you and for me to turn away from our sins and trust in him. Repentance simply means “turning away from”; It is doing a 180 from a lifestyle, an attitude, or a belief system of sin, and embracing God’s way.  

Second, God is both just and merciful. Justice is getting what is deserved and mercy is withholding what is deserved. In the conquest of Canaan, God was just to punish sinners but was also merciful in sparing the repentant like in the case of a prostitute named Rehab. But there’s no greater place where the justice and mercy of God both dwell in perfect harmony than at the cross.  

In John 3:16, we see that God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son so that whoever believes in him would have eternal life. That is justice and mercy at work. He longs to save even those deserving of judgment.  

At the cross, his justice is seen most clearly in the suffering and death of Jesus. At that same cross, his mercy is seen most clearly because Jesus took our deserved punishment so we might escape judgment.  

Finally, the third thing we see is that God will judge again. The conquest is not the last time God will judge the nations. We can call it a preview  of what it is to come. Just as the children of Israel overcame the nations by the hand of God, the children of the cross will overcome the nations by the blood of the lamb.  

A final judgment is coming. Jesus said in Revelation 22:12 

Revelation 22:12 CSB

“Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to repay each person according to his work.

We must indeed take his justice seriously—unrepentant sins will be punished. And at the same time we must proclaim his mercy urgently—he provided a way of escape through faith in Jesus.

The nations regardless of their ethnicity will once again be devoted to destruction if there is no repentance.

Conclusion 

Israel’s conquest was not God commanding genocide on the nations but it was God doing what he will do once again at the return of Jesus which is to judge the world for their sins. But in the mean time, like he did with the Canaanites, he’s waiting patiently for many to repent and turn to him. His mercy is available today but tomorrow his justice will come.  

This is why we pray for salvation, and we preach the gospel. The biggest problem man has is his sin against a holy God. And the remedy is the gospel of the cross. The same gospel that Paul proclaimed in Romans 1:16 as being the power of salvation to everyone who believes regardless of ethnicity and religion.  

And so church be encouraged, that we serve a God who yes, will devote people to destruction, but he waits patiently for them to repent. He provided a way of escape from the destruction. He is not a God of genocide but of justice and mercy.