Instructions for War

This is hard to read, so we can understand why it was hard for the Israelites to do. Killing everyone, when they had no personal grudge against them, must have been very difficult. God's problems with them were clear, and many of their wicked ways were outlined in today's reading. God is actually very patient with the sinfulness of man, but does enact judgement when the point of no return has been reached. The judgement of the flood is a perfect example.

In making His covenant with Abram. God says in Genesis 15:13 "... know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions... In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached it's full measure". The Amorites were a people-group living within the land of Canaan, so this is a direct reference to the reason for their demise. God saw it coming, but He was not willing to punish that nation until they had been given ample time to turn things around. So Israel waited 400 years to receive the promise God made to Abram. God did displace these pagans, and decisively so, but brutal though it was, they were not a group of people to be pitied, as evidenced by their many detestable practices.


Apart from these nations' deserving punishment, God gives another reason for their complete extermination... he was protecting His people from being infected by their pagan practices, "which would cause you to sin deeply against the Lord your God". In accordance with the degree of wickedness or perhaps the proximity of where the israelites would be living, Moses permitted varying levels of destruction. For the outlying regions, Israel could take the entire town as captives if they surrendered. If they fought, they were to kill all of the men and take the women and children as slaves. However, for the seven Canaanite nations listed, everything that breathed had to be annihilated. The Israelites do not fully obey God in this, and the consequences are exactly as God predicted.

Tomorrow's reading: Deuteronomy 21:10-25