CG QUESTIONS 1. What are a couple of things that stood out to you from Sundays message.

2. Describe how you have “processed” or “wrestled” with Old Testament passages like that of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan? How had you in the past understood these passages? Did they have any affect on your faith?

3. On a scale of 1-10 how well do you know, or pursue studying the nature and character of God? Why is that so important?

4. Read Exodus 34:5-7, Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 86:5 & Deuteronomy 32:4. There are somethings God cannot do. ie, God cannot lie, God cannot do evil, God cannot make himself not exist for 5 seconds. How does understanding this shape how we are to understand God’s commands and workings, as He unfolds His redemption plan in the Old Testament?

5. When confronted on this particular issue it’s helpful to ask the person “‘Is this your most serious ( most important ) question?’ OR ‘Is this your hardest question?’ How can that be helpful? Why would you want to begin in here there?

6. Why were the Canaanites judged? Read Leviticus 18:21, Deuteronomy 9:1-6, Deuteronomy 18:9,12

7. If someone is going to judge the morality of a narrative it is essential they do so, treating the narrative with utter integrity. Richard Dawkins says, the Bible’s story of Joshuas destruction of Jericho and the invasion of the Promise Land in general is morally indistinguishable from hitlers invasion of Poland. What about the narrative is he watering down, missing, or omitting? What are some ways you would show within the narrative that Israel was able to trust God as his judicial representatives (as an exceptional case)?

8. Where in your life is it hard to trust God? What are some hard issues you have? Just share and pray. ( Note don’t preach into these, but share them to Him, tell Jesus) Ask Him to answer them in His time.

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..but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, - 1 Peter 3:15

How can a God of love command the destruction of 7 nations.

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. -Richard Dawkins

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. - Deuteronomy 7:1-2

‘Is this your most serious ( most important ) question?’ OR ‘Is this your hardest question?’

Consider the trustworthiness of the Character of God Judge the morality of the Story, not a naturalistic watered down version of it

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. .” -A W Tozer

BOOKS Mentioned: Attributes of God - A.W. Tozer & God is - Mark Jones The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” - Exodus 34:5-7

They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. - Nehemiah 9:17 & Psalm 86:5

The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. - Deuteronomy 32:4

“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations… because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.”

Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you Deuteronomy 18:9,12, 9:5

A bronze image of Kronos was set up among them, stretching out its cupped hands above a bronze cauldron, which would burn the child. As the flame burning the child surrounded the body, the limbs would shrivel up and the mouth would appear to grin as if laughing, until it was shrunk enough to slip into the cauldron. -Clay Jones

what would we say of a God who perpetually sat silent in the face of such wickedness? Would we not ask, Where was God? Would we not question His goodness, His power, or even His existence if He did not eventually vanquish this evil? Yet when God finally does act, we are quick to find fault with the “vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser.” -Greg Koukl