GOD’S COMMAND TO EXTERMINATE THE CANAANITES: A BIBLICAL APOLOGY
An absolutely vital read on the Reformed Baptist Fellowship blog. Any Christian who has spent a decent amount of time in the Word has had to deal with the passages where God commands the Israelites to annihilate the Canaanites. Bob Gonzales rightly points out that while some things in the Bible are descriptive, these are prescriptive. In other words God is explicitly commanding these actions, rather than merely recording something that the Israelites did on their own. Many try to explain the issue away, but any explanation other than one which recognizes that God commanded this directly and did so within His divine nature diminishes God and replaces Him with a man made idol. This statement was especially pertinent:
The context of the command is a sinful world under God’s curse (Gen 3:8ff). If we remember this fact, then the real question is not, “Why would God exterminate the Canaanites?” but rather “Why has God withheld judgment from so many other sinful nations?” Furthermore, God’s promise to redeem the world necessitates the destruction and removal of evil (Gen 3:15; Matt. 6:10; 2 Pet 3:13).
I appreciate Bob for his humble and accurate posting on this issue. There are a million things that are easier to write about, it took a lot of courage and deep conviction to write this and I highly recommend it for your edification.
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