Whether the promisor is Almighty God, or His Majesty King George III, promising land to a select few is at best problematic if other people are in settled occupation and enjoyment of the land.  Where do they go now?

But it gets worse when God and ethnic distinctions are involved.  Where one group sees its members as different to those of another, they rarely think they come out of it as the worse off.

So much is clear from the history of Canaan, Australia, and Palestine. 

Since the discussion of any of these is fraught in Australia just now, I will pass over it in silence, and leave it to others.

The following texts command varying assent depending on where in the world the reader is standing.

But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive.  But you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God. 

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai.

And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua.

And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day.

Joshua 8:24-30

When the posterity of Abraham had multiplied like the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose mouth they received a system of laws and ceremonies, declared himself the proper and, as it were, the national God of Israel; and with the most jealous care separated his most favourite people from the rest of mankind.  The conquest of the land of Canaan with so many wonderful and so many bloody circumstances, that the victorious Jews were left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with all their neighbours.  They had been commanded to extirpate some of the most idolatrous tribes, and the execution of the Divine will had seldom been retarded by the weakness of humanity.

Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Fight against those who have been given the Scripture and believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid that which Allah hath forbidden by his messenger, and follow not the religion of truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.

And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah.  And the Christians say: their Messiah is the son of Allah.  That is their saying with their mouths.  They imitate the sayings of whose who disbelieve of old.  Allah himself fighteth against them.  How perverse are they?

They have as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were forbidden to worship only one god.

Koran, Surah IX: 29 -31

Long before the rise of Babylon and Athens, the early Australians had impressive achievements.  They were the only people in the world’s history to sail across the seas and to discover an inhabitable continent.  They bred a brave procession of coastal and inland explorers; they were brown Columbuses, Major Mitchells, and even Dr Livingstones, I presume.  The aboriginals who occupied Australia also found, over a long stretch of time, many edible plants, valuable mines which they worked, new medicines and drugs, manufacturing techniques, and a miscellany of resources ranging from the raw materials of their cosmetics to the hidden pools of water in deserts.  They succeeded in adapting their ways of life to harsh as well as kind environments; and several large regions of Australia supported more people in ancient times than they have supported in recent times….

Europeans were now about to enter Australia.  The contrast between the ways of life of the British Isles and the Aborigines was almost the most dramatic contrast in the world.  The British brought so many ideas and goods which Aborigines could not begin to imagine.  They brought all the results of the 10,000-year-old neolithic revolution and they also brought the first results of the new industrial and scientific revolutions.  They brought sheep and shears, horses and harnesses, cattle and pigs, and a variety of dogs and cats.  They brought fruit trees, and tropical and temperate vegetables unknown to Aborigines.  They brought fences and carts and large permanent houses and ocean-going ships.  They brought an ability to distil spirits, brew beer, and make wine, hazardous activities in a continent where alcohol was virtually unknown.  They brought skills in weaving wool, in making linen and leather.  They brought the art of writing and printing, of keeping accounts, of hoarding information in books and food in barrels, kegs and sacks.  They brought thousands of laws, all devised more than 20,000 kilometres away.  They brought firearms, not of high accuracy, but demoralising when first seen and felt……Here was an utter contrast in peoples, for they spoke very different languages, had very different histories, religions, and contrasting attitudes to property plants and livestock.  In their use of the land and technology they were ages apart: in short, even with goodwill on both sides they were incompatible.

Geoffrey Blainey, The Triumph of the Nomad

The basic elements of the Imperial Problem during the American Revolution must be sought not so much in conscious opinions and professed views bearing directly on it, as in the very structure and life of the Empire; and in doing that, the words of Danton should be remembered – on ne fait pas le procès aux revolutions.  Those who are out to apportion guilt in history have to keep to views and opinions, judge the collisions of planets by the rules of road traffic, make history into something like a column of motoring accidents, and discuss it in the atmosphere of a police court.

Sir Lewis Namier, England in the Age of the American Revolution

The God has not been invented who could even dream that any of such issues can be solved by mortals, and many would be happy if we had never invented any God at all.

The Promised Land

Whether the promisor is Almighty God, or His Majesty King George III, promising land to a select few is at best problematic if other people are in settled occupation and enjoyment of the land.  Where do they go now?

But it gets worse when God and ethnic distinctions are involved.  Where one group sees its members as different to those of another, they rarely think they come out of it as the worse off.

So much is clear from the history of Canaan, Australia, and Palestine. 

Since the discussion of any of these is fraught in Australia just now, I will pass over it in silence, and leave it to others.

The following texts command varying assent depending on where in the world the reader is standing.

But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive.  But you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God. 

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai.

And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua.

And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day.

Joshua 8:24-30

When the posterity of Abraham had multiplied like the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose mouth they received a system of laws and ceremonies, declared himself the proper and, as it were, the national God of Israel; and with the most jealous care separated his most favourite people from the rest of mankind.  The conquest of the land of Canaan with so many wonderful and so many bloody circumstances, that the victorious Jews were left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with all their neighbours.  They had been commanded to extirpate some of the most idolatrous tribes, and the execution of the Divine will had seldom been retarded by the weakness of humanity.

Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Fight against those who have been given the Scripture and believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid that which Allah hath forbidden by his messenger, and follow not the religion of truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.

And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah.  And the Christians say: their Messiah is the son of Allah.  That is their saying with their mouths.  They imitate the sayings of whose who disbelieve of old.  Allah himself fighteth against them.  How perverse are they?

They have as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were forbidden to worship only one god.

Koran, Surah IX: 29 -31

Long before the rise of Babylon and Athens, the early Australians had impressive achievements.  They were the only people in the world’s history to sail across the seas and to discover an inhabitable continent.  They bred a brave procession of coastal and inland explorers; they were brown Columbuses, Major Mitchells, and even Dr Livingstones, I presume.  The aboriginals who occupied Australia also found, over a long stretch of time, many edible plants, valuable mines which they worked, new medicines and drugs, manufacturing techniques, and a miscellany of resources ranging from the raw materials of their cosmetics to the hidden pools of water in deserts.  They succeeded in adapting their ways of life to harsh as well as kind environments; and several large regions of Australia supported more people in ancient times than they have supported in recent times….

Europeans were now about to enter Australia.  The contrast between the ways of life of the British Isles and the Aborigines was almost the most dramatic contrast in the world.  The British brought so many ideas and goods which Aborigines could not begin to imagine.  They brought all the results of the 10,000-year-old neolithic revolution and they also brought the first results of the new industrial and scientific revolutions.  They brought sheep and shears, horses and harnesses, cattle and pigs, and a variety of dogs and cats.  They brought fruit trees, and tropical and temperate vegetables unknown to Aborigines.  They brought fences and carts and large permanent houses and ocean-going ships.  They brought an ability to distil spirits, brew beer, and make wine, hazardous activities in a continent where alcohol was virtually unknown.  They brought skills in weaving wool, in making linen and leather.  They brought the art of writing and printing, of keeping accounts, of hoarding information in books and food in barrels, kegs and sacks.  They brought thousands of laws, all devised more than 20,000 kilometres away.  They brought firearms, not of high accuracy, but demoralising when first seen and felt……Here was an utter contrast in peoples, for they spoke very different languages, had very different histories, religions, and contrasting attitudes to property plants and livestock.  In their use of the land and technology they were ages apart: in short, even with goodwill on both sides they were incompatible.

Geoffrey Blainey, The Triumph of the Nomad

The basic elements of the Imperial Problem during the American Revolution must be sought not so much in conscious opinions and professed views bearing directly on it, as in the very structure and life of the Empire; and in doing that, the words of Danton should be remembered – on ne fait pas le procès aux revolutions.  Those who are out to apportion guilt in history have to keep to views and opinions, judge the collisions of planets by the rules of road traffic, make history into something like a column of motoring accidents, and discuss it in the atmosphere of a police court.

Sir Lewis Namier, England in the Age of the American Revolution

The God has not been invented who could even dream that any of such issues can be solved by mortals, and many would be happy if we had never invented any God at all.