Each semester, I am privileged to speak with hundreds of college students. Many, however, are skeptics of the Christian faith and hold grievous misunderstandings about Christianity. They’ve been convinced of the common attacks on God’s character that have been propounded by popular authors and some Ph.D. professors. One of these popularized claims is that the God of the Old Testament is not good.
The war on Canaan
One of the events used against God is the war on Canaan found within the book of Joshua. Critics have argued that Yahweh’s actions toward the Canaanites are characteristic of an evil dictator who treats people unjustly and whose anger is unwarranted. These are very serious claims that deserve an answer, if for no other reason than to ensure that our young people hear both sides of the story.
God told His people Israel to enter the land and wipe out its inhabitants. Now if we had no further details, one might concoct a narrative that paints God as being completely unfair, treating the Israelites with special favor while the unfortunate Canaanites suffer at the hands of an unreasonably harsh edict. But such a conclusion would be wildly speculative. Furthermore, these are not the only details the text provides.
God’s motive in the war on Canaan
We are all familiar with the courtroom scene where an alleged criminal is being prosecuted for a crime. And we all know that the issue of motive is a key element in any good defense attorney’s tool box. Acting in self defense is certainly different from acting out of pure passion and rage. Not only are these motives different, but the former is morally acceptable while the latter is morally abhorrent. And so when any judgment of any kind is made, we must first ask why.
Why did God enact a sweeping judgment on the Canaanites? What was His motive? The answer to this question will give us invaluable insight into His character. The truth is, we don’t have to guess or speculate wildly about God’s motive in the war on Canaan. The text is clear. God alludes to His reasoning when He commands, “You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping 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).
In ancient Canaan, there was a city called Gezer where archaeologists have discovered ritual worship sites where the remains of tortured children have been found. The descriptions of their findings are chilling. And they have confirmed the type of sacrifice that God warned His people about in the shocking verses above. God wasn’t playing favorites with Israel or taking land away from innocent, well-meaning people. It was not on account of Israel’s righteousness that God granted them victory. Rather, the Lord declares that, “No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you” (Deut. 9:4). Motive is such a pivotal factor in sound judgment that, once we are aware of the reason behind the war on Canaan, the more pressing question often becomes, “Why did God wait so long?”
God’s patience in the war on Canaan
I remember how surprised I was when I first learned that God waited 400 years before judging the Canaanites. We learn of this great patience when God tells Abraham that the Hebrew people would be taken captive and enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, after which they would return and take possession of the promised land. God explains to Abraham that the people currently possessing the land were going to be judged, but that their sin had “not yet reached its full measure” (Gen. 15:16). So God did not even judge the people until their evil deeds were full blown. The war on Canaan was not a rash decision made by a mercurial despot, but rather a measured judgment by a good God that perfectly suited the crime. Paul Copan, professor of philosophy and ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, captures this idea well when he observes, “The war on Canaan was God enacting a form of capital punishment on a people who had committed capital crimes for centuries.”
God’s protection in the war on Canaan
Just like a good father would, God regularly warned His people of the dangers of sin. He wanted to protect them from the harm that always ensues when we abandon God’s ways and embrace sinful ones. So He warned His people out of love. The Lord told Moses to implore the Israelites, “You must not do as they do in the land of Canaan … . Do not follow their practices … . Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them” (Lev. 18:1–5).
This directive is then followed by a long list of detestable sins that the Canaanites committed. The Lord cautioned His people, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled” (Lev. 18:24).
God wanted things to go well with His people. This is always the heart of God. We read a beautiful refrain of this sentiment when Moses preached to the nation following the desert wanderings. We hear urgency as we read, “I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him … then you will live and increase” (Deut. 30:15–16).
Again we read, “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live …” (Deut. 30:19). God’s judgment of evil is in direct correlation to His commitment to protecting life and preserving the good.
God’s goodness in the war on Canaan
God’s good and perfect character is at the center of all morality. He is the standard by which all things are judged. Most of the students I meet have not read through the Bible for themselves and so have not discovered the heart of God or His great love for them. When the nation of Israel abandoned God, the Lord told the prophet Ezekiel, “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live … I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’” (Ezek. 33:11).
God always desires to extend mercy rather than judgment because He is love (1 John 4:8). But because He is love, He must condemn evil. Just as a physician who sees a cancer-ridden body and fails to treat the disease would not be considered a good one. So, a God who doesn’t address the sin of this fallen world would not be good.
The task set before us
Clay Jones, former professor at Talbot School of Theology, has proposed, “Much of our complaint against God’s judgment in the Old Testament stems from the fact that God hates sin, but we do not.” Now, of course, as Christians being formed into the likeness of Christ more and more each day, we aim to grow in our hatred of sin. But can any of us truly say that we hate it as our Lord does? God’s love for the world and for the people in it is so great that He must judge sin.
He judges sin because He is good. He judges sin in order to protect us from evil. And on the Cross of Christ, He absorbed the ultimate penalty for our sin so that we could be spared death and live.
Rather than remain silent as the critic paints God in an unfavorable light, may we, with humility and grace, strive to show the world how our Holy Scriptures present a God of unshakable goodness, mercy and love.