We must learn to distinguish God’s judicial pronouncements from his commands about a way of life for us so as not to mix apples and oranges. The removal of the Canaanite peoples was a judicial ruling by God. Consider, in the USA we give people rights. But those rights can be taken away if people commit a crime. Its called prison. Is that hypocrisy to say people have rights (out of one side of our mouth) but then put them into prison ( out of the other)? No because those persons gave up many of their rights when they committed a crime. There were no prisons in Canaan. As a judicial ruling, God told Israel to dispossess the people in the land. They were either to kill them or in some cases enslave them. The Canaanites had already lost all of their rights and were under God’s just judgment. There was no justification for arbitrary chattel slavery in the Bible — (the kind which we knew in antebellum times) — in fact the slavery which kidnapped people and sold them as property was punishable by death (Exodus 21:16) .

No they were ONLY to kill or enslave under God’s direct verbal orders – Remember, He is God so His judicial ruling is more just than any human court has ever been since He knows all of our crimes perfectly. So When Israel killed people they were simply acting as God’s hand, speeding up the death sentence we all justly deserve.

You think this racist because it targets foreigners? Think again. God also warned the Israelites that they were not immune from the Canaanites’ judgment: “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.’ “(Numbers 33:55-56). So not only were foreigners made slaves — when the Israelites disobeyed God – REMEMBER – they were carried off in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. So God is not partial or racist.