Hi George,
I would like to float an idea about the Cannanite part of this thread. I have heard or read, for the last forty years, scathing remarks by non-believers, about the "bloody god" who orders his followers to annihilate whole tribes of people. I was very troubled by this accusation because of its use in dengirating Christianity. I tried to understand how the God who taught us to "love our enemies" could ask the Israelites to wipe out the Cannanites, men women and children. Following is my present rationale.
In Gen 15:12 - 15 God explains to Abraham that his descendants are to be set aside for 400 years while He deals with the Amorites, one of the tribes in the land of Cannan. We know that God had a spokesman among the Cannanites because Melchizedek, described as a priest of God, is King of Salem, a Cannanite city. There were undoubtly more witnesses but that part of the story is not recorded. After 400 years of God's dealing and appealing to the Cannanites what was the result? The reason for God's judgement on the Cannanites is vividly described in Deut 9:1 - 6; 12:29 - 32; 18:9 - 13; 20:16 - 18. God gave 2 reasons for asking Israel to destroy the peoples in Cannan; because of their wickedness and so that Israel would not learn their wicked practices. In other words God was using Israel to enact judgement on the Cannanites. Judgement is not a pretty sight but God did give the Cannanite tribes a 400 year window of opportunity, but they rejected it.
And God's judgement is still part of the gospel story.
Bob Miller
2.holy war/genocide -- Are you familiar with intrusion ethics--the
idea that the final judgment intrudes into this present age? On this
point, if the final judgment and destruction of the wicked is just,
then so is this divinely commanded judgment against the Canannites. I
don't think there is any Biblical warrant for such activity today,
but I don't have a problem with it.
I have a problem with it (i.e., with military holy war) & the vast majority of the Christian church, which has (formally at least) adopted either a just war or a pacifist position, also rejects it.
Ethics evolves. Jesus supersedes lex talionis, which in turn is an advance on the primitive idea of unlimited vengeance.
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