For modern readers, many of whom encounter God first through the Gospels, a war to expel the Canaanites and their gods from the land seems out of character, even abhorrent. Any effective treatment of Caleb’s story must recognize and respond to its apparent ethical problems while remaining rooted in what the biblical text gives us.
On our Resources page, we’ve included several recent books on the topic of violence in the Old Testament. My (Ben Thomas) experience in the military, law enforcement, and corporate and information security gives me a different context and viewpoint than many of the biblical scholars who write about it. I wanted to dig deeper than the earlier blog post here. Trevor Laurence gave me that opportunity at Cataclesia Forum.
I’ve started by considering what the patterns I find in the biblical text tell us about God’s intent and purpose. In future blog posts, as we progress through Caleb’s story in notes on biblical books, I hope to address specific incidents and stronger objections. For now, consider whether we can find God’s purpose in the judgment narratives of Genesis and Exodus: