Deuteronomy 9-- The wickedness of these nations

Scripture: Deuteronomy 9 (especially verses 4-6)

Two chapters ago, we were confronted with God's command for Israel to destroy all the inhabitants of the promised land. I explained one half of "why this is okay," which was that God issued the command, it was in a unique way that is not common to history and thus not setting a precedent for religious violence, and that God can do whatever He wants. But this still seems to leave one glaring question... why did God command Israel to wipe out whole towns and tribes?


The short answer is wickedness. Now, by today's practices of justice, we prefer to mete out prison sentences to death sentences; even those who support capital punishment do so only in the case of heinous misdeeds. But this makes sense-- we humans, unable to know a person's heart and unable to discern if a criminal can be truly rehabilitated, should err on the side of prison sentences. But justice from an all-knowing, all-understanding God does not face the same limitations.

What sorts of evil are we talking about in the case of the condemned Canaanites? Well there may be much more, but Deuteronomy delineates a few: child sacrifice (12:31, 18:10), sorcery (18:10), and necromancy (18:11). I don't know if these people's gods were imaginary or demonic, but the people were killing their children for them. It's not hard to imagine (and I'm sorry I can't do more research for you to give you facts here) that these religions also may have featured mutilation or rape. At any rate, Moses said, "It is because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you" (18:11).

Furthermore, the war was commenced not only because of the wicked ways of the natives, but God's plan of salvation for all humankind. A nation was to be set apart for Him; while there were many reasons for this, the main was so that nation could give birth to God in the flesh, the Savior of us all, Jesus Christ. Israel, then, needed to endure for the next thousand years. It wouldn't be able to do that, at least not faithfully, with such corrupting influences around them: "The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire... or you will be snared by [them]" (7:25).

Now, this may not be fully satisfying to you. I hope that it has helped a little if you struggle with the idea of God's command to destroy. At any rate... so what? What does this mean for me and you? One final thought on that--

Israel had its own wickedness. In fact, Moses says, "You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you" (9:24). And yet, Israel was not destroyed for its evil. One reason for this was Moses' intercession on the people's behalf, as in verses 18 and 25. He fell down in desperate prayer and fasting for Israel.

How do you respond to your own sin? I know I all too often treat it cavalierly. But maybe we can learn from Moses' example and, trusting in Jesus' better intercession for us, repent of our own wickedness.