In Deuteronomy 7 we read of what's to come. The Israelites are nearing their inevitable entrance into the Promised Land, which means conflict with the Canaanites, as well as other peoples living in the region. This historical event is often used by detractors as justification for their unbelief. How could God allow such slaughter, they ask. It may seem at first that what is being done by God is nothing more than outright murder and destruction of an innocent people. Some say that they can't believe in a God that would do such a thing, allowing innocent women and children to perish. But there are problems with reducing the conflict with the Canaanites to such a simplistic moral judgment. The situation is much more complicated than that. For starters, we weren't there to know the details of what transpired. We are told bits and pieces of how the Canaanites lived, and it wasn't according to either God's Law or Natural Law. We don't even know what, if any, dealings the Canaanites may have had with God. All we know is that God was displeased with them. We also know that God had chosen the Israelites and had hoped they would be as a shining example of His Goodness by their behavior on earth. Their reward for following His commands was the land of Canaan, the Promised Land. Lessons abound in both God's dealings with the Canaanites and with the Israelites. What to do in the latter's case, what not to do in the former's. And, really, at the end of it all, we can't pretend to know God's Divine Plan. Why such a horrible thing had to happen is beyond us. What is true, though, is that the violence and generality of the conflict tends to get talked up a great deal more than the passages that "soften the blow." There are of course violent passages that describe the slaughter and destruction of the Canaanites, the lack of mercy to be shown them. It was a thing of violence, no doubt. And the generalities are always cited. That all the women and children were to be killed, that no one would be left alive. Closer examination reveals a different sort of conflict, though. Below is a sampling of verses that seem to fly in the face of those who would have God declare that everyone be destroyed:
"And when the Lord thy God shall deliver [the Promised Land] into thy hands, thou shalt slay all that are therein of the male sex, with the edge of the sword,
Excepting women and children, cattle and other things, that are in the city." (Deuteronomy 20:13-14)
"If thou go out to fight against thy enemies, and the Lord thy God deliver them into thy hand, and thou lead them away captives,
And seest in the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and lovest her, and wilt have her to wife,
Thou shalt bring her into thy house: and she shall shave her hair, and pare her nails,
And shall put off the raiment, wherein she was taken: and shall remain in thy house, and mourn for her father and mother one month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and shalt sleep with her, and she shall be thy wife." (Deuteronomy 21:10-13)
The point being that the real situation was much more nuanced. An entire people were not totally obliterated. They were defeated, yes, and their defeat was their punishment, and the reasons for their punishment cannot be fully understood by us, though partially. In the midst of the carnage were men acting or not acting in accordance with God's Law. The destruction would be great, which is why we find such hard-to-take passages describing the death that would await the Canaanites. But mercy could be found in individual circumstances, and it pleased God. A Canaanite woman could very well find herself in God's favor as a new member of His chosen people. And mercy could be found in the midst of the carnage. If the Canaanite culture of idolatry and hedonism were allowed to endure, it would infect the Israelites without a doubt. The action had to be severe.
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