God-ordained genocide?

An interesting question and one we had to answer in essay form for class, among a few other questions.

The History of God's People in the Bible was the terribly creative title of my paper. We had to answer questions about the role and/or significance of the Creation, Ten Commandments, Tabernacle, and sacrificial system. Why God had the Israelites "utterly destroy" the Canaanites, and if it was morally right (morally right? What kind of a question is that?!). And the events that transpired in the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern kingdom of Judah.

Particularly enjoyable to write on was when the Israelites destroyed the Canaanites, because I knew my class, in its entirety, disagreed with me (my classmates insisted this God-ordered destruction was unfair - "against our principles"). I was thankful for a study my small group leader, Jon, had done on this just a little while back that had me already thinking about this. Basically what I got from the study we did for small group, and what I expounded on in my paper, was this:

• It was the wickedness of the nations (not the righteousness of the people of Israel) that it was necessary.
• God was keeping promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• Complete destruction was required in order to keep Israel from being corrupted by the nations' wickedness.
• Unchecked depravity is the cruelest form of retribution - sin left to itself always destroys.
• God revealed Himself - His character - by showing punishment to wicked nations, showing absolute intolerence of sin. We have a God we can know - we have a holy God.
• It also served to put fear into the hearts of the Israelites to keep them from following like patterns.
• Using this, God pointed them back to Himself, which was their ultimate good.
• And God using Israel for the punishment and destruction of wickedness in the nations, showed the only source of salvation is a sufficient Savior. And through Israel, comes final salvation.