Genocide and God's Judgment

Genocide is the systematic destruction of a specific ethnic, racial, religious, or national group through mass murder, forced displacement, and cultural eradication. Ethnic cleansing—displacing people solely due to ethnicity—often precedes genocide. The Holocaust, which sought to annihilate the Jewish people, stands as history's most devastating example. This article examines God's righteous judgment against sin.

God's Righteous Judgment

God does not condone sin. In Old Testament accounts of mass killings, we see both justice and grace—judgment falls on the rebellious, but those who turn to Him in faith are saved. His judgments are not based on ethnicity but on people's response to His commands (Jer 31:33; Rom 2:15; Heb 10:16; Jas 4:17).

God always has valid reasons. Before the flood, "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become" (Gen 6:5, 11-13). Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for gross evil (Gen 18:20-21, 19:5). Egyptian first-born deaths occurred because Pharaoh refused to let Israelites fulfill their God-given destiny (Ex 11:9-10, 12:12). God carried out these judgments without human involvement.

Moses and Joshua destroyed the Canaanites because of their detestable religious practices and pervasive sin (Deut 9:4-6, 18:12; Lev 18:24-25; Josh 6:17,21). The Amalekites showed unrelenting brutality toward Israel, resulting in God's directive: "You shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven" (Ex 17:8-14; Deut 25:17-19). Saul failed to complete this task, and the surviving Amalekites continued to harass Israel (1 Sam 15:1-4,11, 30:1-2,17). Hezekiah finally destroyed the remaining Amalekites (1 Chr 4:42-43).

Sin must be judged

Israel as God's Agents of Judgment

The Israelites were God's agents of judgment—not because of moral superiority, for He said, "It is not because of your righteousness" (Deut 9:4-6). God wanted them to learn the seriousness of sin and the reality of His judgment. His desire was to preserve Israel from the vile religions of the Canaanites so they would have pure worship and bear God's name and mission (Deut 12:31, 20:16-18). However, due to disobedience, they were influenced by the false religions of those they failed to destroy.

Judgment included expulsion—the forced removal from the land—rather than only genocide. God stated, "Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants" (Lev 18:24-29). When Israel was unfaithful, God punished them with exile, not annihilation, showing His impartiality and justice (Deut 32:4). God used more wicked nations to bring judgment, yet those invading nations were also dealt with (Dan 5:28,30; Hab 1:6-11,13, 2:2-20).

God's judgements are fair and just

The command to annihilate was limited to inhabitants within Canaan; those who fled were not pursued beyond the borders (Deut 7:1-4,16-17, 9:3). Battles outside the Promised Land allowed sparing inhabitants, while battles inside required total destruction (Deut 20:10-18). It was a focused, targeted campaign, not an uncontrolled rampage.

Although harsh, Abraham said, "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen 18:25). Scripture consistently maintains that God is fair in His judgments and will not let the guilty go unpunished (Ex 34:6-7; Rom 2:1-16). "[God] repays a man for what He has done; He brings upon him what his conduct deserves" (Job 34:11; Jer 17:10, 32:19; Zech 1:6).

God Forgives Those Who Repent

Our finite minds are incapable of understanding God's unsearchable judgments (Rom 11:33). We can trust God to deal fairly with innocent children and those not involved in detestable practices who died in Canaan's invasion, who could not be held responsible for their culture's sin.

There is no Scriptural basis for justifying similar actions today. Christians are not promised an earthly kingdom or land; Christ commanded sharing the gospel to all nations (Mt 28:19; Mk 13:10; Act 8:4).

Old Testament mass killings were divine judgment against extreme sin, yet each was preceded by opportunities to repent. Those who turned to God in faith were saved, except apparently among the Amalekites. These principles apply to the final judgment: God will judge fairly. The outcome will be either eternal punishment or eternal blessing (Rom 6:23; Rev 20:11-15). God patiently waits, giving people opportunity to repent for He does not delight in the death of the wicked (Ezek 33:11; 2 Pet 3:9). Christians are witnesses to God's truth and love, commissioned to share the gospel (Mk 16:15; 2 Cor 2:14-16). Salvation is available to all who repent and trust in Christ (Jn 1:12; Act 2:21).

Ethnic background was irrelevant; it was unrepentant attitude and deep wickedness that caused loss of land and life. Rahab (an ethnic Canaanite) turned from idolatry and prostitution to serve God; she was spared and became part of Jesus' earthly lineage, while remaining Canaanites in Jericho and other cities inside the Promised Land were killed (Josh 2:9, 6:21,25, 8:24-25, 12:7ff; Mt 1:5).

God forgives those who repent

When Jonah preached against Nineveh "because its wickedness has come up before me" (Jnh 1:2), the king decreed, "'Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.' When God saw what they did…He did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened" (Jnh 3:4,8-10). Jonah acknowledged, "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity" (Jnh 4:2).

The ultimate judgment of God against human sin is reserved for the future day "when He will judge the world with justice by the man [Jesus] He has appointed" (Act 17:31). However, God occasionally intervenes in judgment during individuals' lifetimes (e.g. Act 5:1-10), groups (e.g. Num 16:1-35), and even entire nations like the Canaanites and Amalekites.

Without understanding that God must judge sin, we cannot grasp the wonder of His forgiveness and grace or the amazing truth of the cross, where Christ endured God's wrath for our sin.

Reflection and Application:

As believers, we must remain "pure and undefiled before God" and faithfully share the gospel locally and abroad.
All sin must be judged and every person deserves eternal punishment—a worse fate than the physical death the Canaanites experienced (Rom 6:23; Heb 9:27).
God's judgment on sin is a reality, and we presently have the opportunity to repent and be saved, yet "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Heb 2:3).
God's patience in waiting for repentance demonstrates His grace, not His indifference to sin.