"Genocide" and the Bible Part 15 The Canaanites

Actually most of the inhabitants of the land were deported, they left on their own, and those that stayed were usually the political and social hierarchy (kings, royalty, and their armies) of the Canaanites. If they chose to stay, they were killed and they were responsible for their own deaths and the deaths of their families.

These were very bad people (they were known for child sacrifice, murdering their own children, and they were also known for kidnapping children from surrounding nations and sacrificing them as well), since they stayed in the land despite multiple warnings to leave they were killed, and unfortunately so were their children, it was their (the Canaanities) choice. (It should be pointed out children often times suffer as the result of evil parents: The children of substance abusers don't often experience the material benefits of others (the material benefits are spent on alcohol or drugs). The children of physically abusive parents suffer bodily and psychological harm. The children of violent criminals often end up fatherless. They suffer the consequences of the parent's sin, and they are the victims solely of the parents.) NOW what was Israel supposed to do with the children? If the parents, who were very evil and apparently stubborn, were killed, were the Israelites supposed to spare children with an average age of six (at least under 12), homeless, without shelter, in shock, without food, without nurture, in grief, in terror, without protection from the wild animals, without protection from marauding bands of slave-traders, without protection from each other, without any adult guidance--how long could they last in the wild? The Israelites had no resources to care for them, or to route them to other nations around there. What kind of a slow-death would that be? This is a situation of non combatants,remember there was no UN or Red Cross in ancient times, this is not war crimes.

Deportation of the Canaanites, notice I said deportation NOT GENOCIDE (by the way only about 3.5% of the Canaanites were killed unlike what Hitler did to the Jews in WWII in which nearly 60% of the Jewish population was murdered, furthermore, Israel was driving out the Canaanites, Israel was more concerned taking the land, if the Canaanites just left, which many did, then they were spared, Israel did not hunt them down unlike what was seen in WWII, and those that were killed in Canaan was in the course of battles).

Conclusion: Judgment is called God's "strange work" in the OT prophets. What for us humans are the problem of "why does God not do anything about evil and cruel people" is simply the other side of His patience with us. He hopes that we will accept a love of the truth and a commitment to value. In love, He deliberately "believes the best" (I Cor 13). What started out as the "Unfair genocide of the Canaanites" ended up as the "Less-than-they-deserved punitive deportation from the land"--filled with patience and mercy and 'second chances'. It was nonetheless a judgment, and nonetheless involved death--as it later would be repeated to His people. Far from being the "genocide of an innocent people for land-hungry Israelites", it was instead the "firm, yet just--and even a little merciful to the masses--removal of a people from a tract of land, mostly through migration."

Credits and Sources:

Glen Miller: http://www.christian-thinktank.com/
James Patrick Holding: http://www.tektonics.org/

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