What We Might Say To A Friend Who Has Read The Dawkins Article

The question in the office/at the schoolgate/in the pub comes: Do you really believe in a God who told Israel to wipe out the Canaanites?

And you take a deep breath, offer up a silent and very heartfelt prayer, and open you mouth…

I agree, the killing of the Canaanites is not something that’s easy for us to deal with. I find it hard to get my head around. But I am not ignoring it. Please can I explain how it is that I love a God who told people to wipe out the Canaanites if they wouldn’t leave the land?

Imagine a bunch of people who, without exception, engage in a religion which practises child sacrifice; and who, without exception, harass and oppose those whose religion tells them to treat others with respect, love foreigners who live among them, look after their children

If there is a God, would it be right for Him to do nothing about that bunch of people, and let them carry on; or to do something to stop them? That’s what’s going on with Israel and Canaan. God won’t tolerate people mistreating other people; opposing those who try to live the way He’s designed us to; and ignoring Him. And ultimately, he deals with that by removing them from His world, through them dying. The Canaanites died at the same time, because they wouldn’t change; we will die one at a time, and the question is: Will we change? Because deep down, we do the same basic things, just in more acceptable ways (I’m not accusing you of child sacrifice!) We mistreat those around us, we oppose Biblical views and morality, and ignore God. That’s what the Bible means when it talks of “sin”.

That’s hard to get our heads round, but stay with me for a moment. Because if we look at it like that, what’s amazing is not that God dealt with the Canaanites in the way He did, but that God didn’t deal with Israel in the same way. Israel didn’t deserve to be loved and helped by God—but He offered to love and help them anyway. All they had to do was accept that He was God and they weren’t; and trust that He would help them.

So the shock is not that God judged people, but that God also loved people. And it’s the same today. None of us deserve to live for ever in God’s presence: the shock is not that those of us who continue to ignore and reject Him don’t get life, but that those of us who ask Him to love us anyway find that He does.

So, let me suggest that it would actually be good news if there were a God who loved His world enough to deal with sin, and loved sinful people enough to provide a way out. That would be a great God!

Does that God exist? And how does He provide a way out? Let me tell you about when He came to earth to show us who He is, and to make it possible for Him to forgive us instead of judging us. Let me tell you about Jesus…