God’s approval of Israel’s utter destruction of the Canaanites raises the problem that becomes even more prominent in the Book of Joshua: How could a good and loving God order the slaughter of all the Canaanites? It’s one thing to kill all the enemy warriors. But how can God command the deaths of women and children? Prominent atheists like Richard Dawkins accuse God of “divine genocide.” Is he right?
First, we need to acknowledge that God justly imposed the death penalty not only on the Canaanites, but also on the entire human race. As the righteous Judge, who knows every thought and intention of every heart, He pronounces in Ezekiel 18:4, “The soul who sins will die.”
Second, we need to understand God’s patience and mercy toward the Canaanites. Genesis 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. Hundreds of years before this, God explained to Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land for four hundred years before He would give them the land of Canaan. He then explained that the sin of the Amorites was not yet complete. God let these wicked people go on in their gross sins for 400 more years before He commanded Israel’s army to kill them. The inhabitants of Canaan practiced rampant idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality. These are all sins that God condemns throughout Scripture, warning that those who practice such things will face His judgment if they do not repent (Leviticus 18; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Galatians 5:19-21; 1st Timothy 1:8-10). While all cultures deserve judgment, God knows when a people fill up the measure of their sins so that His judgment falls on them. This wasn’t genocide—it was capital punishment.
For those who might argue “The Canaanites didn’t know any better,” the biblical answer is that the law of God is written on every human heart (Romans 2:15). Creation clearly shows every person that God exists. Romans 1:19-20 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
But, people suppress the truth by their wickedness (Romans 1:18) so that their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:21). When people persist in sin, God gives them over to judgment (Romans 1:24-32). Also, historically the Canaanites were not far removed from the flood. They would have known through oral history that God wiped out everyone through that cataclysmic judgment because of their sin. Yet the Canaanites persisted in their rebellion against Him. Sometimes people ask, “Why can’t God just forgive sins? I forgive those who wrong me. Why doesn’t God do that? Why does He have to impose death on sinners?” The answer is: because God is perfectly holy and just. He would not be God if He were unholy or unjust. If a human judge let a man go free after he killed your mother to support his drug habit, you would rightly be outraged. That’s not right or just! Justice demands that sins receive appropriate penalties. To sin against the infinitely holy God requires infinite punishment. Thus the Bible warns that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and that people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment (Hebrews 9:27).
But, the good news is that God has not left us to die in our sins. Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John 3:14-16: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.