Believers-Why did God order the destruction of 60 cities so that the Israelites could live there?

Question

He ordered the killing of all the men, women, and children of each city, and the looting of all of value
(Deuteronomy 3).

just wondering about your goD....

Answer 1

Excellent question. I'm going to assume it was genuinely curious and not just a rhetorical question to which you've already decided not to consider any answer. As such, I'd like to offer my viewpoint on this, as it is an issue I struggled with before becoming a Christian.

Let's take the best example of your objection - the storming of Jericho. The Hebrews, unprovoked, descend upon the innocent Jericho and march around the walls prasing God. The walls fall down. The Hebrews run in and slaughter the men, women, children, and animals. That is, the ones they didn't rape and/or keep as slaves. This story is generally celebrated by Evangelical Christians and by orthodox Jews, held up as a story that proves God is real and powerful and on our side. But for many people, like myself, celebrating this story presents obvious ethical problems.

For example, what are we now to do with the book of Jonah in which God says that the Jews are meant to be priests and that the Jews are tasked with making him available to all people? What are Christians to do with Jesus talking about treating your neighbor as yourself [and then identifying your neighbors as including those people outside your own ethnic, cultural, or social circle]? Clearly if we read the Bible like a newspaper then we have some serious cnotradictions to resolve. And much effort is spent to find ways to twist the text into resolution.

However, I would offer a far simpler explanation: the Bible is a library of books that tell the unfolding story of man's relationship with God first through the eyes of the Jews and then through the eyes of the dominant groups of early Christians. Thus, we can see a progression and evolution in understanding over the course of the Bible.

According to the Torah/Pentateuch, only Jews count - all other peoples have no souls and therefore raping and murdering a non-Jew is no crime at all. But wearing a garment made out of two fabrics (i.e. cotton/polyester blend) is a grave sin. By the time we get to Micah the Prophets are calling for unification. But later Jeremiah calls for segregation and Jewish domination. Jonah is told by God that all peoples have souls and can have relationships with God but Jews were intended to be the priests and missionaries, essentially.

There is even this same progression within Jesus' life story. In Matthew there is recorded an incident in which he refers to Samaritans as "dogs." But in Luke 10 he says Samaritans are neighbors and that we should love them as ourselves. Again, if you read the Bible as a newspaper this is a serious problem! But if we see Jesus as first being a baby and not knowing how to talk, learning how to feed himself, pee in designated areas, to read, to work with wood, etc then we recognize that he did not come from his mother as a fully grown 30-year old man. As such, his own understanding of who he was and of God changes over time.

As Christians we are part of that same process, the unfolding story by which we are brought from these imperfect words and stories of barbaric acts created in the name of the ferocious Midianite volcano God Yahweh to a God who loves the least of these, to a God who we cannot understand but whom we know lives in us and us in Her in the same way we know we're in love with someone. It's part of being human, we all have the same equipment and the same compulsion toward our ultimate concern. Most people who came before, most currently alive, and many who have yet to be born will walk this path and walk it poorly, stumbling and fumbling along. This fact, however, does not mean there is something we call God, that Jesus was not God, that he did not live and die to make God available to all of us, or that our lives can be continually formed by that available relationship.

St. Augustine said that the Bible is a story about love. If you read something and it does not sound like love, it is best viewed as a metaphor about love. Jericho is to us a mythical story that a life and a community in a relationship with God will find that the world naturally responds to us, taht life is better as a result becaus eman is designed to live in accord with God.

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

This was part of the covenant that God had made with Abraham that He would give his descendants the land of the Canaanites. At that time their cup of iniquity was not full (Gen. 15:16). God turned a blind eye to their wickedness for over 400 years and then it was time to remove them.

Israelites were placed there to spread the knowledge of the true God. At the same time some of the Canaanites were allowed to remain among them to 'test' the Israelites who repeatedly fell into idolatry and as a result constantly suffered under the same people they were supposed to displace. It was not until Babylonian captivity that the Jews (people of Judah, the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist after they were taken to Assyria) were completely cured of idol worship.

But the killings and those hideous commands against those who committed crimes even among the Israelites were given to teach them what life would be like without grace and forgiveness - 'eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth'. This forgiveness was made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus who paid the penalty for our sins. "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:17)

Ironically, Islam still teaches and practices those OT commands since it is devoid of the teachings of Jesus which is the only way to live in peace and harmony.

Answer 3

This was the land that God had given them. The Israelites were Gods' chosen people. They did not practice anything in the way of idol worship, many gods, excessive sexual deviation/practices, living sacrifices. The Israelites would become defiled in Gods' eyes if they took any of these people for husband or wife if they did not convert- look at Solomon. These were His orders to them. They did not follow His orders and look what happened to them.

Answer 4

Often when one reads the Bible, especially the Old Testament, one comes across difficult passages. The authors of the OT saw God guiding every event of Israel's history. Sometimes they mistook human actions as guided by God. Since God was all powerful they believed God was responsible for everything, good as well as bad. When we read the OT we must read it in the 'light' of the New Testament and the teaching of Christ. Since Christ taught us of a God who is loving and forgiving, that is what we believe God is. Therefore the events in the OT that contradict a loving God is a misinterpretation of the events as guided by God.

Answer 5

I assume you are open minded.
You won't just read those scriptures that contribute to a prejudiced viewpoint, will you?
God had promised that land to his people HUNDREDS of years earlier ....and made that known.
Anyone settling there should have known that one day the Israelites would come along.
Plus.....
Whenever the Israelites came up to a city, they gave opportunity to the inhabitants to vacate.
Jericho is an example.
War was not obligatory.
It only occured due to stubborness.

Answer 6

God didn't.

People wrote down legendary stories, well after the fact, to justify their actions. And they claimed God told them to do what they did.

Comparable to you believing something, and then looking around for reasons to justify what you believe, after you've made your mind up.

The Bible, and the history of the people of Abraham, is more complex than many non-believers and believers think it is.

The Bible is not simple answers to simple questions.

And that's pretty close to what I told the church when I preached yesterday.

Godspeed.

Answer 7

History is always written from the winners point of view.

Virtually all the Jews and Christians I know these days (and I tend to know the liberal ones) wouldn't say that God sanctioned that.

I believe God is on the side of peace.

Answer 8

It is called "genocide" or better- "ethnic cleansing". But when Gawd tells you to do it, then it must be right, right?

My recent question- who was the bigger terrorist bin Laden or Moses was replied to with only laughs. Most people were unaware Moses had anything at all to do with violence. But Gawd told Moses to have people beheaded and to slay the Midianites- men, women and children, save only the young women who have never slept with a man, They were to be rounded up, allowed to mourn their husbands for 1 month and then used as slaves.

Who is the bigger terrorist? Joshua was worse by far than Moses. He makes bin Laden look like child's play. And remember, they had no bombs then. They killed by hand.

Answer 9

The Bible says that it was not because the Israelites were so good but because these nations were so BAD. They worshipped heathen Gods even sacrificing their young by fire to them and some were cannibals.

Answer 10

Read very closely. Those are not the words of God.

You speak out of ignorance, and You have plenty of company!