Inheriting the Land (Part 2)
and wiping out Canaanite attitudes
Intro
This is the second post in a series about the people groups who occupied the Promised Land while the Israelites were trying to inhabit the land. To read the previous post, click the link below.
At the beginning of the book of Joshua, God tells Joshua to lead the Israelites to inherit the land. However, as archeology has uncovered, various people groups already lived in that land, namely the Canaanites, Edomites, Moabites, Amonites, Arameans, and the Philistines.1 As we read in the Bible, these people groups hindered and opposed the Israelites until eventually, the Israelites stopped trying to push them out and instead lived with them. This eventually resulted in the Israelites adopting many of these people groups’ detestable ways.
If the Promise Land is a metaphor for the Kingdom of Heaven, what might these different people groups symbolize? What are the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that we’ll need to kick out of our lives, homes, and churches to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? In this post, let’s explore what the Canaanites stood for.
The Symbolic Canaanites
Canaanites: Because the Canaanites were descendants of Ham, let’s examine Ham’s infamous doings in Genesis. I’m talking about when he saw his drunk father’s nakedness in Genesis 9.
“Saw his father’s nakedness” seems euphemistic. Ham saw the temptation to either: a) sleep with both his drunk, naked parents; b) to sleep with his drunk, naked mom; or c) to sleep with his drunk, naked dad.2
Whatever the case may be, Ham misused or intended to misuse his parents. His intentions might’ve been for his own pleasure, to procreate, or to assert his dominance over his father. Ham also invited his brothers to do likewise. However, Ham’s brothers, Shem and Japheth, honorably covered their father to protect him and themselves from temptation.
Let’s unpack drunkenness, homosexuality, and inappropriate sex with one’s parents.
Drunkenness: Drunkenness is too much of a good thing, causing us to become numb to our sufferings (Proverbs 31:6-9). As a result, drunkenness renders people senseless to God (Isaiah 28:7-8, Proverbs 31:4-5). Therefore, let’s say drunkenness represents deadening our longing for God through an overdose of a good thing, be it beer, biking, or baking.
Homosexuality & incest: Homosexuality, as well as incest, are exalting, excluding, or degrading one gender over the other or one’s own family over another.
Elder/Parent Sexual Abuse: Ham’s temptation to have sex with his parents represents one generation exalting itself to the degradation of another, be it the old to the young or the young to the old.
In summary, Ham is a scum bag. Ham’s offspring, the Canaanites, were the descendants of a guy who exalted self while degrading others when they were in a state of senseless ignorance due to overdosing on a good thing.
Canaanite gods and goddesses
There’s more.
Since the people of Canaan are also known for their worship of Hadad/Baal (storm god) and Astarte/Asherah (fertility goddess, see possible depiction above), I believe it’s reasonable to link Canaan with an idolatrous exaltation of male &/or female attributes3. This worship led to the practice of child sacrifice.
Homosexuality, incest, as well as Baal and Asherah worship, stand in direct opposition to what God told Adam & Eve, Noah & his family, and the Israelites, which was to increase, multiply, and fill the land. In conclusion, the Canaanites’ way of life stunted family growth by exalting one gender over another, one generation over another, one family over another, or both genders’ traits over God.
Put It Together
Allow me to put it altogether now:
The Canaanites represent the act of misusing one’s own family when they are weak. This misuse of others is done to exalt oneself, or exclude or degrade others in favor of one’s own gender, generation, or family. This kind of lifestyle results in the destruction of one’s offspring.
Contemporary Message: If we use anyone to exalt ourselves as the greatest, to exclude others from God’s Kingdom, or degrade people in their weakness, we will be sacrificing possible children of God.
Parental Message: If I, as a parent, exalt myself over my family members, if I exclude them from the goodness that they’re bound to inherit from God, or if I degrade them because of their differences, weaknesses, gender, or age in any way, I am sacrificing the possibility of my children becoming part of the family of God.
I guess this means I shouldn’t call my children Canaanites anymore. Darn.
How Then We Shall Live
Gosh, if that isn’t sobering, I don’t know what is. God’s words to Joshua sound even more comforting to me now. We are to lead others, not use them, to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. And how are we to lead them?
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:8 NIV)
Like the title of Eugene Peterson’s book, Eat This Book, God’s instructions to Joshua are to ingest God’s law into our hearts, minds, and physical bodies. We are to build our houses upon it. The sum of that law was to love God and love others as ourselves. When we love others as ourselves, we treat them with dignity and respect, even when they overdose on a good thing, be it alcohol, social media, or work. We don’t use their addictions or weaknesses to promote ourselves or degrade them.
What do we do with people when they are weak? What did Jesus do with people who were weak about something?
Jesus dined with prostitutes and sinners. He asked for a drink from a woman who husband-hopped (John 4). He did this by accepting hospitality from a tax-collecting cheat (Luke 19). He asked to borrow Peter’s boat for some offshore preaching (Luke 5). Jesus was silent when he could’ve used his superior righteousness to condemn both the woman caught in adultery and the people who wanted to stone her (John 8). And Jesus washed the feet of the men who kept arguing about who was greater (John 13). Jesus was humble enough to be silent when he might’ve spoken, to accept help from those below himself, and serve those who were bickering about who ought to be in charge.
When we are humble, not lording ourselves over others or using them in their weakness to be part of our “Kingdom of Heaven,” we lead the way for others to become children of God.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 6:3 NIV)
To read about the next ethnic occupant of the Promised Land, click the link after next Sunday.
Cited Works
Mazar, Amihai. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000-586 B.C.E. New York, Doubleday, 1990.
Walton, John. NIV Application Commmentary: Genesis. Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2001. (Pg 348)
Bailey, Kenneth E. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2008. (Pg 99).