The Immorality of God - The Canaanites

[athrock]

Imagine that you were one of the Israelites travelling with Joshua. You've been wandering in the desert for 40 years following a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Every morning you eat manna with has formed like frost on the ground. When you need water, Moses strikes a rock with his staff, and bam....water for milions of people and livestock appears out of nowhere.

Your parents and grandparents, all dead now since they were not permitted to enter the promised land because of their disobedience, told you of all that God did in Egypt: the plagues, the passover, the parting of the Red Sea. In your tent, you still have the jewelry, coins and other precious items that the Egyptians gave to your grandparents and parents as they left Egypt.

In the past few weeks, you entered the Promised Land - passing through the Jordan River which God also parted so that the people could walk through on dry land. You saw all this with your own eyes. And for the past six days, you've marched around the city of Jericho every day. Today, you've just marched around the city seven times, you've blown your trumpet, and you've seen the mighty walls of the city fall.

You tell me, rob...in view of all that God has done in the course of your parents' lives, in light of all that you have witnessed in your own life, and given what has transpired in just the past couple of hours, are you gonna believe and obey God's command to enter the city and destroy its wicked inhabitants or not?

Can you not hear/perceive the amount of fantasy included in your post? 40yrs desert, following pillars of cloud and fire, magically appearing food and water. Plagues on command, killing of first born only, parting water(s), walls fall due to walking and sound. And now, after all the magic has been done for you, you are expected to do the killing. Why not just another plague? Just another passover only wack them all? Nope, you had to now take lives. The price for believing.

Sorry, babe...if we're going to consider whether Joshua's conquest of Canaan was "genocide", then we have to do so in proper context.

1. The Canaanites were judged by God and punished accordingly.
2. The Israelites had seen proof of God's existence, etc., in the "fantasy" I cited.

That they responded in obedience is understandable IN CONTEXT.