This series is taken from Burning Heart who are an organisation who are passionate about equipping churches with high quality, professionally produced and theologically rich teaching films and series.  The Director is David Ingall who was the Rector of Holy Sepulchre London, an HTB Network church plant in the City of London.  For more information visit their website https://www.burningheart.org

This session looks at one of the most challenging bits of the whole Bible – God’s commands to the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites. How could God have done that? Start the session by opening in prayer and/or worship.

Watch the Video

David goes on a physical and emotional journey as he grapples with one of the hardest bits of whole the Bible – why did God tell the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites?

From the Bible

⁴ for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. ⁵ This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles^[b] and burn their idols in the fire. ⁶ For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

Deuteronomy 7: 4-6

Discussion Points

• How do you feel about God’s command to destroy the Canaanite nations?
• Has this film changed your feelings at all? What did you think of the two key explanations that David gave? (that they were guilty of extraordinary wickedness, and that Israel’s calling as God’s people needed to be safeguarded)
• How do you feel about the idea of God’s judgement in general?
• In the film David spoke of the connection between God’s grace in restoring and saving the world and his judgement. How do you feel about that idea?

Prayer Points

• This is a particularly difficult theme, and so it is important that we take time both to acknowledge that and to pray. Take some time at the end of the session to ask each person how they are feeling about all this. Then pray about it – pray about the issues that have been shared, and ask God to meet you all by his Holy Spirit and minister to your hearts and souls.
• Don’t worry if you run out of time to do anything else – but if you do have more time, pray for any specific situations and systemic areas of sin that have come up in the session (such as the sinfulness in the global fashion industry that David mentioned).
• Pray for each other as you would normally at the end of a session.