Conquest


Judges 1:1-10
1After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” 2The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” 3And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. 4Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. 5They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 6Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 7And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 8And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. 9And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the Negeb, and in the lowland. 10And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba), and they defeated Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

God may have promised the Land of Israel to His people, but it was already inhabited by several different people groups. These people had to be driven from the land in order for the Jews to take up residence there. As such, they gather the 12 Tribes together and help one another take the Land that God has chosen for them. It’s is brutal and violent. Some of our western sensibilities may be challenged, but it was the plan God had set forth and was now about to make happen. The Children of Israel are obedient – to a point. Historically it is important to note that the city of Jerusalem is conquered and inhabited by God’s people. It will become the center of their culture and still is so today.

The logical question comes to mind regarding why the Canaanites were God’s enemies. The answer to this question is purely spiritual. They refused to recognize Yahweh as the one true God. Had they chosen to bow the knee, perhaps God would have spared them. But such was not the case and the Hebrews were a stench in their nostrils.

The Canaanites were doomed because of their religion. This religion was a human attempt to ensure survival in a land that had no rain for half a year, every year. The Canaanites observed that rain fell from the sky and watered the earth so that things grew. They compared human sexuality to what happened between the earth and the sky. They believed that Mother Earth and Father Sky were gods who could be induced to copulate in the realm of nature if only their human worshipers would do the same. Thus sex of every kind was encouraged as worship. One particularly heinous aspect of Canaanite religion was the sacrifice of infants born as the result of ritual prostitution.
Lawrenz, J. C. (1997). Judges, Ruth (p. 25). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.

A study of any of the Old Testament books will inevitably bring up questions about the violence of the material. And I’ll confess that it’s a tough track to run. How can we justify these actions of violence? I believe the simple answer is that we can’t and actually it isn’t my job to justify God’s actions. He doesn’t need my help with that. So, while I wish I had some great response to these queries, I don’t. I just have to step back, let the Word speak, and let God be God. It was His sovereign choice to give that territory to the Jews and so we must respect that. From this people comes the Savior of us all and so we have to give way to God’s will and plan. If that includes the destruction of those who chose to hate Him I have no recourse but to step back and let the story be as God shaped it.

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