The Most Troubling Theme in Deuteronomistic History

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The Most Troubling Theme in Deuteronomistic
History

• The writers of Deuteronomistic history did not
  only insist that Israel should follow God
  exclusively.
• They insisted that exclusive loyalty to God
  required Gods people to exterminate any
  neighbors who believed differently.
• The Deuteronimists believe that an important
  reason both the northern and southern kingdoms
  were eventually conquered was that they failed to
  exterminate all their different-believing
  neighbors.

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Deuteronomy 2016-18 But as for the towns of
these peoples that the Lord your God is giving
you as an inheritance, you must not let anything
that breathes remain alive. You shall annihilate
themthe Hittites and the Amorites, the
Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and
the Jebusitesjust as the Lord your God has
commanded, so that they may not teach you to do
all the abhorrent things that they do for their
gods, and you thus sin against the Lord your God.
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The Destruction/Genocide of Jericho Joshua
620-21 So the people shouted, and the trumpets
were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound
of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and
the wall fell down flat so the people charged
straight ahead into Jericho and captured it.
Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of
the sword all in the city, both men and women,
young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.
The Destruction/Genocide of Ai Joshua
824-27 When Israel had finished slaughtering all
the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness
where they pursued them, and when all of them to
the very last had fallen by the edge of the
sword, all Israel returned to Ai, and attacked it
with the edge of the sword. The total of those
who fell that day, both men and women, was twelve
thousandall the people of Ai. For Joshua did not
draw back his hand, with which he stretched out
the sword, until he had utterly destroyed all the
inhabitants of Ai. Only the livestock and the
spoil of that city Israel took as their booty,
according to the word of the Lord that he had
issued to Joshua.
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1 Samuel 1517-19, 32-35 Samuel said, Though you
are little in your own eyes, are you not the head
of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you
king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a
mission, and said, Go, utterly destroy the
sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them
until they are consumed. Why then did you not
obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop
down on the spoil, and do what was evil in the
sight of the Lord? Then Samuel said, Bring
Agag king of the Amalekites here to me. And Agag
came to him haltingly. Agag said, Surely this is
the bitterness of death. But Samuel said, As
your sword has made women childless, so your
mother shall be childless among women. And
Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in
Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah and Saul went
up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel did not
see Saul again until the day of his death, but
Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord was sorry
that he had made Saul king over Israel.
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A Conservative Evangelical Explanation of Gods
Commanding GenocideFrom Gleason L. Archer, Jr.,
The Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand
Rapids Zondervan, 1982), pp. 158-159

• Joshua was simply carrying out Gods order in
  this matter.
• The destruction of Jericho and around 30 other
  Canaanite cities was far smaller an affair than
  the annihilation of the entire human race
  (i.e., in the Flood). Charles comments Is that
  supposed to make this account more acceptable?
• We must recognize that there are times when only
  radical surgery will save the life of a cancer
  stricken body.
• In every case the baneful infection of degenerate
  idolatry and moral depravity had to be removed
  before Israel could safely settle down in these
  regions and set up a monotheistic, law-governed
  commonwealth as a testimony for the one true
  God.
• These incorrigible degenerates of the Canaanite
  civilization were a sinister threat to the
  spiritual survival of Abrahams race.
• But Christians should not commit genocide, says
  Archer, because Christians are superior to Jews
  In our Christian dispensation true believers
  possess resources for resisting the corrupting
  influence of unconverted worldlings such as were
  hardly available to people of the old covenant.

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What do you think of Archers explanation?