"In Deuteronomy 7, God
commands his people Israel to annihilate the inhabitants of Canaan. After they
enter the land, he says they “must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with
them, and show them no mercy.” (Deuteronomy 7:2). This appears to contradict the
loving merciful God who, as John says, is
love (see 1 John 4:8, 16). How could this God command the killing of all these
people? This portion of Scripture receives little or no voluntary attention
because of its difficulty. For many of us, this is one of those quiet questions
that festers in the back of our minds – conveniently forgotten until it’s forced
upon us by our Bible-in-a-year reading plan.
This essay will attempt
to answer the question of why a good God would command the killing of the
Canaanites. Theologically, this is referred to as herem warfare; when God’s people totally destroy all living things
– men, women, children, and animals – offering them as a sacrifice to God. The
problem could be stated like this: If God is merciful and loving, how could he
commission the killing of an entire people? To the modern reader, the command
seems unfair, bigoted, and racist. Only a serious and thorough examination of
the Scriptures can address this issue."
What are your thoughts?
Thanks for bending my brain. The idea of a "good God" who commands war is a common argument for why Christianity is illogical that I hear from atheist friends, this clarifies it wonderfully in my mind. The hard part is that it works as long as the reader agrees with the presuppositions. Getting past THAT argument- the Bible being inspired and the nature of "God's character"- is up to the Holy Spirit, I guess. Thanks so much for posting, gave our house some good discussion.
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