The Canaanite Objection: Clay Jones on the Destruction of the Canaanites

One of the Bible stories that I learned as a child was about the Battle of Jericho. The Battle of Jericho, as told to us then, was tidied up considerably from the way it actually appears in the Bible. The book of Joshua, which reports the events of Jericho, describes things more violently than the cheery tune we sung about Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho. The Joshua account reads (emphasis mine): 

^"On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. ¹⁶ And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. ¹⁷ And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. ¹⁸ But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. ¹⁹ But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.” ²⁰ So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. ²¹ Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword" (Joshua 6:15–21).

This was the beginning of the conquest of Canaan. The book of Joshua continues to report the Israelites’ military conquest of the land of Canaan, a conquest commanded by earlier by God during Israel’s desert wanderings

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ³ You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. ⁵ But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire” (Deuteronomy 7:1–5).

And God commanded later, when due to Israel’s disobedience in conquering the land they were submerged in Canaanite idolatry and sin, in 1 Samuel 15 (emphasis mine):

² Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. ³ Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey'" (1 Samuel 15:2–3) 

Clearly this aspect of the account wasn’t stressed in children’s Sunday school. Both non-Christians and Christians struggle to make sense of these passages. Why did God command the destruction of the Canaanite nations? Fervent atheists like Richard Dawkins have seized on these passages and said that the God of the Bible that Christians worship is a fictive, genocidal lunatic. How are Christians to make sense of, and explain, God’s directive to destroy the Canaanites?

Clay Jones, professor of apologetics at Biola University in California, addresses this question in his article “We Don’t Hate Sin So We Don’t Understand What Happened to the Canaanites.” Jones’ argues that (a) we do not hate sin in the same way that God does and so we struggle to understand his directive to destroy the Canaanites (p. 53) and (b) that the destruction of the Canaanites was not an instance of racially-motivated ethnic cleansing but was an act of corporate capital punishment in response to deeply-rooted evil (p. 68).

Jones makes his case by demonstrating from Ancient Near Eastern sources and secondary scholarship that Canaan was polytheistic (or, idolatrous) and that this polytheism was “theologically conducive to (if not motivational for) the formation of Canaanite practices, including the practices of incest, adultery, incest, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality, such that these practices are not incoherent with Canaanite idolatry” (p. 57). Polytheism in Canaan allowed for all sorts of evil practices that God detested.

After suggesting this connection Jones illustrates the nature of the aforementioned practices in Canaanite life. This is the largest portion of the article as Jones sketches out in vivid detail the morally reprehensible practices of Canaan prior to the Israelite conquest.

Jones also argues that the underlying motivation behind the destruction of the Canaanites was not ethnic cleansing.  God treated Israel, his chosen people, with great severity as well when they turned to Canaanite gods and committed similarly evil acts.

Finally, Jones provides numerous illustrations from contemporary Western culture that illustrate the evil in our own culture is eerily similar to Canaan’s sins. Websites and television promote adultery. Groups lobby for the legitimacy of pedophilia. Children are sacrificed for comfort, cost, and convenience. Pornographic websites featuring bestiality get thousands of hits per day. Our culture, blinded by sin, does not want to recognize the justness of God’s judgment against Canaan because to do so would also be an act of self-condemnation.

Jones sums up his article by writing:

“We do not appreciate the depths of our own depravity, the horror of sin, and the righteousness of God. Consequently, it is no surprise that when we see God’s judgment upon those who committed the sins we commit, that complaint and protest arises within our hearts: “This is divine barbarism!” or “This is divine genocide!” But studying these things over the years has led me to wonder if the Canaanites might not stand up at the Judgment and condemn this generation” (pp. 71-72)

Jones’ article is worth reading, not only because it answers a common obstacle to biblical faith, but also because it calls to our attention a similarity that existed between the people of God in the Old Testament and today. Similar threats to capitulate to the surrounding culture have faced the Church throughout the ages. The Church must resist these, stand firm in the faith, glory in holiness, and be sanctified through the Word so that through its witness many might be transferred out of spiritual darkness and into the light of Christ. Let us pray that the God will protect the Church, strengthen the Church, and use the Church to call the world to repentance through Christ while making the pleasures of serving him known.  

For those who desire a condensed version of Jones’ argument you should consult Greg Koukl’s article on it here (follow the link and download the pdf).