Why Did God Order Every Man, Woman, and Child Occupying The Promised Land To Be Put To Death

For the average individual studying the Bible, the most shocking part is when they come to the part where God orders The Children of Israel to Kill Every Man, Woman, and Child that they found in The Promised Land?

This area alone turns many individuals off towards the Bible, however, God has infinite wisdom and knew exactly what he was doing. In effect, there was a very good reason for this decree.

Among the incalculable pieces of insight, I have gotten throughout the years from "The Creator" this part needs to be known. When you are perusing your Bible and you run over something that makes you feel awkward, oppose the impulse to just proceed onward to something different.

Where the Bible makes us feel awkward, this is exactly where we have to back off and think. It is convincing proof of a particular shortcoming in our perception compared to that of "The Creator". At the point when our minds or emotions cause discomfort under God's Word, He is correct and we off-base, because it is impossible for him to tell untruths.

That said, it is understandable that so many would recoil from God’s command that every living person in Canaan be put to death as His people conquer the land. No mercy for those women and children, no compassion on the aged, God’s instructions were as clear as they were brutal. What we did not realize is the fact that the DNA common to the people that he had destroyed in Noah's flood war re-emerging among the Canaanites.

Many outside the faith have come to a full stop here, arguing that our God is immoral and monstrous. Many on the fringes of the faith perform Sundry rationalizations to wiggle out from under the account arising from this decree. Many faithful believers are simply puzzled and embarrassed. The God we worship, however, knows exactly what he is doing. If we would ask for a clear understanding in this matter, we would be given wisdom about the reason for this decree.

(((There are at least two reasons why God did this)))

(First) is evidenced in what came to pass, when Israel did not obey God in this command. God wanted the land cleared of all temptations to his people which might cause them to turn from Him, His worship, and His law.

The Canaanites were a threat to the purity of God’s people. He had set them apart from those who were not even to exist, because they were an extension of the seed of fallen angels. His chosen people were consecrated and adopted by him. In giving this order, he was protecting them.

(((Joshua, for all his faithfulness, left the job unfinished)))

Once Israel was in the ascendency and once they felt safe, they began to think it might prove helpful to leave some of the Canaanites around, to fetch their water and chop their wood. The book of Judges reveals the results. Those few who were spared became a snare, just as God predicted they would. Soon, everyone did what was right in his or her own eyes.

Of course one might understand this motive, and still be horrified. These Canaanites were not mere abstractions, but real people. Is it not still rather cruel to kill them all simply for seeking to protect the moral purity of Israel? Perhaps, if that were God’s only motive.

(Secondly) the reason God commanded them all to be put to death is that they were all, every man, woman, and child, sinners. And the wages of sin is death. In short, God did this for the same reason He does all that He does, for the good of His people, and for His own glory.

It is because we are sinners and because God so often showers us with grace, that we lose sight of the justice of God, and the blackness of sin. When we read about the execution of the Canaanites we ought not to ask, “How could God do this?” but “Why does He not kill us all?”

The shocking part of the story of the conquest of Canaan is God’s love for His rebellious people, not His just wrath toward other rebels. From the moment of our conception, we are all under God’s just death sentence.

Every moment of every day is a momentary stay of execution. When we forget this truth we show ourselves to be the sinners we are. Christ came into the world to save sinners. He who knew no sin became sin for us and died a sinner’s death that we might live.

Believe it or not, Joshua did not completely do as God commanded and today's middle east problems can be traced back to this. A new genetic study has found that the Canaanites actually managed to survive this purge of their traditional homeland, passing on their DNA over the centuries to their numerous descendants in modern-day Lebanon.

Scientists managed to extract enough DNA from the remains of five people – found in the former Canaanite city-state of Sidon and dated to about 3,700 years ago – to sequence their entire genome.

They then compared this to 99 modern Lebanese people and discovered they had inherited about 90 percent of their genetic ancestry from their ancient forebears. The Canaanites are roundly condemned in the Old Testament – they were the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities destroyed with fire and brimstone directly by God, according to the Book of Genesis.

While the Bible suggests they were wiped out by the Israelites under Joshua in the land of Canaan, later passages appear to contradict this and state that there were survivors. Some Biblical scholars have argued the passages describing the Canaanites wholesale destruction are hyperbole and inconclusive, and the genetic research would indeed appear to indicate the slaughter was much less extensive than described.

Virtually all of the problems arising out of The Middle East, as evil as it may sound would not be present today if God's orders had been followed through. By the same token, there have been individuals converted to God's Law from this group and God being omnipotent knew that they would, like "Rehab The Harlot" at the battle of Jericho.

Today, by the inhabitants of earth being under "Grace" anyone can accept 'Our Savior and their past is wiped clean. This is only possible by what happened on the cross.