I am a young Christian, and I have been reading Joshua. The book explains that God commanded Joshua to invade and kill different civilizations. My question is, Why? When earlier-on Moses laid down the commandments, one of them was Thou shalt not murder etc... Couldn't they have been given the chance to repent or turn to God? -- Chen Gutu
Good question. The Canaanite wars are an exception; see Deuteronomy 9. Murder was forbidden under the old covenant, but judicial killing was not. In fact, there were nearly 20 different death penalties (!). Everything is different under the new covenant, of course.
But the Canaanites did have a chance to repent. See Genesis 15:16. God was patient for generations!
