As Israel was preparing to enter the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, God gave them a command,Deuteronomy 7.1-6, "When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth."
Many critics of the Bible, and even some branches of Christianity, wonder how a good and loving God could order the destruction of entire nations of people. There was one Christ follower, Marcion I think, who said that the God of the Old Testament, who made commands like this, couldn't be the same God of the New Testament. But here in Deuteronomy we see why God made this command.
Israel was to be a holy people set apart for God. It was there job to represent God to the rest of the world. Part of the reason they were to be in Israel is because it was the crossroads of the world at the time; three continents connect there. Israel was blessed to be a blessing to the nations. But in order to be able to bless the rest of the world by showing them who God was, they had to keep themselves holy and focused on God. God knew what a stubborn group of people He was dealing with in Israel. After just a few weeks of freedom in the desert they were complaining about no food and no water, and wanted to go be slaves in Egypt again. He knew that if they were influenced by pagan nations they would easily be led astray. They were weak willed and God wanted to protect them. So He makes this command.
At first the people faithfully obey. Jericho and all of its people are destroyed followed by Ai. But then the people make their first mistake. The Gibeonites come and deceive the people and make peace with Israel. It says in Joshua 9.14b, "and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord." Now one group of people must live. They are forced into servant hood as wood choppers and water drawers, but paganism now has a foothold among the people.
From there it gets worse. In Joshua 15 the tribe of Judah is taking their share of the land, verse 63 says, "Now as for as the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah could not drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day." Pagan influence has another grip.
Joshua 16 talks about the tribe of Ephraim, and verse 10 says, "But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites live in the midst of Ephraim to this day," grip three. And then again with the tribe of Mannasseh, "But the sons of Manasseh could not take possession of these cities, because the Canaanites persisted in living in that land. It came about when the sons of Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely" (Joshua 17.12-13).
Over and over the people don't obey God's command and destroy the people living in the land. If you continue reading through the Old Testament you will see how this hurts the people of Israel. The book of Judges is a continuous circle of the people going astray, calling out to God after trouble sets in, God sending a deliverer, and then the people go astray again.
Later the people want a king like the other nations have, and God warns them of all the things a king will do, but they persist and are given a king, and the problems begin. They are constantly at war, prophet after prophet comes to warn the people of the destruction coming if they don't repent. Corrupt kings follow and lead the people further astray. Eventually the people are carried off into exile beasue they fail to obey God.
What would have happened if the people had just obeyed? How often do we find ourselves in similar situations? God says one thing but for whatever reason we don't like it. We don't want to wait that long, or work that hard, or go to this place, or serve in that way, and so we decide to do our thing our way. We have free will so God allows it to happen, but usually we end up in trouble, with hardships we could have avoided.
God has our best interest at heart. When He makes a command it is for our own good, no, for our best. God does not want us to suffer, He wants to bless us so that we can be a blessing to others and show the world who He is. But in order to receive His blessing we must be set apart as His holy people.
To God alone be the Glory!
Peace be with you
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