Oh my goodness, Pastor. "The reason was not because they were ungodly?" "They probably worshipped pagan gods?"
My point is that I don't find anything in the text -- in fact, I just read Joshua 1-6 -- and still find nothing that declares they were ungodly or that they worshipped pagan gods. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn't.
What I did read is: Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites" (Josh 5:1 TNIV).
Who might be more sinful than a prostitute who had her own house of prostitution? And she is a liar, albeit she lies to save the Israelite spies. Yet, if Rahab can be saved, why couldn't all the other sinners in Jericho? We've already been told that they don't want to the fight the Israelites.
Do the words "First Commandment" (the foundation of alll the Commandments) and "Gross Idolotry" ring a bell? Canaanite fertility cults, ritual prostitution, cult of the dead, and sacrifice of children?
Where in Joshua 1-6 are we told that the people of Jericho or Ai were doing all of this?
And the accounts throughout Joshua, Judges, and the rest of the OT of Israel's disobedience to the command, because they wanted to be "good neighbors" don't you know (sound like Scandanavian Lutherans for goodness sake) and the consequences (which God knew about in advance) of living cheek by jowl with idoloters?
Compare Joshua with his army coming into the foreign land and Jonah coming into the Assyrian (a traditional enemy of Israel) capital city of Ninevah by himself. Joshua kills everyone. Jonah converts everyone (even when Jonah didn't want to).
I'm not sure that you could find a court that would want jurisdiction, but if you want to accuse God of being unfair to the Canaanites and indict Him for murder and attempted genocide - go for it. You would have plenty of company. It is on the militant atheistic hit parade.
Or perhaps you are using this to argue that we cannot really trust the Bible to give us history. Or that God is OK with murder as long as it serves a practical purpose (as arbortion would usually be considered to be - a practical and relatively easy solution to a problem). Or, what are you getting at.
Or are these just comments that really are there to serve no purpose other than to rile others up and to show how independently minded you are?
What is your point or are these points pointless?
Dan
