Is God Fair?

Through my study of Joshua and Judges, I never questioned God's fairness in regard to the Canaanites.  I guess in my little mind, I just think that God is God and He can do whatever He pleases.  It's His world, and we are all just living in it.  But this morning, as I was reading in Genesis 15, Dr. J. Vernon McGee brought up this particular topic in his commentary of that chapter.  Then I thought to myself, just because I've never really questioned the fairness of God regarding the Canaanites, doesn't mean other people haven't questioned it.  So I dug deeper.  I don't need to defend God's judgments in any way, because He is God and I think He can pretty much take care of Himself.  But I do want to help you understand, through my research of this topic, that God WAS just and fair to the Canaanites, just like He is still just and fair to us today. 


Everything that I am going to present, I obtained from other sources through research.


Okay, so here is the big question.  Was it fair for God to order the destruction of the Canaanites so that His people (the Israelites) could enter into possession of the land?


Well you know that I can't just outright answer that question just yet! I have to give you some background.


Genesis 9: 18-27
¹⁸The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. 20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers." 26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant."


This passage lets us know where the Canaanites came from and gives us some very important information concerning them.  In this set of verses we see that Noah cursed his son, Ham, although not directly.  He specifically said, "Cursed be Canaan." Canaan was the son of Ham, and Amor was the son of Canaan.  The Amorites came from Amor and it is my understanding that the Amorites were a clan of the Canaanites.  I'm no Bible scholar, so please feel free to clear this up in the comments section of my blog.  But for the purpose of this study, I have used the terms interchangeably.


Now I want us to look in Leviticus to learn more about the Canaanites and their character.


Leviticus 18: 24-28 (The highlighted portions I placed here for clarification)
²⁴Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations (Canaanites) that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. ²⁵ Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants (Canaanites). ²⁶ But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born (Israelites) and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, ²⁷ for all these things were done by the people (Canaanites) who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. ²⁸ And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations (Canaanites) that were before you.


Here, we can see just how awful the sins of the Canaanites had become by the time the Israelites began to take possession of the land.  Their wickedness had reached such a point that the land itself is said to have become defiled, and that this land vomited them out.  But some may wonder if they had sufficient opportunity to turn away from their sins before God's judgment came upon them?  Well we have to go back to the book of Genesis to answer this question.

Genesis 15: 13-16
 ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. ¹⁵ (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) ¹⁶ After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”

400 years! I believe God was more than fair and just with these people.  It says right here in His word that he gave them 400 years to turn back to him.  God loved the people who already occupied the land of Canaan and I believe he desperately wanted them to turn to Him.  I do not think that God desired for these people to be destroyed.  I think that rather, He wanted them to repent. But some of you "deep thinkers" out there still have questions because you see that God had already said in His word that this destruction would happen.  BUT, let's read some verses in Jeremiah that will hopefully clear this up for you.

Jeremiah 18: 7-8
⁷ If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, ⁸ and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

So there you have it! You can now know that IF these Canaanites would have truly repented and turned to God then He would have relented and not inflicted the disaster upon them that He had originally planned. 

I believe that God was very gracious with the inhabitants of the promised land.  He gave them 400 years!  He even told Abraham that the Israelites would sojourn for this amount of time, meaning they couldn't enter into the land, since the sin of the Amorites was not yet complete.  He gave the Amorites 400 years to repent of their sins!  But even after 400 years, they still hadn't repented.  So God used the Israelites as his instrument of judgment. 

So back to our original question: Was it fair of God to order the destruction of the Canaanites so that his people could enter into the land to possess it? 

YES!  He gave them more than enough time to return to Him, but they chose not too.  They loved their sin and hated God, thus rejecting Him.  I think that after 400 years, God's patience wore pretty thin with these people and his judgment on them was very reasonable. 

So what can all of this teach us?  I believe if you have not yet allowed Jesus to be Lord of your life, turning away from your own sins, and giving your life to Him, then you should ask yourself this question: How much time is God going to give you before his patience runs out?  We are not promised the next breath, much less another day here on this earth.  Do not let one more second pass you by!  You may think you have enough time or that God's judgment is never coming, but I have news for you - His judgment is coming and I think that day draws closer and closer with every passing breath.  We are living in a world that loves sin and hates God.  So ask yourself, How much longer will God tarry before He takes His people home?  I hope that you are certain that when He does return, you will be going home with Him.  Because if you are not saved, then you can be certain of this: God will send you to hell.  And you may say, well that's just not fair.  But friend, God has been MORE THAN FAIR and MORE THAN PATIENT with our world today.  He loves you with every ounce of His being and nothing makes him happier than when someone accepts His free gift of salvation.  I am brought to tears thinking about his grace and mercy!  Please know today where you will spend eternity.  Come to Jesus now.  His arms are outstretched.  He is waiting.  He is waiting for you.

RESOURCES:

The Bible
Thru the Bible with J. Vernon Mcgee, Vol. 1: Genesis-Deuteronomy
www.answersfromthebook.org
www.gotquestions.org