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Not Gone

            Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD'S house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.
            At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates.” So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.(Joshua 6:22-27) 


           There are people who claim that God is genocidal because he told Israel to wipe Canaanites like the people of Jericho off the map. Rahab and her family  and the people who belonged to her are proof that such is not really the case. First, as the righteous Judge, God has the right to pronounce judgment. The people of Jericho weren't innocent. They weren't noble savages. Evidence has been found of their brutality, including child sacrifice.
            The more important point is that Rahab told the spies that the people of Jericho were afraid because they knew what God had done. Jericho could have surrendered. It would probably have meant servitude, but that begs the question of how many of them were already slaves? What portion of the city of Jericho was free? For those who were slaves already, the Law placed limits on the behavior of masters, laws that were likely kinder than any laws the Canaanites had for their slaves. It may not have been the option that the Canaanites wanted, and it's certainly not the only option that modern critics are willing to accept without condemning Israel and Israel's God, but it was an option that was taken by one family.
       And, as a reminder, through that Canaanite family came King David. The Canaanites of Jericho weren't wiped out. They became followers of Jehovah and the leading family of the Old Testament and of prophecy. Imagine what good the people of Jericho could have done had they repented and sought peace instead of choosing to be proud...if they had, in effect, joined Israel.

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