I didn’t say anything particularly insight, but I wanted to post it here for safekeeping. From “Violence in Scripture and the Nonviolence of Jesus“:
Might I suggest that theologians are complicating the matter? Canaan was a part of a larger plan God had, post-Babel, to establish a nation under His direct authority, apart from the pagan nations He portioned out to the divine council. Jesus simply had a different mission that didn’t involve military conquest.
I’m okay with folks having a personal conviction of non-violence, but it’s not a moral law derived from the Bible. To put a logical spin on it: if pacifism was supposed to be so important, universal, and Godly, why was there nothing explicitly mentioned anywhere in scripture? Not a peep from anyone, even Jesus.