Deuteronomy 7
McGeeCHAPTER 7THEME: Israel to be separate from other nations
Deuteronomy 7:1
This is very strong language. Remember that God had said, “Thou shalt not kill.” That is a command against personal animosity, personal hatred which leads to murder. The Hebrew word is ratsach. Here they are directly commanded to destroy these people who were living in the land. It is an altogether different Hebrew wordcharam, meaning “to devote (to God or destruction).” You may think that is terrible. The liberal today hates the God of the Old Testament. I heard one call God a bully. They don’t like the idea that God would actually destroy whole nations. God also says this:
Deuteronomy 7:3
Here we have the reason for God’s command. These people were eaten up with venereal disease. Had Israel intermarried with them, they would have destroyed the race. Moses didn’t understand much about disease germs, but God knows a great deal about them. These people were so polluted and corrupt that God put them out of the land. Not only that, these people were idolatrous, and they would have led Israel into idolatry. So God goes on to tell them that they are to utterly destroy their altars and break down their images. All this polluting influence is to be completely destroyed. God gives Israel a solemn warning. If they do intermarry and turn to other gods, then God will put them out of the land. And yet, God makes it very clear to Israel that He is the God of love. He gives these commands because He loves them.
Deuteronomy 7:6
Never a great nation numerically, they would not compare to China or India or other great nations of the world.
Deuteronomy 7:8
You remember that God said in Exodus that He had heard their cry, that distress cry. He responded because He loved them. He delivered them from bondage for that reason. He keeps repeating this.
Deuteronomy 7:9
What is man’s answer to the love of God? It is obedience.
Deuteronomy 7:10
God will bless any people who respond to His love by obedience.
Deuteronomy 7:12
How wonderful it would have been if Israel had believed God! God encourages them, and He promises them victory
Deuteronomy 7:18
The faithfulness of God in the past should be an encouragement for them in the future. Isn’t it precisely the same with us?
Deuteronomy 7:21
We see God’s wisdom here. He is thinking of their safety, knowing that if the population were destroyed suddenly, the wild animals would take over the land.
Deuteronomy 7:23
All these nations were to be put out of the land and utterly destroyed because of their abominations. Now don’t say that God had not been patient with them. Way back in Gen_15:16 God had told Abraham that his descendants would not come back into the land until the fourth generation “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” God gave these people 430 years to see whether they would turn to God and turn from their sins. Friends, how much more time do you want God to give them? Do you know any other landlord who will give his tenant that long a time to pay his rent? God gave them a time of mercy that lasted for 430 years.
Then the cup of iniquity was full, and the judgment of God fell upon them. So let us not have a false kind of pity for these nations. Rather, let us learn from these events. God is a God of mercy and of love in the Old Testament as well as He is in the New Testament.