Killing Canaanites - Is God a moral monster?

Probably the most difficult Old Testament ethical issue is the divine command to kill the Canaanites. Theologian-turned-atheist Gerd Lüdemann wrote that “the command to exterminate is extremely offensive”—a far cry from the merciful God frequently proclaimed in Scripture. 

Consider just one of these passages:

Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the LORD your God. (Deut. 20:16–18)

Were the Canaanites That Wicked?

According to the biblical text, Yahweh was willing to wait about 430 years because “the sin of the Amorite [a Canaanite people group] has not yet reached its limit” (Gen. 15:16 NET). In other words, in Abraham’s day, the time wasn’t ripe for judgment on the Canaanites; the moment wasn’t right for them to be driven out and for the land to “vomit them out” (Lev. 18:25 NET). Sodom and Gomorrah, on the other hand, were ready; not even ten righteous people could be found there (Gen. 18–19). 

Even earlier, at the time of Noah, humans had similarly hit moral rock bottom (Gen. 6:11–13). Despite 120 years of Noah’s preaching (Gen. 6:3; cf. 5:32; 7:6; 2 Peter 2:5), no one outside his family listened; his contemporaries were also ripe for judgment. But it was only after Israel’s lengthy enslavement in Egypt that the time was finally ripe for the Israelites to enter Canaan—“because of the wickedness of these nations” (Deut. 9:4–5). Sometimes God simply gives up on nations, cities, or individuals when they’ve gone past a point of no return. Judgment—whether directly or indirectly—is the last resort.

What kind of wickedness are we talking about? We’re familiar with the line, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” In the case of the Canaanites, the Canaanites’ moral apples didn’t fall far from the tree of their pantheon of immoral gods and goddesses. So if the Canaanite deities engaged in incest, then it’s not surprising that incest wasn’t treated as a serious moral wrong among the Canaanite people. As we’ve seen, adultery (temple sex), bestiality, homosexual acts (also temple sex), and child sacrifice were also permitted (cf. Lev. 18:20–30).

Humans are “imaging” beings, designed to reflect the likeness and glory of their Creator. If we worship the creaturely rather than the Creator, we’ll come to resemble or image the idols of our own devising and that in which we place our security. The sexual acts of the gods and goddesses were imitated by the Canaanites as a kind of magical act: the more sex on the Canaanite high places, the more this would stimulate the fertility god Baal to have sex with his consort, Anath, which meant more semen (rain) produced to water the earth.

Let’s add to this the bloodlust and violence of the Canaanite deities. Anath, the patroness of both sex and war, reminds us of the bloodthirsty goddess Kali of Hinduism, who drank her victims’ blood and sat surrounded by corpses; she is commonly depicted with a garland of skulls around her neck. The late archaeologist William Albright describes the Canaanite deity Anath’s massacre in the following gory scene:

  The blood was so deep that she waded in it up to her knees—nay, up to her neck. Under her feet were human heads, above her human hands flew like locusts. In her sensuous delight she decorated herself with suspended heads while she attached hands to her girdle. Her joy at the butchery is described in even more sadistic language: “Her liver swelled with laughter, her heart was full of joy, the liver of Anath (was full of) exultation (?).” Afterwards Anath “was satisfied” and washed her hands in human gore before proceeding to other occupations.

Canaanite idolatry wasn’t simply an abstract theology or personal interest carried out in the privacy of one’s home. 

It was a worldview that profoundly influenced Canaanite society. Given this setting, it’s no wonder God didn’t want the Israelites to associate with the Canaanites and be led astray from obedience to the one true God. He wanted to have Israel morally and theologically separate from the peoples around them.

In other words, the land of Canaan was no paradise before the Israelites got there. Israel had no inherent right to inhabit the land (as an undeserved gift from God), and neither did the Canaanites have a right to remain in it. In fact, both the Canaanites and the Israelites would experience (partial) removal from the land because of their wickedness.

The evidence for profound moral corruption was abundant. God considered them ripe for divine judgment, which would be carried out in keeping with God’s saving purposes in history.

Some argue that God is intolerant, commanding people to have “no other gods before Me” (Exod. 20:3). They state that Israel’s laws illustrate the denial of religious freedom at the heart of Israelite religion. And didn’t other ancient Near Eastern religions value religious diversity? Couldn’t non-Israelites worship whatever god they wanted? Israel had committed itself to be faithful to Yahweh; as in any good marriage, spouses shouldn’t play the field in the name of marital freedom. As for the Canaanites, God judged them not only because they happened to worship idols but also because of the corrupting moral practices and influences bound up with this idolatry. 

Notice that God judges the nations listed in Amos 1–2 not because they don’t worship Yahweh but because of outrageous moral acts. 

So was God just picking on the Canaanites but not other peoples? No, Yahweh frequently threatened many nations with judgment when they crossed a certain moral threshold. For example, in Amos 1–2, God promised to “send fire” on nations surrounding Israel for their treacheries and barbarities. And he promised the same to Israel and Judah. Later, Jesus himself pronounced final judgment on nationalistic Israel, which would face its doom in AD 70 at the hands of the Romans (Matt. 24).

What’s more, we moderns shouldn’t think that severe divine judgment was only for biblical times, as though God no longer judges nations today. 

Despite many gains over the centuries in the areas of human rights and religious liberty, due to the positive influence of biblical ideals, Westerners have their own share of decadence, and we may resemble the Canaanites more than we realize. We should proceed cautiously about what counts for direct divine judgment, as we may not be able to determine this precisely. 

These sorts of acts serve as illustrations of a cosmic final judgment yet to come. Ultimately, God’s judgment will come to all who refuse to submit to God’s kingdom agenda and instead seek to set up their own little fiefdoms. God grants humans freedom to separate themselves from God. In the end, humans can have their final divorce from God both as a just judgment as well as the natural fruit borne out of a life lived without God. As a last resort, God says to them, “Thy will be done.”


Cosmic Warfare

The worship of idols wasn’t innocent or harmless. The Old Testament connects idolatry with the demonic—that is, with the cosmic enemies of God who rebelled against him: “goat demons” (Lev. 17:7); “strange gods … demons … gods” (Deut. 32:16–21); “demons … idols” (Ps. 106:37–38); “demons” (Isa. 65:3, Greek Septuagint). Even Pharaoh—the earthly representation of Egypt’s gods—was a picture of this cosmic opposition. 

So in the exodus, Yahweh is the cosmic warrior who engages the evil powers of Egypt and the forces that inspire them. The New Testament picks up on this theme (e.g., 1 Cor. 10:19–22; 2 Cor. 6:14–16; Eph. 6:12–18). God’s act of engaging in battle is not for the sake of violence or even victory as such but to establish peace and justice.

God’s commands to Israel to wipe out Canaan’s idols and false, immoral worship illustrate the cosmic warfare between Yahweh and the dark powers opposed to his rule. This theme of spiritual warfare is certainly much more pronounced in the New Testament, which clearly exposes Satan and his hosts as the ultimate enemies of God and of his kingdom’s advance. 

Yahweh—“the LORD of hosts” (cf. Ps. 24:7–10)—is a “warrior” (Exod. 15:3) who opposes all that mars the divine image in humans, all that threatens human flourishing, and all that sets itself in opposition to God’s righteous reign. “Yahweh wars” aren’t simply a clash between this and that deity; they represent a clash of two world orders: one rooted in reality and justice, the other in reality-denial and brute power; one representing creational order, the other anticreation.

Israel’s taking Canaan, then, is unlike the General Lin analogy, in which a stronger nation happens to invade and overpower a weaker nation. This would rightly draw the reaction, “What gives the stronger nation the right?” So perhaps we should think more along the lines of the Sicilian police invading a Mafia stronghold to remove a corrupting network of crime so that citizens can live in peace rather than in fear.

Just as the plagues in Egypt were a demonstration of Yahweh’s judgment on her gods, so Israel’s wars revealed God’s sovereign rule over the presumed gods of the nations. In Israel’s officially sanctioned wars, God’s supernatural power and supremacy were revealed:

    •      God didn’t allow Israel to have a standing army (cf. David’s unlawful census in 2 Sam. 24:1–17); Israel’s wars weren’t for professionals but for amateurs and volunteers. Fighting, however, wasn’t for the fainthearted or for those distracted by other concerns. Those lacking courage or who had other reasons for not wanting to fight were allowed—even invited—to excuse themselves from battle (e.g., Deut. 20:5–8).
    •      Soldiers fighting in a Yahweh war weren’t paid, nor could they take personal plunder, unlike warfare tactics elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
    •      Kings, tribal leaders, and high priests weren’t authorized to call for a war, only a prophet through divine revelation.
    •      Victories for Israel’s (mainly) ragtag army clearly signaled that God was fighting on their behalf (e.g., 2 Chron. 20).

In Old Testament Israel’s physical battles, God wanted to show forth his greatness, not a display of sheer human power. And though the true Israel—the church—doesn’t wage war against “flesh and blood” (Eph. 6:12) today, our warfare against Satan and his hosts has its roots in Yahweh wars in the Old Testament.


Further Reading

  Boyd, Gregory. God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1997.
  Hess, Richard S. “War in the Hebrew Bible: An Overview.” In War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Richard S. Hess and Elmer A. Martens. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008.
  Stuart, Douglas K. Exodus. New American Commentary 2. Nashville: B & H Publishing, 2008. See esp. pp. 395–97.
Copan, P. (2011). Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God (pp. 158–168). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.