“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and he drives out many nations before you—the Hethites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy…this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God… (Deuteronomy 7:1-2,5-6)

However, you must not let any living thing survive among the cities of these people the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. You must completely destroy them—the Hethite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that they won’t teach you to do all the detestable acts they do for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 20:16-18)

But the city and everything in it are set apart to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and everyone with her in the house will live, because she hid the messengers we sent…They completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword—every man and woman, both young and old, and every ox, sheep, and donkey. (Joshua 6:17,21)

1. The context of the conquests is military outposts, and the language is war rhetoric.

​​2. The conquests were driving out evil, not destroying innocent people.

Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Genesis 15:13-16)

3. The conquests destroyed idols that destroyed people.

They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known… (Deuteronomy 32:17)

4. In the conquests, God is the warrior for the weak.

Reflection Question: How have you experienced the pursuing, patient, jealous, and protective love of God in your life?