way.  With his central camp established at Gilgal (5:10; 9:6) and the forces of Canaan divided, Joshua could advance by two lines of invasion.  Whether he made simultaneous campaigns in different directions is not certain, but he seems first to have turned his attention to the southern territory and then to have completed his conquest by an invasion of the northern districts.  After bending before this storm the Canaanites still held possession of the land and the piecemeal process of subjugation began.  It was not all accomplished by the sword but aided by the peaceful measures of inter-marriage and treaties with friendly neighbors.  Israel contended against a far superior civilization but finally won because the religious as well as the civil and social life was involved.

The Cruelty to the Canannites.  Stress has commonly been laid on the cruelty to the Canaanites and upon their being driven out of their land when it should have been put upon their character where the Scripture puts it.  This is a waste of false sympathy.  The Scripture always speaks of the driving out of the Canaanites as a punishment for their sins (Dt, 9:4-5; Lev. 18:24-25).  Some of the abominations which they practiced are described in Lev. 18:21-30 and Dt. 12:30-32.  These abominations were practiced in the name of religion and were so shocking that one shudders to read the description.

Everything evil was worshiped.  The chief god was Baal, the sun, who was worshiped at different places under different names, but everywhere his worship was fierce and cruel.  His consort Ashtaroth, the Babylonian goddess Istar, the goddess of love, worshiped as the morning star, Venus, fostered in her worship abominations that are almost inconceivable in our times.  It was a worship of impurity and could not be cured by ordinary means.  God had borne with it for hundreds of years.  Their destruction was therefore justifiable just as was that of the old world and the Jews were simply God’s instruments just as were the waters of the flood or the fire and brimstone in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah.

God was planning to begin, a new nation, to start a new civilization and by using this method of punishment for the Canaanites he impressed the Hebrews in a most striking way with the consequences of forsaking worship of the true God.  It was a new thing in the world to have all idolatrous symbols destroyed and to worship an unseen God and yet Joshua constantly represented to them that all the evils they had inflicted upon the Canaanites, and greater evils, would be sent upon them if they should become idolaters.  Little, therefore, need be said of the cruelty of the Hebrews nor of the suffering of the Canaanites.  The Hebrews were the instrument of God and the Canaanites were reaping what they had sown.