There is a question I have been asked multiple times throughout the years related to God’s command to destroy certain people groups, the question is typically worded in this way: “If the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the same God, then why did he tell the Israelites to kill and destroy whole villages, including children?” According to the United Nations, the definition of a genocide is the deliberate intent to destroy (in whole or in part) a “national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”[1]
Of the top three genocides in recorded history the Jewish Holocaust ranks surprisingly at third with an estimated 7-11 million Jews systematically murdered under the German Reich and German-Occupied Europe. The second worst genocide is known as the “Great Leap Forward,” which was an economic and social plan instituted by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party between 1958 and 1962 that left Chinese farmers to starve due to the government’s excessive grain-collection policies. They chose communist ambitions over the lives of their citizens; it is estimated that 55 to 60 million people starved to death.
The genocide that is listed as the worst of all the genocides is the Mongol Invasions and Conquests of the 13th Century. The Mongols traveled from region to region plundering wherever they rode as expert horsemen; through battles, sieges of entire cities, and large-scale massacres of civilians upon control of the cities, the Mongols are credited with an estimated 60 to 100 million deaths during their reign of terror. It is said that through their conquests, an estimated 11% of the world’s population died at the hands of the Mongols.
So, when God promised Abraham the land of Canaan that was already inhabited by other people groups, by what means would that promise become a reality? What was it that God promised you ask? Here is what he promised: “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed…. To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:1–3, 7). Abraham was reminded of this promise not only in Genesis 15, but throughout his lifetime, as was every generation after him.[2]
God promised that the Hebrew people would be a blessed nation. Was it through the conquest of the land of Canaan that He would bless the nations? In Genesis 15:13-16, God promised Abraham that he would die in peace, but his descendants would be “afflicted for four hundred years” before they would inherit the land promised to them. However, in the fourth generation, after 400 years in Egypt, God promised: “And they shall come back in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” So, God raised up Moses to lead his people out of the captivity of Egypt to eventually inherit the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Exodus 19:4-6, we are given some idea of how Israel would serve as a blessing to the nations: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
So, by what means would the promise of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants become the reality of the Hebrew people, and how does the expulsion of the Canaanites benefit the nations? I believe the answer to these two questions are tucked away in Genesis 15:16. When will the conquest of Canaan begin? When, the iniquity of the Amorites is complete.
Who Were the Amorites?
The Amorites were one of the main people groups in Canaan. God told Abraham that his descendants would not drive out the Canaanites until the iniquity of the Amorites was complete. The way the NIV translates Genesis 15:16 clarifies why God would wait 400 years before sending Israel into Canaan to drive the people out: “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16, NIV). What we have in Genesis 15:16 is God’s revelation to Abraham that not only did his mercy find Abraham in the city of Ur, but that his mercy is far greater than the horrible sins of the Amorites.
What types of sins were the Amorites guilty of? The three goddesses worshiped by the Canaanites were Astarte (Ashtaroth), Anath, and Asherah who were the goddesses of sex and war; this included incest, bestiality, and child sacrifice. Considering the horrible practices the Canaanites were guilty of, God instructed the Hebrew people in Leviticus,
Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. (Lev. 18:24-28)
For four hundred years, God would wait until the Amorites reached the point of no return regarding their sins and idolatry. Kent Hughes, in his commentary on Genesis wrote of the Amorites:
There ultimately would come a day when the Amorites had reached the point of no return—their cup would be full. And that is when God unleashed a flood of Israelites out of Egypt and across the Jordan. In truth, Joshua’s invasion was actually “an act of justice, not aggression” (Kidner). And the universal fact is, the history of the world is under the moral governance of God. The displacement of the Amorites by Israel was not simply the result of divine favoritism. They had long flaunted God’s moral law.[3]
The Canaanites grew guilty of all kinds of sexual deviations as well as child sacrifice, violence, and more. For four hundred years God’s patience restrained his wrath against the sins of the people groups that made their home there. It was in light of the mercy of God that the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 2:4, “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4).
Why Was Israel Called into Canaan?
Israel was called into Canaan to serve as God’s mediator before the nations. Remember what God told Israel after they were delivered from Pharoah and the slavery of Egypt: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:4-6).
Between God’s commission of Israel to be his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, is Moses’ encounter before the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-17) and Joshua’s encounter with the commander of the LORD’s army (Joshua 5:13-15). Through the burning bush encounter, God commissioned Moses to lead all of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt just as God promised Abraham would happen. Joshua’s encounter with the Commander of the LORD’s army came just before he led Israel to take the first and major city of Canaan known as Jericho.
Before God told Moses why and how he would use him, he instructed Moses: “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exod. 3:5). Then God revealed himself to Moses: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (v. 6). Moses’ response was to hide his face “…because he was afraid to look at God.” After God told Moses how he would use him, Moses responded with a legitimate question: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” To which God answered, “I will be with you” (v. 12). God then told Moses that if the people ask him what kind of God would use a guy like Moses, say to them, “Say to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you…. The LORD, the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations” (v. 15). Moses was told that when he got into Egypt, he was to gather the elders of Israel together and tell them why the God who stands above all other gods would deliver them:
Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 3:16–17)
The last time Moses was in Egypt was 40 years before the burning bush. He had killed an Egyptian guard and fled for his life; for 40 years, he was in hiding… in the wilderness.
Before Joshua led Israel to take Jericho, Moses had died, and the mantel of leadership was passed down to Joshua. The last time Joshua saw the city of Jericho was 40 years ago when he, along with Caleb and 10 other men, were sent to “spy out the land of Canaan” that God promised he would give to the people (see Numbers 13). When they came back to report what they had seen all the men, apart from Joshua and Caleb, gave the people a “bad report” by telling them:
“We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
Joshua and Caleb came back convinced that God was greater than the might of the Canaanites; Caleb even told the people: “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Num. 13:30). However, the rest of the spies objected:
Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”(Numbers 13:31–33)
God judged that generation and told them that because of their grumbling against God and faithlessness, not one person 20 years or older who refused to believe God would enter the land of Canaan. Joshua remembered those days, and now, forty years later and about the same age as Moses was when he confronted Pharaoh, Joshua was about to lead Israel to do what they should have done 40 years ago: take Jericho. We are told that Joshua was “by Jericho” when he looked and saw, “a man standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand” (Josh. 5:13). Do not miss the irony of how similar Moses’ encounter of the burning bush was to Joshua’s encounter with this man. Notice what happens next:
And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13–15)
What you need to understand is that because Joshua bowed to worship the “Commander of the LORD’s army” we know that this person was no angel. Angels are creatures just like us and rightly forbid to be worshiped (see Rev. 22:8-9). The person Joshua sees is the preincarnate Jesus, and the instructions he gave him for how Jericho would fall would not come through any power of Israel or military expertise Joshua may bring as Israel’s leader; but, solely through the power and might of God almighty, who is the great I Am and stands above the nations of earth as the Holy One.
Jericho was part of the Amorite kingdom. When Joshua and all of Israel surrounded Jericho, the iniquity of the Amorites was complete.
The Purpose of Israel in Canaan
For more than 400 years God was patient with the Amorites’ worship of idols and what their worship, which involved gross sexual perversion that allowed for all forms of sexual expression outside the boundaries God’s design for marriage between a man and a woman, unhindered violence, and child sacrifice. The patience of God was exhausted and the measure of his justice appropriate. We are told that after the walls of Jericho came crashing down: “They devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword” (Josh. 6:21).
Jericho was destroyed… but not everyone in Jericho. There was a woman who ran a brothel by the name of Rahab who protected two spies Joshua sent into Jericho. After hiding the men from the king of Jericho, Rahab said to the Jewish spies:
“I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt…. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” (Joshua 2:9–11)
Not only was Rahab spared from the wrath of God because of her belief and faith in the God of the Hebrews, but her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her (Josh. 6:22-25). Rahab married a Hebrew man by the name of Salmon; they had a son together by the name of Boaz. Boaz met a Moabite woman by the name of Ruth and had a son they named Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, who was the father of a shepherd boy by the name of David who would become king over Israel. David’s descendant would be Jesus.
When we consider the promise to Abraham and the judgement of the Amorites, when it comes to our own sins: “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). When it comes to your own sin, know that Jesus, the descendant of Rahab, stood in your place for your sin on a cross so that you could know the kindness of God instead of his wrath over your sin. However, if you choose your sin over Jesus the savior, you will one day know the wrath of a holy God because you have refused to repent by turning to Jesus.
