Hi, M,

Thanks for the note and the question.

Plan A and Plan B:
Thanks for this theological background. However, we have to be careful of speaking of God having two plans, since He knows from the beginning what is going to take place. Also, we read of Jesus having been “slain from the creation of the world” (Rev 13:8). The big question is why God kept creation functioning when He knew that He would have to redeem sinful men and women through the death of His Son. Only He can answer that question!

Your questions:

1) God’s program of annihilation: Perhaps the classical text regarding annihilation is Deut 18:9ff. Moses, speaking of the life style of the Canaanites, concludes, “because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.”

To our way of thinking, this “ethnic cleansing” is reprehensible. However, we need to keep in mind several things:

a) We know that God is both just and loving. His justice leads to judgment; His love leads to grace. These come into “conflict.” God, by His nature judges sin. But also by His nature, He loves us. Thus, His solution is found in the Cross where judgment and love meet. Today, our tendency is to put our focus on God’s love and grace and neglect His holiness and hatred of sin.

b) In the annihilation of the Canaanites, we see more clearly the process of God’s judgment. These people were not only sinners, they were involved in the grossest sins that one could imagine: not only sexual aberrations of all kinds, but involvement in demon worship, witchcraft, and even burning their own children alive as a sacrifice to their gods.

God chose to accomplish two things at once: judge these people and preserve His people from falling into their ways (which, unfortunately, they end up doing anyhow). God has a right to do this because He is God. He chose to use His people, the Israelites, as His instrument. I think He also wanted to show them how serious He was about sin. In the Book of Joshua, for example, He not only judges the Canaanites, but judges His own people when they disobey Him.

c) Later on, when Israel has what you call “political enemies,” we don’t find the same kind of annihilation. As with all nations in the history of the world, there are armed conflicts and the lust for territorial expansion. God protects His people while they trust in Him. The fact that He is not enthusiastic about all this blood letting is that He does not allow David, with whom He had a very close and special relationship, to build the temple, because He had been a warrior and had shed much blood.

d) How did the “peoples” respond to all this fighting? Note the attitude of Rahab (Joshua 2:10ff). She protects the spies sent out by Joshua. Why? “We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea...[then recounts other exploits] The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below…” Rather than hating the God of Israel and His people, she came to faith, joined God’s people, and ended up being part of Jesus’ genealogy!

2. How were the peoples supposed to come to faith? Some thoughts:

a) As Moses reviews the laws the Lord is giving His people, he notes that they are receiving a great gift. Thus, he challenges them, “Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to Him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws that I am setting before you today?”

In other words, the Lord not only delivered His people from slavery, He not only planned to clear out the “promised land” before them – giving them cities and cultivation they had not produced themselves, He expected that their lives, guided by the good and wise laws He was giving them, would make them a powerful testimony to the nations round about them; that people would come to faith in their God as they saw His impact on the lives of His people.

b) We see the impact on Rahab (see above). As one reads the history of God’s people, one notes names like “Uriah the Hittite,” a foreigner who had come to faith in Israel’s God and was one of David’s “mighty men” (making his murder by David all the more tragic).

c) I love Solomon’s prayer in the dedication of the Temple (2 Chron 6:32). In his prayer, he includes these amazing words: “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretch arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel…” I think the Queen of Sheba is an illustration of one such foreigner.

d) God’s laws included provision for the orphans, the widows, and the foreigners. They were to be treated kindly. The law noted specifically that Israel was to remember that they had an immigrant past and were so to treat immigrants with grace.

e) We note the “missionary” activity of Israel, most notably in the life of Jonah, the unwilling prophet, who brought the “Gospel” to Nineveh which resulted in an amazing response from the people.

f) God’s people gave witness as captives, such as you mentioned in the life of Daniel and his three friends, as well as Joseph in Egypt, and the impact of the exiled Jews in Babylon and other places.

How fruitful was the “witness” of Israel? Not as fruitful as it could have been, due to their own failure to respond in the way the Lord planned for them, as the prophets remind us so forcefully.

But before we judge them too harshly, we need to examine our own lives and evaluate how effective our own witness has been.

3) Opposition to Gentile conversions. Old Testament conversions meant becoming Jews, the “covenant people,” through belief in the Lord God (Yahweh), obeying His commands, which for the men included the rite of circumcision. In the New Testament we read of “proselytes,” those from a Gentile background who had become part of the Jewish community.

In the Book of Acts we see the transition from the Jewish pattern to the Christian one, most notably in chapter 15, the Jerusalem Council. At this Council, conservative Jewish Christians, notably the Pharisees, insisted that to be a Christian meant keeping the Jewish ceremonial law. Paul, Barnabas, and Peter insisted that becoming a Christian meant that in Christ we have everything and though we are called to holiness, the whole system of the ceremonial law has been superseded. This is dealt with theologically in the book of Hebrews.

Well, sorry for the extensive answer, but I trust it has been helpful. These are not easy issues you are dealing with, but I congratulate you on raising them and I trust that my answers have been somewhat helpful.

Blessings on you and your friends, M,