The Judgement of Canaan
✅ Introduction
A Question many ask is “why did God allow Israel to conquer Canaan in the time of Joshua when they took over the land and called it Israel? There is an answer in the Bible and we will discuss it.
📖 Deuteronomy 9:3-5 (KJV) Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee. 4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
1️⃣ Why God Allow It?
What we will learn is that God is the one who decided to destroy those nations, and to understand why God allowed it, we must look at scripture and compare when God allowed nations to be destroyed. The first time God destroyed a nation was when God flooded the earth.
🌊 The Flood
📖 Genesis 6:5-8 (KJV) And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
We see here that the heart of man in those days became evil continually! This goes to show that it was possible to see all of the earth become evil and I believe that its the natural decline of humanity meaning it will always happen, but this time around it will be the last as Jesus will put an end to this earth and create a New Heaven and Earth.
📖 Genesis 6:11-13 (KJV) The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
This is a very good reason I believe to end humanity, I wouldn’t want to live in this society were its continually evil without remedy only suffering of innocent people. So then this is why I believe God destroys nations, but lets continue further.
🔥 The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
From this story we can see the same thing, violence in everyone even the young!
📖 Genesis 18:20-21 (KJV) And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; 21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
We see that God is a righteous Judge because he actually checks to see if the matter is true, and judges properly, and we see this when explains to Abraham.
📖 Genesis 18:23-26 (KJV) And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? 25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 26 And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
📖 Genesis 18:32-33 (KJV) And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. 33 And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.
God agreed that if there were even ten righteous people in Sodom, He would not destroy the city. Sadly, there weren’t even ten, so judgment came but Lot, being righteous, was delivered before destruction.
📖 Genesis 19:24-25 (KJV) Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
Again we see the same issue as the flood, everyone was continually evil from young to old.
📖 Genesis 19:4-5 (KJV) But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: 5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
We see that Sodomy corrupts individuals for the worse, as described in Romans 1:18-32, it is a sick thought to think that Sodomy would turn children into killers for sexual pleasures! Its a sickness that God will burn in the last days as this sodomy and violence we come again slowly but surely Luke 17:26–30.
So the “why” is very clear, it’s because a nation becomes so wicked that God here’s the cries of the dead from that land, just like when Cain killed his brother Abel, God heard his cry from the blood of the ground.
📖 Genesis 4:10-11 (KJV) And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
Imagine this happening in the time of Sodom? Thats many cries God has to listen to.
📌 Why Canaan
📖 Leviticus 18:24-26 (KJV) Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
The land of Canaan was no different from the world before the Flood or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In each case, sin had reached its fullness the people had become violent, immoral, and completely hardened against God. Before the Flood, the Bible says the earth was “filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11); in Sodom, “their sin was very grievous” and the “cry” of their wickedness rose up before God (Genesis 18:20); and in Canaan, the land was so defiled with idolatry, sexual perversion, and child sacrifice that it “vomited out” its inhabitants (Leviticus 18:25). All three represent societies where evil became normalized, repentance was refused, and every thought of the heart was corrupt. And in each case, after long periods of mercy and warning, God acted to cleanse what had become utterly polluted not out of cruelty, but because His holiness demanded it.
When we look at the list of sins that the Canaanite were involved in according to Leviticus 18 its truly saddening, from “Incest and Forbidden Sexual Relations, Adultery, Child Sacrifice, Blasphemy and Idolatry, Homosexual Acts, and Bestiality.
2️⃣ Was God Merciful Towards Canaan?
📖 Exodus 34:6 (KJV) And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
I believe God shows us he is merciful in many passages, but not only that he was long suffering too.
📖 2 Peter 3:9 (KJV) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
As we saw in the story of Sodom, we know that God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked, and hence he saved Lot and his family, but the rest God destroyed. There is another story about Gods mercy on a heathen Nation, called Nineveh.
📌 The Mercy of Nineveh
📖 Jonah 1:2 (KJV) Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
Before judgment ever comes, God always sends a warning.
He did it before the Flood (through Noah), before Sodom (through Abraham and Lot), before Canaan (through centuries of patience), and before Nineveh (through Jonah).
📖 Jonah 3:4 (KJV) And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Jonah’s message was short and sharp forty days to get right or perish.
There were no miracles, no signs just a warning.
But something remarkable happened: the people listened.
📖 Jonah 3:5 (KJV) So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
The entire nation humbled itself even the animals were covered in sackcloth as a sign of national repentance. What we can learn from this is God is merciful, even to the heathen nations, and he always sends a warning before he destroys in the hopes that the nation will repent and believe on him.
📖 Psalms 86:5 (KJV) For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
I believe God is just and righteous when he judged Canaan back then because I do not believe God would destroy nations if there were even 10 righteous in them but to think that there is not one righteous person and no repentance then God is just to take away that nation.
🔥 The Harlot Rahab
I will take it further to show that God considers all who are willing to repent and turn to God because in this story God destroys a city called Jericho, and this nation knew what was about to happen.
📖 Joshua 2:9-11 (KJV) And she (Rahab) said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that wereon the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
So we can see from Rahab’s experience that she knew about God’s judgement to come and she responded to the warning.
📖 Joshua 6:17 (KJV) And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
She helped the Lords people after knowing the judgement that was coming, so this goes to show that God is willing to save those that repent before he execute judgement.
📌 So then I believe that God was just and righteous to allow the destruction of Canaan during that time of Joshua. But the question that gets asked a lot is “What about Israel today” When we look at the genocide of Palestine today I strongly believe Israel is not right in this matter.
3️⃣ Is it ok Now?
The modern state of Israel is a political nation, not a covenant people walking in obedience to the Lord.
Biblically, true Israel are those who believe in Christ Jew or Gentile who have entered the New Covenant by faith (Romans 9:6–8; Galatians 3:28–29).
📖 Romans 9:6-8 (KJV) Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Therefore, modern Israel’s military actions are not “God’s battles,” and their motives are not the same as when God commanded Joshua.
Back then, Israel acted under divine instruction to purge nations filled with wickedness and idolatry that was far beyond repair.
📖 1 Timothy 2:3-4 (KJV) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Modern Israel is not giving the gospel nor giving the right judgement that leads to repentance because modern Israel don’t have the gospel.
We know in heaven there will be every kind of nation there.
📖 Revelation 7:9 (KJV) After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Palestinians will be there in heaven, as According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (2017), there are about 46,850 Christians living in the Palestinian territories (West Bank + Gaza), plus some in East Jerusalem. Now even though not all of these would be true christians but the fact that there is this much of people who proclaim to be or practicing christianity shows me that there is still a civilized and moral nation unlike Sodom and the days of Noah when morals was a issue from the youngest to the oldest!
📖 Acts 10:34-35 (KJV) Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
⏰ Conclusion
I do agree that God was just in the conquest of Canaan during the time of Joshua, due to the moral state of that wicked nation, just like the destruction of World in Noahs days and just like the destruction of Sodom in the time of Abraham, it was only right to destroy those nations, and God is still going to judge the world with fire in that last days before he takes away the righteous at the Lords 2nd coming as mentioned in (Matthew 24), then will God pour out his wrath because God is just and he’ll never destroy the righteous with the wicked.
📖 2 Peter 3:6-7 (KJV) Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
So then Israel is not in the right position to destroy Palestine today, I disagree and I don’t stand with Modern Israel.
