God is not afraid of our questions or doubts. He is not looking for a race of automatons who serve Him blindly. He is looking for friends.
There are a few people who were referred to as friends of God. When we examine the lives of these people, we discover that they were those, who like Jeremiah, sought after the heart of God. They were not content to merely know what God was doing; they wanted to know why He did what He did. They wanted to know Him.
Let's stop hiding our questions and doubts.
"God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all."
Let us bring our questions to the light, and we will find that His heart has always been wide open.
So...Did God Command the Destruction of the Canaanites?
We must allow scripture to speak for itself on this one...
Deut 7:1, 2
“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations -- the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you,
2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.”
Deut 20:16-17
“However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy them -- the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites -- as the LORD your God has commanded you.”
Deut 7:16
“You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.”
Why would a loving God do such a thing?
To answer this question we need to understand more about the Canaanites:
Who were they? Who were their gods? What did their culture look like?
Who were the Canaanites?
We are first introduced to the Canaanites in Genesis 10:15-19:
"And Canaan hath begotten Sidon his first-born, and Heth,
Gen 10:16 and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,
Gen 10:17 and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
Gen 10:18 and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite; and afterwards have the families of the Canaanite been scattered.
Gen 10:19 And the border of the Canaanite is from Sidon, in thy coming towards Gerar, unto Gaza; in thy coming towards Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, unto Lasha." (Emphasis mine)
This brief text is one which would normally be quickly passed over while reading Genesis 10.
(I know that I've done it many times :)
Yet it is significant to note that Sodom and Gomorrah are listed amongst the cities (perhaps chief cities) of the Canaanites.
Who were Sodom and Gomorrah?
Gen 18:20
“And the Lord said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”
Gen 18:32
“And [the Lord] said, ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of ten [righteous].’”
Gen 19:1-17
That evening the two angels arrived in Sodom, while Lot was sitting near the city gate. When Lot saw them, he got up, bowed down low,and said, "Gentlemen, I am your servant. Please come to my home. You can wash your feet, spend the night, and be on your way in the morning." They told him, "No, we'll spend the night in the city square."
But Lot kept insisting, until they finally agreed and went home with him. He baked some bread, cooked a meal, and they ate.
Before Lot and his guests could go to bed, every man in Sodom, young and old, came and stood outside his house
and started shouting, "Where are your visitors? Send them out, so we can have sex with them!"
Lot went outside and shut the door behind him.
Then he said, "Friends, please don't do such a terrible thing!
I have two daughters who have never been married. I'll bring them out, and you can do what you want with them. But don't harm these men. They are guests in my home."
"Don't get in our way," the crowd answered. "You're an outsider. What right do you have to order us around? We'll do worse things to you than we're going to do to them." The crowd kept arguing with Lot. Finally, they rushed toward the door to break it down.
But the two angels in the house reached out and pulled Lot safely inside.
Then they struck everyone in the crowd blind, and none of them could even find the door.
The two angels said to Lot, "The LORD has heard many terrible things about the people of Sodom, and he has sent us here to destroy the city. Take your family and leave. Take every relative you have in the city, as well as the men your daughters are going to marry."
Lot went to the men who were engaged to his daughters and said, "Hurry and get out of here! The LORD is going to destroy this city." But they thought he was joking, and they laughed at him.
Early the next morning the two angels tried to make Lot hurry and leave. They said, "Take your wife and your two daughters and get out of here as fast as you can! If you don't, every one of you will be killed when the LORD destroys the city."
At first, Lot just stood there. But the LORD wanted to save him. So the angels took Lot, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city.
When they were outside, one of the angels said, "Run for your lives! Don't even look back. And don't stop in the valley. Run to the hills, where you will be safe."
Sodom and Gomorrah had apparently accelerated very quickly in their wickedness, and had reached a point of no return.
*We find a factor as to why their downward spiral was faster than their neighbors.
Ezekiel 16:49-50
"They were arrogant and spoiled; they had everything they needed and still refused to help the poor and needy. They thought they were better than everyone else, and they did things I hate. And so I destroyed them."
Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma and Zeboim were located in one of the most fertile valleys of the ancient near east (one of the reasons that Lot chose to live there). Their ease of living seems to have facilitated the selfish lifestyle they had chosen to pursue.
*Rather than being embarrassed by their selfishness, They were apparently proud of their lifestyle:
Isaiah 3:9 "The appearance of their faces witnessed against them, And their sin, as Sodom, they declared, They have not hidden! Woe to their soul, For they have done to themselves evil."
It would appear that the Canaanites were going downhill fast. God's judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrah should have provided a stern warning to the Canaanite culture.
But would it be enough to deter them from the course they were on?
500 years later...
The gods of Canaan
Dagon (or El)
“…the head of the pantheon. As the god, El was... a dim and shadowy figure, who... had three wives, who were also his sisters, and who could readily step down from his eminence and become the hero of sordid escapades and crimes. El (is portrayed) as a bloody tyrant, whose acts terrified all the other gods, and who dethroned his own father, murdered his favorite son, and decapitated his own daughter.”
Asherah
Asherah was the wife of El. She was the primary fertility goddess who was said to have nursed all the other fertility gods and goddesses.
Details are sketchy, but worship of Asherah always involved some sort of wooden instrument. Certainly, sexuality played a big part in Asherah worship as well.
Ba’al
“As the Sun-god, Baal was worshipped under two aspects, beneficent and destructive. On the one hand he gave light and warmth to his worshippers; on the other hand the fierce heats of summer destroyed the vegetation he had himself brought into being. Hence, human victims were sacrificed to him in order to appease his anger in time of plague or other trouble…” (ISBE)
the gods of canaan
Mot
“Mot means "death", and he was Baal's enemy. He is the god of the dead and all the powers that opposed life and fertility. He was the favorite son of El, and the most prominent enemy of the god Baal. Mot was the god of sterility and the master of all barren places.” (ROC)
the gods of canaan
Anath
“A combination of the sister and spouse of Baal, was one of a galaxy of three Canaanite goddesses ... The other two are Astarte and Asherah. All three were patronesses of sex and war -- sex mainly in its sensuous aspect as lust, and war in its aspects of violence and murder. ... An Egyptian text of the New Kingdom period described Anath and Astarte as "the great goddesses who conceive but do not bear." (ROC)
the gods of canaan
Anath
“A fragment of the Baal Epic (II.7ff) shows her indulging in a massacre of old and young alike:
She smites the people of the seashore
Destroys mankind of the sunrise....
She piles up heads on her back
She ties up hands in her bundle....
Anath gluts her liver with laughter
Her heart is filled with joy.” (ROC)
Astarte
“The goddess of the evening star, was like Anath and Asherah concerned with sex and war and was not always clearly distinguished from them.”
“Egyptian texts represented Astarte and Anath as goddesses of violence and war, showing them naked astride a galloping horse, waving weapons of battle.”
the gods of canaan
Molech
“He holds with one hand a pig lying on its back and in the other hand he has a bowl with the head and the feet of a little child sticking up. He holds this bowl in front of his mouth. To the right there is another bowl, and a god with an animal head holding a knife in his right hand above the bowl ready to slaughter the child. The scene… shows both animal and child sacrifices as food for the gods."
Each year, as the winter season came, it was said that Ba’al began to struggle with his brother Mot, the god of death. Mot would slay Ba’al, and barrenness would reign over the land until Ba’al was revived through sympathetic magic of his worshippers.
Sins of the Canaanites
1. Child Sacrifice
You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshipping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. (Deut 12:31)
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, (Deut 18:10 )
They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. (Ps 106:38)
2. Incest
"The second myth is often called 'The Birth of the Good and Gracious God.' It opens with a banquet at which wine flows freely. The text is divided into sections, the tenth being the last and most crucial. El is about to create two women who will become either his wives or daughters, depending on his ability to impregnate them.
“He creates these females and seduces them, and they both become pregnant. One bears a child called Dawn (Shahar), and the other a child called Dusk (Shalim).
Later, El makes love to these same women and they produce seven sons between them. These sons are 'the good and gracious gods.' They are destined to be gods of fertility, and are first suckled at the breasts of 'the Lady.’” (ROC)
Lev 18: 1 “The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: `I am the LORD your God. 3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.
4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. 5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
6 "`No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.
7 "`Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.
8 "`Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.
9 "`Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
10 "`Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.
11 "`Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
12 "`Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative.
13 "`Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.
14 "`Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
15 "`Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.
16 "`Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.
17 "`Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.
18 "`Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.”
3. Bestiality
This practiced was outlawed in most of the Ancient Near East, but was wholeheartedly embraced in Canaan.
Consider the example from the Baal Epic:
“Baal, on his way to the underworld, has sexual relations with a young heifer:
Puissant Baal complies.
He desires a calf-cow in Dubr;
A heifer in Shihlmemat-field;
Lies with her times seventy-seven,
[...]...times eighty-eight.”
“Lev 20:23
“Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.”
4.Cultic Prostitution
Canaanite texts refer to qadesh and qadesha (meaning “holy one,” masculine and feminine.) “these 'holy ones' were homosexual priests and priestesses who acted as prostitutes.”
Leviticus 19:29: “Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore,”
Deuteronomy 23:17:
“There shall be no whore(qedesha) of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite (qadesh) of the sons of Israel.”
5. Religious Self-Mutilation
“the prophets of Baal… called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, till the blood gushed out upon them.”
-1 Kings 18:25-28
(These prophets of Baal were Sidonians - The land of Jezabel - or were Israelites trained by the Sidonian prophets. This is the same Sidonia mentioned in Genesis 10, the land of the Canaanites.)
What was God to do with such a wicked people?
Canaan: What Happened?
1. God was exceedingly patient with the canaanites:
Consider the implications of what God told Abraham 500 years prior (slightly before the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah)
Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."(The Amorites were one of the sons of Canaan)
-Genesis 15:13-16
It seems that God is saying "I do not take lightly the destruction of anyone, Abraham. And I will not bring judgement upon the Canaanites, unless they have reached a point of no return, and it would be more merciful to judge them, than to let them destroy themselves."
2. The Canaanites continued to follow a course of wickedness following the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah.
(In Genesis 34 Abrahams grand-daughter Dinah was raped by a prince of Shechem - one of the cities of the Canaanites - The vengeance of Simeon and Levi was not authorized by the Lord(see Gen 49:5,6), though their anger was certainly understandable.)
Joshua 2:9 "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.
11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”
God always waits until the last possible moment to bring judgement; and he shows mercy wherever it is possible to do so.
4. God shows that He is willing to spare anyone who listen to Him.
-The city of Gibeon was spared (and even protected) after making a treaty with Israel.
-Rahab and her family were spared for helping the spies.
-Rahab even became an ancestor of Christ
5. Finally, when all other options are exhausted, God destroyed them.
Psalm 103
“The Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abundance in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Annihilation
(17-20) The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.”
Let us conclude with a story very similar to the Canaanites.
Assyria
Who were the Assyrians???
“The army included a highly trained force of chariotry, bowmen, spearmen, and slingers. Ramps and battering rams were used to capture walled cities and the spoil of captured peoples, including people taken as slaves, would go to Niniveh to enhance the Assyrian capital. Hostile rulers were sometimes impaled or skinned alive as a warming to potential rebels.
The religion of Assyria was similar to that of babylon and other ancient Semetic nations. Although Ashur was the deity to whom Assyria was devoted - Assyrians are, by definition, “the people of Ashur” - other deities had interests that were not to be neglected. Anu and Adad had temples at Ashur; Ishtar - goddess of war and love - was accorded special worship in Nineveh.”
-The Biblical World
Assyria
The Assyrian’s religion was very similar to Canaan’s. Their gods were pretty much the same.
Here’s the difference:
This was 700 years later
They had more time to delve into the depths of idolatry.
Assyria: What Happened?
1. The people were exceedingly wicked.
2. God places His representatives in their midst.
Assyria had the influence of Israel for Centuries. They had prophets pronouncing judgment on them. They had no excuse! (Isaiah 36 & 37) (The prophet Nahum prophecied exclusively for the nation of Assyria)
3. God is patient and merciful
He withheld his judgment for centuries even though they deserved it.
Finally, He sent Jonah in.
Jonah 3:4 “Then Jonah began to go throughout the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, ‘yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Niniveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from the throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.
“He issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.
"When God saw that the people had stopped doing evil things, he had pity and did not destroy them as he had planned."
If we can’t understand some aspects of what the Lord did, we can look at Niniveh, and see that He truly is a God who is gracious and compassionate - a God who relents concerning calamity.
The Psalmist sums it up well when he said, "Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful."
(Psa 116:5)
*(Special thanks to Jason Hague for much of the material of this article)
