The Canaanites were a Semitic-speaking cultural group that lived in Canaan (comprising Lebanon, southern Syria, Israel and Transjordan) beginning in the second millennium B.C.E. 16:4-22). Some even consider them to be a specific social class (merchants). The desire for justice is foundational to the core of every human. We see the Canaanites play a prominent role in the early pages of the Bible. Not only was bestiality practiced and dreams about it seen as good omens, but it was also practiced as a form of worship. Canaan (son of Ham) - Wikipedia The Judgment of God: The Problem of the Canaanites Never be in a hurry about appointing a church leader. Do not - Reddit 16:3; 21:6; 23:10; 2 Chr. 4. Why did Noah curse his son Ham? - Biblword.net (Not like modern cultures have done much better dealing out justice through prisons today.). I do not know if sinnerswho do not fully understand the righteousness, justice, and greater all-encompassing will of Yahwehwill ever be able to comprehend fully or accept the answer the Bible gives for this issue. But by the fact that He is a loving and just God, He is also long-suffering and merciful. He used another nation to do it just as He had used Israel to judge the Canaanites (2 Kgs. Was this the Israelites taking the land of innocent bystanders? 7:3-4; 9:4-5). Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox! The Canaanites, by contrast, were destroyed at the direction of God and primarily because of their sin. God and the Canaanites: A Biblical Perspective So how do we make sense of this story? ( Genesis 15:18) God kept that promise when he caused the nation of Israel, which descended from Abraham, to occupy the region. The Lord wanted his story to be distributed globally, John A Beck explains, The promised land was the transportation hub between three continents.. Joshua decided that showing mercy and honoring oaths takes priority over the Mosaic Law to exterminate everything. This site is a proud member of the Salem Web Network, a subsidiary of, Copyright 2023, Crosswalk.com. Jericho should have served as an example of Yahwehs mercy to the rest of the cities, but, unfortunately, it did not. 2 Joseph commanded the physicians who served him to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. Yahweh gave Israel the land of Canaan as a reward for their obedience to Him but not because He was playing favorites. The Canaanites Were Not Salvageable --- They Had Sunk To The Very Bottom On The Immorality Scale: {C} Murdered Their Own Children {Molech}. The closest thing to this that exists today is when a group of prisoners corner a newcomer in the showers and the alpha male rapes him in order to put him in his place (Gen. 19:4-9; Judg. Asherah or Ishtar, also known as the Queen of Heaven, was a female fertility goddess who was worshiped through sexual acts, including orgies. 69 0 obj<>stream (1988). Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. Not only did they declare these acts as righteous morality, but they also participated in these acts in the worship of their gods as a means of gaining the gods approval. . This mercy shows that strict application of the command to exterminate the Canaanites is superseded by mercy to a repentant Canaanite woman. By Jesus being a human, He could represent humanity in their sin. . There were not distinct just because they worshiped other gods or were sinful, for that was true of all the nations, including the Israelites at times. 0000003183 00000 n The Canaanites: Genocide or Judgment? - STR When a community sins, there are consequences for every member of the population, even children. The northerners mostly settled on the edge of the coastal plain; in the south, settlement spread eastward to the upland areas. God told Abraham that the Amorite were a wicked people. And yet, the Israelites encountered the descendants of the Nephilim, among the Canaanites, when they entered the promised land much later on. Whether your view is closer to Walton or Wright the point is clearthe conquest was about establishing Gods kingdom and driving out sin and unbelief. This is a sure and certain promise. When God did give the land over to Israel, he told Israel not to think it was because of their own righteousness. We are to live so righteously and love each other in such a unique way that the world cannot help but want to be a part of the Church. Furthermore, Israel and the Church have purposes that are different from each other. What Does the Bible Say About Canaanites? - OpenBible.info So you were different from other women in your whorings. There is never a glorification of the battle, only a record of its accomplishment. It shows that Yahweh did spare Rahab for her faith, and thus this is His true character. [9] Mark S. Smith, trans., in Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, ed. ", "For all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you" Leviticus 18:27, ". The Sins Of The Canaanites: Blood-Lust, Murder, Incest, Sex With Who Were the Canaanites in the Bible - History and Importance Now The Canaanites Had Sunk To Bestiality. The idolatry and the worship of pagan gods would not seem like a sin to most people other than Jews and Christians. 18:23, 24, 20:3), the land . Salem Media Group. That was the very first thought that came to me. 0000000016 00000 n As the creator of all things, Yahweh is sovereign over all creation and has the right to execute His justice in any way He sees fit. Canaanites were morally salvageable and they were accordingly shown mercy if they would agree to make peace with the Israelites. Why Did God Wage War Against the Canaanites? and their sacrificial feasting on human flesh and blood. Just as fantasies of incest were seen as good omens, so was homosexuality. 50 20 Incest and adultery were also part of the gods lives. Brown, Shelby. Cursed be Canaan! Through My Bible - April 28. To be the rape victim was so humiliating that no one would ever show respect to that person. 7 But the Israelites [] broke faith concerning the devoted things. Yahweh did not take pleasure in the extermination of the Canaanites. 21:21-35; Josh. [4] These are just a few examples, and none of these behaviors of the gods are portrayed with contempt in the texts of their religions. The Bible says Noah, was righteous and blameless, but Genesis 6:12 says "all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth." It had everything to do with the judgment of a people for their sins. posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its 19:22). The Canaanites were a group of people who lived in ancient Canaan along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea known today as Israel. The Canaanites were a group of people who lived in ancient Canaan along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea known today as Israel. End quote. Get the answers your looking for and save with code SPRINGSTUDY15! 20:16-18). Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.. The "new atheists" call God's commands to kill the Canaanites "genocide," but a closer look at the horror of the Canaanites' sinfulness, exhibited in rampant idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality, reveals that God's reason for commanding their death was not genocide but capital punishment. 5. 0000002574 00000 n 0000002826 00000 n These people were so evil that Yahweh commanded their extermination specifically in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua. 12:3). There are certainly exceptions, but they are the exceptions. However, in Canaanite culture these sins were pretty much universally practiced and accepted because this is what their gods were like. Abram traveled though the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. Many of the Canaanite sins such as incest, adultery, bestiality, and child sacrifice were death penalty sins in the Old Testament and since Israel was a theocracy God could enact the death penalty back then for these sins. In the second, the law states that Israel was to attack other nations outside the land of Canaan only if they were attacked first. Why did God command the genocide of the Canaanites? [12] Manniche, Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 10001. [8] Text in brackes is provided because it was missing in the original document. They were a people who worshipped many gods and had many detestable practices. Kirsi Stjerna, p. 33. 26-27; 2 Cor. 7:13) and to destroy all the idols (Deut. "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." (Gen. 15:16, KJV) Before crossing the Jordan, God told Joshua and the people that He was giving the land of Canaan to them because of the promise He made . The fact that Jesus Christ was willing to be exterminated (Matt. The sin in question is debated, ranging from literal voyeurism, castration or . 10 Things You Need to Know about the Number 666, 10 Books of the Bible You Should Read Again and Again, 10 Most Encouraging Bible Verses That Will Uplift Your Heart and Soul, 5 Things That Hurt Relationships with Grandkids, 30 Morning Prayers to Start Each Day with God, How to Have Joy in Your Golden Years Despite These 10 Life Losses, 4 Things You Should Know about Big George Foreman, 8 Ways You Are Belittling Your Husband and What God Says about It, Maybe Money Can Buy Happiness, but Not Joy. 16:21; 20:31; 23:37; Jer. Through My Bible Yr 03 - April 28 - WELS The idea that women are more righteous or less sinful is a modern-day myth. All rights reserved. John H. Walton in his excellent book The Lost World of Israelite Conquestgives twenty-one propositions to the make the argument that herem (what God ordered) was not so much an order to kill everyone by the sword but instead is more about rooting out ethnic identityit was about taking away their godless community. Yahweh was extremely patient, waiting for hundreds of years for them to reach a certain point of immorality before He judged them, for Yahweh is slow to anger (Ex. Translated by Kirsi Stjerna. He loves us so much that He does not want to punish us to the full extent that justice would require. The Canaanites abundant wickedness proved the curse was warranted, Garrett Kell explains in an article for TGC, As a result, they were enslaved by a coalition of easter kinds, by the Israelites during the conquest, and by Soloman during his reign as king. Hams other three sons, Cush, Egypt, and Put, were not cursed as Canaan was. The completely negative connotations of "genocide" make it hard to look at the biblical events without a jaundiced eye. And it seems that as history trudged along, the Canaanites became increasingly wicked. Isn't this the same God that listed Thou shalt not kill? in the Ten Commandments?" The Twelve Spies - Wikipedia Eventually, their idealistic lifestyle and unimaginable practices like child sacrifice caused them to meet their doom, though God remained patient with them for centuries. Who were the Canaanites? Yahweh also showed his willingness to forgive and restore with His dealings with Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire (Jonah 3:4-10). 32 makes it clear that the character and actions of Yahweh are complicated, and the fact that Yahweh reveals this part of Himself through Scriptures shows that He refuses to allow humans to put Him in a box. . Yahweh did not command Israel to exterminate the Canaanites because they were a different race. Proving He is the God who does more than we can ask for or imagine, and always makes a way. 7:10-15), Yahweh made it clear that all of Israel had sinned, and He punished Israel by allowing them to be defeated by the Canaanites in the same way they were now defeating the Canaanites. They had crossed the Red Sea and were in the wilderness. Women were no less guilty than men, and in many cases they were the principal instigators. do not leave alive anything that breathes. 106:24-35). Apparently, they had copied his moral decadence. But the exact opposite happens with this story. Leviticus 18:6 (2) They were having sex with their mothers. Anyone who has ever studied the mythology or religions of ancient people knows that their gods were not moral beings, according to anyones standard in the modern world. The Egyptians mourned for him for seventy days. All of this must also be put in light of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection for the sins of all people of all nations (John 3:16-17). To that point, Yahweh commanded the Israelites to not intermarry with the Canaanites, which seems odd if they were all supposed to be destroyed. The conquest was not human genocide. The only problem with this out is that it is not the way the Bible reads. exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. Rahab and her family repented, and they not only escaped the judgment but also became a part of Israel. Nor did Yahweh command Israel to exterminate everyone who did not convert to Judaism. And all the wrath of Yahweh could be poured out on Christ as humanitys representative, killing Him and satisfying Yahwehs justice. Why Does God Compare Our Relationship with Him to That of a Bride and Groom? There were laws against bestiality but only for certain animals. Why did God condone such terrible violence in the Old Testament? In the midst of idol worship, God would establish His promises to Abraham. Thus, at times the Canaanites point to a specific group of people (Joshua 11:3) but also it can refer to any of those who are mentioned in the Genesis 10 table of nations.