“Is the God of the Bible a Genocidal Maniac?”

Welcome to the fourth installment of misconceptions clarified where this week’s topic will focus on the genocide of the ancient Canaanites and the Amalekites in the Old Testament to see if God is guilty of committing genocide. Now, if the revealed God in the Bible is an all-loving benevolent God, why did He order the extermination of a whole nation of people? This can be a very troublesome proposition for those who are not of the Judeo-Christian faith, and especially for those who are highly critical of the Bible itself. Unfortunately, there are many people who are quick to reference the genocide in the Bible, and according to The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins says, "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

Let’s see if there is any truth to this claim…

First, in Deuteronomy 20:17 God commands the Israelites to completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. At first glance, this particular passage appears to be a cruel order from an all-loving God. But, before we convict God of genocide off of one single passage, why would God command not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six groups of people to be completely destroyed? Let’s dig a little deeper to see what these ancient people are all about, in particular the Canaanites.

According to Genesis 9:18, Noah’s son Ham was the father of Canaan, and when Ham saw his father naked and drunk, instead of covering his father up and remaining silent, he leaves his father naked and tells his brothers. When Noah finds out what Ham did, he said in Genesis 9:24, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” Then in Genesis 10:16-18, the passage says that the Amorites, the Jebusites, and the Hivites are the descendants of the Canaanites. The scripture also says in Genesis 15:13-21 that the Canaanites and their descendants would occupy the promise land in a dream given to Abram. Then in Deuteronomy 7:1-5, God tells the Israelites that when they enter the promise land possessed by the Canaanites and their descendants that not only are they to completely destroy them, but they are not to intermarry with them, they are not to give their daughters to their sons, and they are not to take their daughters for their sons. Why? Because in verse 4 it says, “for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods.”

But, it gets much deeper than this! So far, according to the scriptures the Canaanites and their descendants were cursed, were the lowest of slaves, possessed the promised land, and committed idolatry; a violation by the way of the very first two commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai; to not have any other gods before the Lord and to not make for yourself an idol because God is a jealous God. Now, notice in Deuteronomy 7:5, God commands the Israelites when they enter the promise land to break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire. Moreover, Molech was one of the gods the Canaanites used to sacrifice their children to as a form of worship according to Leviticus 18:21, along with several other practices such as homosexuality, bestiality, incest, and pederasty. To put this into greater perspective, imagine in the 21st century people killing their kids, having sex with little boys, and having sex with animals in the name of some god… Not only would these hideous acts be broadcast all over the media, but the death penalty would be sought in many cases for anyone who would kill their own children. Hence, this begs the question, was God’s charge to exterminate the Canaanites and their descendants just, or was God unjust in his actions? Notice also what the Lord tells the prophet Ezekiel in 18:25... “Yet you (the people who accuse God of his unjust ways) say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear, O house of Israel (and everybody else): Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?"

It gets even better than this! While many are quick to point to God’s wrath, many fail to realize how patient God is with his people. In Genesis 15:16, God exercised extreme patience with the Canaanites and their descendants by subjecting his own chosen people the Israelites to Egyptian bondage four hundred years until the sin of the Amorites (a descendant of the Canaanites) reached its full measure. Which means that the Canaanites and their descendants had at least four generations to repent from their sins, and guess what..? They continued sacrificing their kids and committing such hideous crimes for four hundred years. Again, “Is God a genocidal maniac,” or "Is God just in his actions?" Does anybody see how God was willing to be patient and subject His own chosen people in order to bring the wicked to repentance, and after waiting four hundred years, God finally said enough is enough! Is it not the ways of the people that are unjust???

But, what about the Amalekites? God told King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:1-3, “go attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men, women, children, infants, cattle, sheep, camels, and donkeys.” Now, how could an all-loving God order the extermination of poor little innocent infants and children??? Woe! This can’t be an all-loving God, right? Well, at first glance, this may appear to be really cruel to kill harmless infants and children. However, depending on your presuppositions or depending on your agenda will determine how you look at the situation. For many, the sole objective is to disprove God’s existence, or to prove that the God in the Bible is some kind of “genocidal maniac”  and thus God can't be all-loving. On the other hand, a person can look at this from a different perspective and ask, “what did the Amalekites do to make God order Saul to totally destroy everything to include infants and children?” You see, if people ask the right questions, and examine everything the Amalekites did throughout the Bible, the answer to why God commanded such an order would make perfect sense.

What’s the evidence…? In Exodus 17, when the Israelites were in the wilderness and vulnerable from thirst, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. In Deuteronomy 25:17, Moses reminds the Israelites of how the Amalekites came and attacked them when they were weary and worn. In Numbers 14:45, the Amalekites joined the Canaanites to attack the Israelites. In Judges 3:13, the Amalekites joined the Moabites to attack the Israelites. In Judges 6:3, the Amalekites again joined the Midianites to attack the Israelites. Furthermore, because Saul failed to completely destroy the Amalekites, they would continue to be a thorn in Israel’s side when Hammon the Agagite tried to destroy the Jews during the reign of Esther approximately five hundred year later. Unfortunately, according to the scriptures the Amalekites were a very wicked people who were on a mission to exterminate the Israelites, and it wasn’t until the reign of Saul almost five hundred years later after their first encounter with the Amalekites that God said enough is enough!

Again, instead of asking the question, “Is God a genocidal maniac,” the question should be, "How patient is God's judgement for the people who were trying to completely destroy his chosen nation?" How patient has God been with you in your sin??? In all reality, God exercised a patience unimaginable in this day and age. Just imagine another country steadily trying to destroy America, and America does nothing for five hundred years… Or, just imagine if God was to allow such wicked acts by the Canaanites and the Amalekites to continue on throughout the generations to the extent that maybe today’s society would still be sacrificing their kids as a normal part of everyday life. God’s people should be thankful that he intervened and discontinued such a wicked act instead of falsely accusing God of genocide. The evidence from the scriptures points to the guilt, points to the sin, and points to the wickedness of the ancient Canaanites and the Amalekites, not God in his final act of judgement against them.

Finally, the main reason why many people get confused about these specific passages that call for the extermination of certain people in the Bible is because of a poor interpretation of the scriptures. When it comes to interpreting ancient scripture, a person has to always take into consideration the ancient languages, the author’s intent, the scriptural and historical context (which in this case the context of the whole Bible is necessary to really understand who the Canaanites and the Amalekites are), and to allow scripture to interpret scripture. You see, the problem many people have is that they isolate certain passages and base their conclusions from those isolated passages, which is poor hermeneutics. In order to gain a sound interpretation of a particular passage in the Bible, a person must consider the context i.e. scriptural, historical, and sometimes the whole Bible to gain the best interpretation. Therefore, to answer the question above, “Is the God of the Bible a Genocidal Maniac,” the answer according to the scriptures is ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! God was completely just in his actions, even against infants and children who would have followed in the same generational footsteps of their wicked ancestors. Fortunately, for all the children who did die before they reached the age of accountability, death was a better solution than to live a life full of wickedness and reap eternal damnation. Either way, God was loving, God was patient, God was just, and God even saved some of the children from reaping eternal separation from God; thus clarifying the misconception!

#Time4Truth #Misconceptions #Clarified #GodisJust #GodisPatient

2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

Please click on the links below for more information or check out the video by Sam Shamoun explaining the so-called genocide in the Bible: http://www.gotquestions.org/Canaanites-extermination.html; https://bible.org/article/canaanites-genocide-or-judgment