The Utter Destruction of the Canaanites

Deuteronomy 7:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deut%207&version=NIV

            I suspect a lot of folks who read Deuteronomy 7 are troubled with thought that will trouble us for a while—at least through the book of Joshua.  Those thoughts regard the complete destruction of the Canaanites.  Isn’t this just the kind of thing that leads people to judge the Old Testament as all full of wrath and unexplainable brutality?  Let me suggest that this is a clear case in which we need to read the text not on 21^st century terms, but on Ancient Near Eastern terms—scratch that, we need to read it in terms of the overall biblical story.

            It seems to me that one of the first things we have to have clearly in mind, if we are to understand the destruction of the Canaanites, is where we stand in the story of God’s redemption of the world.  We are some 600 years after the Lord made Abraham’s family the trustee of that promise and some 1400-1500 years before it will come to fruition in Jesus.  Because we are in a place where the promise has not yet been fulfilled, and because we are dealing with the people through whom it will be fulfilled, we also have to see how important it is that the Lord keep Israel in the right kind of conditions to safeguard the promise that they bear.

            The Lord is fully aware that Israel is not a perfect custodian for His promises.  He’s been paying attention since Genesis 12:  He knows that Abraham, Jacob, and the people in the wilderness are susceptible to temptation.  And He knows that Israel in her new land, surrounded by that land’s idolatrous, and seemingly successful, occupants, will be under constant pressure to ‘succeed’ using the same techniques by which the natives have succeeded, namely, idol worship.  (In the ancient mind idolatry--and religion in general--is not so neatly a separate category of life.  Instead, in the ancient mind idolatry is almost a form of technology:  it’s by these religious practices that they believe have an impact on the fertility of the world around them as I talked about in Bible class a few weeks ago.)  Anyhow, the point is:  the Canaanites with their idols are going to be a temptation to Israel, and God needs Israel focused on Him so that He can bring His promise forth from their midst.  So, the Canaanites have to go.

            A second thing to take account of is the reality of judgment.  We appropriately cling to God’s grace—“The Lord, the Lord! Gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness” (Ex. 34:6, etc.).  But the fact is that the Lord proclaims both the Law, that is, a word of punishment, and the Gospel, that is, His word of forgiveness.  Like Egypt before them, the Canaanites remind us that not all come to reliance on Israel’s God.  Like Egypt, like Babylon later on, the Canaanites reminds us that God has enemies, enemies who are in collusion with the Enemy.  And he will punish those who are opposed to Him.

            Admittedly, this throws us right into the deep end of the theological pool.  If God desires all to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4), how can some then be named His enemies?  Or worse, if God desires all to be saved, and rescues us, who were once numbered among enemies (Col 1:21), why does He not so rescue all His enemies?  Is God not earnest or is God not capable?  No wonder guys in my field call this the crux theologorum, the theologian’s cross!  We’ll never solve the tension between God’s earnest intentions and the recalcitrance of humanity, so the best we can do is take Him at His word about His intentions, declare those gracious intentions to the world, and let Him worry about how it all works out.

            I do know this:  it’s not terribly satisfying to say to the Lord, “I don’t get it, but you’re in charge.”  (I didn’t like saying that to my parents when I was a child, I don’t like it now with my God.)  But I also know that trying to make God fit your theological presuppositions means that you no longer have a God worthy of being called God.  If you domesticate God with your own presuppositions, you have created a false God, which unfortunately puts you closer to the Canaanites than is comfortable.  So, let God be God, take Him at His Word, and work earnestly so that those who are His enemies would come to faith and become His children.
            In summary, when we struggle with the seeming injustice in the case of the Canaanites, let's keep two things in mind.  First, let's keep in mind that God's grace does not negate God's own justice.  He is sincere in His offer of mercy and He is resolved in His threat of punishment.  Both are part of His word.  As a subpoint, let us focus our proclamation on His mercy in Jesus, and let Him worry about the punishments.  Second, let's keep in mind what was at stake in Israel's history.  The presence of the Canaanites threatened His intended mercy, which would come to fruition in Jesus many hundreds of years later, and for that reason the Canaanites had to go.  As one friend recently pointed out, the destruction of the Canaanites is also an aspect of God's mercy--by preparing the way for the ultimate fulfillment of God's plan of salvation.