It may seem difficult to understand why God asked the Israelites to remove the indigenous population of the future “Holy Land” when we look at these events from a strictly 21st century viewpoint and value system. According to the Bible, way back in the Book of Genesis, God told Abraham that the “Promised land” would go to his future descendants only after the “error of the Amorites comes to completion.” What did that mean? It meant that God was allowing the natives of the land to live out their lives for several hundred more years before their “lease” on the land expired. According to other accounts in the Bible, the natives of the “Promised Land” were stepped in a form of worship that included among other things, child sacrifice and male and female temple prostitution.

When God organized the 12 tribes of Israel into a new nation near Mt. Sinai they were to embrace a higher moral standard that would govern every aspect of their life. Canaanite religion and the worship of Yahweh were two incompatible value systems. If the Israelites where to remain separate in their worship then they could not mix the worship of the graven Baal images with the Universal one God Yahweh, or Jehovah in modern English. Since the “lease” was up for the native inhabitants of the land and Yahweh had tolerated their continued existence despite their perverted religious practices, the time had now come for new “tenants” to move into the land. It’s not as if the Israelites were in any way better racially or genetically that God choose them, it was because God made a promise to Abraham that through “his seed all the nations of the earth would bless themselves”. This promised “seed” would include the descendants of Abraham and eventually would yield the promised Messiah who for Christians found fulfillment in the life of Jesus Christ and for Jews the wait continues to this day for their “Moshiach”.

So the question really is, does God have the right to set standards for right and wrong? Was it wrong for God to single out several nations for destruction? To the modern thinker the answer is yes, that was positively wrong for God or for any people to take such action against another group simply on religious grounds. In our modern pluralistic society, we collectively embrace the notion that all value systems are created equal and should be equally respected. While that sounds like a great idea, we know from practical experience how difficult it can be to respect all value systems. Is it right to respect the value system of certain immigrants to certain European countries that permit them to beat their wives and engage in “honor killings?” Is it being tolerant and broad-minded to allow the practice of female genital mutilation? After all, these are time-honored practices of other cultures so they must be respected and maintained, correct? The answer is obviously no, that’s not correct. In our modern world, value systems are not created equal.

So, without digressing too much, what does this have to do with God commanding the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanites? The answer has to do with which a value system is correct? Which value system had a right to continue and which had a right to be exterminated? Considering the fruitage of the Canaanite value system one wonders why God did not remove them earlier from the land. Interestingly, centuries before the Israelites conquered the Promised Land, Abraham was visited by two angels that were on their way to investigate “the outcry over the lands of Sodom and Gomorrah”. Essentially, the Angels were on a fact-finding mission to see whether or not the city and its neighbors merited being spared the impending divine wrath. Unfortunately for the Canaanites living in Sodom and Gomorrah the investigation proved to have a negative outcome resulting in an adverse judgment of their society. Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family did get out alive, but only barely, and after losing his wife by her being unceremoniously turned into a pillar of salt. Now I know a lot of your readers will think this is a fairy tale, but for people who believe in the Bible, like myself, this story is real history, as unbelievable as the account may be to a modern reader in this skeptical scientific world.

Additionally, since the ancient nation of Israel would be living in a precarious time, a time of kill and be killed, a time before the modern nation state with all of its treaties and rules of engagement, the Israelites had every right to defend their borders. Unlike your characterizations that the Israelites were “bloodthirsty” warriors, their nation had rules that had to be followed even during warfare, such as not raping and pillaging the conquered. They certainly did not have an expansionist empire agenda, as many of the other larger and more powerful states surrounding them did. They had a specific land mandate given to them by God, and that was it. There were no crusades, no armies sent to distant lands to convert the “pagans”, no empire to maintain. Essentially, the Israelites were a fairly non-aggressive, and agrarian society. God did allow them to defend themselves from many invaders who thought that these sheepherders and farmers were easy pickings. The Israelites did have their glory days during the reigns of David and his son Solomon, but even under Solomon’s Reign, their territory was still relatively puny. Even to this day, the modern Jewish state is a relatively small country, inhabiting a landmass much smaller their ancient ancestors.

As a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ but not in the same Jesus Christ that was later hijacked by opportunist clerics centuries after Christ’s death. Christianity, as a value system, is as meaningful today as it was in the first century. Unfortunately, most so-called Christians do not really follow the teachings of Christ. If they did they would never have engaged in bloody crusades or allowed their bad behavior to be somehow sanctioned by God and Christ. Christ in my opinion is indeed the “Prince of Peace” as Isaiah prophesied. However, how that peace will spread about Earth wide will be quite shocking to everyone who thinks that Jesus is just some 1st cenrtury “peace and love” guru. One only has to read the prophet Daniel in chapter 2 verse 44 of the same book bearing his name to see what the future has in store for humanity. I encourage your readers to look up that verse.