Thoughts on Genocide in the Bible

You may not want to read this unless you want to wrestle with some hard stuff...plus it is long, but like fiber it will be good for you and make you feel weird all at the same time.

People sometimes ask me how I reconcile the God of the New Testament with the God of the Old Testament. In the New Testament we have Jesus, who is the ultimate in sacrificial love, patience, caring, empathy, and submission but in the Old Testament we have a jealous God who inflicts judgment on the evil. Most difficult for us is probably the conquest period of Israel, which is played out in the book of Joshua. During this period God commands Israel to wipe out the inhabitants of Canaan. These days we call this sort of activity genocide.

Is it the same God? Are Jesus and Yahweh one and same? Should we do away with the Old Testament? Difficult questions, especially in this culture of extreme tolerance.

I will attempt to give a few explanations.

1. Let us take in the full expression of God in both the Old and New Testaments. For instance, the God of the Old Testament is also the God who cared deeply for humanity. He delivered people from slavery, spared people from judgment, extended Israel bazillions of second chances, and declared his love for his people in the books of Hosea and Song of Songs. The God of the Old Testament is full of love, patience, kindness, wrath, and judgment.

Jesus gave himself sacrificially on the cross, but he also flipped over tables and whipped animals in the temple. Jesus taught about the kingdom, but also about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. Jesus extended forgiveness and preached judgment at the same time.

My point is this: We must read the entire Bible. We must listen to the full revelation and not get stuck in specific areas we love or hate. Let us understand the full revelation of God.

2. People are sinful and under the wrath of God. Countless passages in the Bible declare God's judgment on the wicked. The thing is, all of humanity falls under this category.
Returning to the issue of genocide, some have trouble swallowing Israel wiping out the inhabitants of Canaan because they were just innocent people. That assertion is actually false.

In Genesis 15:16, God promised Canaan to the descendants of Abraham, but not until four generations later because, "the iniquity of the Amonites (inhabitants of Canaan) is not yet complete." This verse implies God's patience with these people, but His awaiting judgment for continued disobedience.

According to Leviticus 18:24,25 and Deuteronomy 18:12 God was removing the Canaanites from the land because of sexual perversions, as well as other sins. The religions of the Canaanites included temple prostitution, child sacrifice, and the worship of idols.

The point is that the Canaanites, like all of us, were sinful and under the wrath of God. You may have to wrestle with this but, as the One Righteous Judge, God has the right to punish sin and He does. God used the not-so-perfect Israelites to bring judgment on these sinful peoples.

3. God does not have favorites. Some would argue that God used his favorite people to destroy his no-so-favorite people. Although the Scriptures declare that Israel was God's “treasured possession” we must remember that God held Israel to the same standard as the previous inhabitants. In fact he warned them in Leviticus 18:28, "And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you." And that is exactly what happened. God used not-so-perfect Assyrians and Babylonians to execute judgment against Israel.

Conclusion: So how do we deal with the apparent issue of genocide in the Bible? Well, first off, while humans have no authority to execute judgment on other humans (cases of genocide) God does. All humans are sinful and under God's wrath. God is the perfect creator and He has the right and responsibility as the One Righteous Judge to execute judgment on sin.

The hope we have as humans then is Jesus on the cross. Like Rahab, who escaped the destruction of Jericho, we must turn to the truth. Rahab was a prostitute who lived in Jericho but she repented and embraced God. In the same way, we must repent and embrace Jesus.

Credits: Some of these ideas came from a Dale Ralph Davis commentary on Joshua...probably the confusing or wrong stuff came from my own head.