I was reading the homepage of my new Logos 5 software and there was an article on the Walls of Jericho. It was interesting and then it became disturbing. I've copied the disturbing part:
"Like the Genesis Flood and
the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Israel’s extermination of the
Canaanites was a judicial act. They were to be destroyed because their sins
were so great and their religious corruption so complete that extermination was
just."
It scares the bejeezus out of me anytime I see anyone say that a people's group "extermination was just". I am sure Hitler thought his attempted extermination of the Jews was just. I am sure the Hutus thought they were just in trying to exterminate the Tutsis. Stalin thought he was just in exterminating the enemies of the people. The list could go on and on.
So what do we make of the seemingly God-ordained genocide in Scripture? In my opinion the early Israelites were a lot like the Christian Crusaders and justified their conquest by calling it God-ordained, but that is just my opinion that I'm still wrestling with. Greg Boyd has a couple of thought provoking blogs on the subject.
But my main point is that people can never determine extermination of a people group is just. It is horrifying to think of all the killing we blame on a God who is love :-(
I see it more as a history report, not a model of behavior God approves, there's lots of that in the old testament. Were that not the case we should still be allowing ourselves multiple wives. The commandments were a blue print for becoming Gods' people, am I right? Lots of things Christians justify terrify me, genocide is one of the most terrifying. I am comforted that there are others who share that sense of terror.
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