This IS a question you will run into.

Deuteronomy 7:1-2

The Assumption: If God is good and the Bible is God’s Word, then everything the Bible teaches is good.

1. CORRECTING the narrative

   Reading the Bible “literally” vs. “literarily”

   • “Ancient trash talk” — Josh Butler

     Joshua 10:40, 20

     The Old Testament and nearly all people in the ancient world made themselves clear using hyperbole. It was simply understood as such.

   • “Fortified cities”

     Two things were clear when we read this “ancient trash talk” in context: first – that it is referring to military victories, not civilian massacres; and second – that the rhetoric greatly exaggerates the extent of the victory.

      

2. FLIPPING the narrative

   • “Good guys vs. the bad guys”

     Genesis 15:13

     Our current assumption: “All cultures are equal and no one culture is superior to or has the right to challenge another.” Cannot mean that we never oppose the cultural beliefs or practices  of other cultures. Think of Nazism.

   • The Good Guys ARE (or become) the bad guys

     Deuteronomy 9:5; Ezekiel 16:45, 18:31

     You can conquer nations and lands, but none of us can conquer the human heart, especially our own.

      

3. CHANGING the narrative

   • Some proposed solutions

     • Marcionism

     • Moses heard God wrong

     • God just changed His mind

     • We’ve evolved

   • “Drive out”

     Genesis 3:22

   •  Jesus the “new” Joshua steps into the narrative

     Colossians 1:13, 21-22