For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
One of the most common criticisms unbelievers and antagonists of the Christian faith have is of the bloodiness of the Old Testament. God is considered cruel because He called for annihilating whole people groups. How, the critic asks, could we follow a God like that? How, they continue, could we obey a book with such bloodiness?
One of the answers I frequently give is that the account of the Old Testament, though literal, has a spiritual application today. They address the way we are to treat our sin nature. We are to give it no quarter. There can be no compromise and no truce made with the sin nature because the sin nature, left to survive, will grow to one day slay us. Sin is never content. Sin feeds on greater sin.
But these are literal accounts. How can we condone such actions from our heroes, such instructions from our God?
May I say that we do not know the depth of the sins of those people? God’s Word says, “the cup of their iniquity was full.” You and I do not know what that fullness entails. I suggest that the attitude that the judgment was too harsh indicates that we don’t imagine their sin to have been that terrible.
Think for a moment of WWII and Adolph Hitler. He had designs of world domination. Almost every nation of the world saw the threat of that as intolerable. Even ideologies, as opposed as those of Russia and the United States, agreed together to put a stop to Hitler and the Third Reich. And then there was the brutal extermination of Jews. I’m not sure even the Allies knew the depths of that wickedness until they had defeated it.
Would there have been any way to justify compassion upon Hitler and his regime? Would it have been appropriate to allow the Third Reich a little space to continue? Absolutely not! There was only one course to take, total, absolute, unconditional destruction. Even after the war was over, those leaders of the movement were tried and executed. To this day, some people invest their lives in finding those who escaped and bringing them to justice. There can be no tolerance.
When did we become so godlike as to presume to judge Hitler but to excuse the Canaanites? God judged the sins of the Canaanites as so terrible they must be stopped. They could be given no quarter. There could be no compassion. They could not be allowed to go on in their wickedness.
I trust God, and I’m thankful for His justice.
To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.
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