It was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy. (Joshua 11:20)There are a couple ways to interpret God's command to utterly destroy the enemy. In John 14:9 we read the words of Jesus: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. In times past, some people believed the God of the New Testament (Jesus) must be different from and superior to the god of the Old Testament. Jesus was trying to teach us that what we saw in him was what we got in God - they were one and the same (or three in one and the same).
I think that most biblical scholars and theologians today would prefer to believe that our understanding of God (as put forth in the Old Testament) is probably faulty, at least to a certain degree. The biblical concept of herem, is that God commanded Joshua and the Israelites to totally destroy the inhabitants of Canaan. Some thinkers are questioning if God would do that.
If you want to read more about this, I would suggest Greg Boyd's blog Christus Victor. Two specific articles that address the concept of violence in the Old Testament are Shedding Light On the Dark Side of God and The Command to Utterly Destroy. Or you can go to his blog and type in herem in the search window. He dedicated a lot of print space to the subject in 2008.
Thanks for the pointer, I'll go take a look. I admit I've always had trouble swallowing the 'sun stood still' part of this account as well as the merciless destruction, so maybe seeing what some other folks think will help iron some of that out. - Amy
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