Deuteronomy 10-12: An Abominable Offense

"When the Lord thy God shall have destroyed before thy face the nations, which thou shalt go in to possess, and when thou shalt possess them, and dwell in their land,
 Beware lest thou imitate them, after they are destroyed at thy coming in, and lest thou seek after their ceremonies, saying: As these nations have worshipped their gods, so will I also worship.
Thou shalt not do in like manner to the Lord thy God. For they have done to their gods, all the abominations which the Lord abhorreth, offering their sons and daughters, and burning them with fire." (Deuteronomy 12:29-31)

 "Thou shalt not give any of thy seed to be consecrated to the idol Moloch." (Leviticus 18:21)

I once again must remark on this.  I find it amazing that anyone would characterize the Canaanites (and other pagans of the region prior to the Jewish takeover) as innocent, victimized people who were unjustly murdered by God.  The whole distortion of God as a ruthless murderer is simply an unsophisticated look at the situation.  The Canaanites clearly were living lives of severe corruption and scandal, breaking left and right natural laws.  The most detestable of their crimes was the ritualistic murder of their children.  In Leviticus it is written that children were sacrificed to a god named Moloch by means of incineration.  In Deuteronomy the god's specific name isn't repeated, but it is mentioned that the Israelites must not copy the practices they will find in Canaan, among these the deplorable sacrifice of children.  This child sacrifice to Moloch goes beyond standard human sacrifice that we find in ancient cultures throughout the world.  The fact that it is innocent babies being voluntarily given up to be murdered makes the whole thing infinitely more revolting.  It was unfortunate that the Canaanites had to be destroyed, and there is no evidence that God did so joyously, but their acts were of a nature that they could not be allowed to continue.  The Canaanites had to answer for their crimes, and hopefully some were saved in the end.  God had to purge the region, which had been mired in iniquity for ages.  The overall situation was much more layered and complex than a simple act of wiping out an unsuspecting and innocent nation.  Again, it's unfortunate that it happened at all, but it says more about man's weakness than God's cruelty.

On a final note, it struck me in a rather profound and painful way that the murder of innocent children is not something for which the Canaanites can claim sole credit.  Abortion has become such a scourge in our land that the comparisons to the ancient practice of sacrificing babies are hard to ignore.  It will probably sound harsh and extreme to bring this up, but sometimes when something hits close to home it is all the more difficult to hear.  Satan found a way in ancient Canaan to have people kill their babies through the guise of a ritualistic and necessary sacrifice to a fake god.  Today, Satan has found a way again to have people kill their babies through the guise of "reproductive rights" and court mandated rulings, i.e., societal acceptance.  It is just as abhorrent and evil in both cases.