In Friday's study we found the Lord instructing the Israelites to first make an offer of peace when approaching a city. If that city agreed to become subject to Israel, no war would break out. We discussed whether or not we think the offer of peace was to be made to all the cities of the promised land or whether the cities destined for destruction were excluded from the peace offer. We talked about how I like to think the offer was made to all but that, because the Lord always knew certain tribes would never repent of their idolatry, He could say ahead of time that Israel was to destroy particular cities and their occupants.
Today we see why an argument can be made against the idea that the Israelites were to offer peace to every city in the promised land. After describing how the Israelites were to approach a city, and after explaining what they should do if a city refuses to submit to Israel's political authority in the region (subdue it with military force, put all its men to the sword, take everyone and everything else as plunder), the Lord says, "This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby." (Deuteronomy 20:15)
The "nations nearby" will be revealed to us shortly but it appears from verse 15 that an offer of peace is to be made only to the more far-flung cities and not to those the Lord has promised by name to the Israelites. The Lord has already marked out the territories of the Israelites in the promised land and has assigned specific areas to each tribe. It seems that these specific areas may be excluded from the peace offer. But even if this is so, this doesn't mean that the Lord has never offered peace to these people. Over four hundred years have passed since Abraham lived among them and proclaimed the name of the Lord and yet in those four hundred years they have not repented of their idolatry and their abominable religious practices. They never heeded the testimony of Abraham or the testimony of anyone before the time of Abraham or the testimony of anyone since the time of Abraham. They maintained a hard heart and closed their ears to the pleading of the Holy Spirit to repent. We can be certain that the Lord gave them many opportunities to repent, for the Bible tells us that the Lord is patient with the ungodly, "Not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
The Lord never wanted any of the tribes of the promised land to reject Him in favor of false gods. The Lord never wanted any of those souls to be lost and to be separated from His presence in eternity. But in spite of everything He did and said during many centuries, they refused to turn to Him and be saved. Their cup of sins is full and running over now and even if the Lord doesn't make one final offer of peace to them before allowing the Israelites to destroy them, we can be sure He has made more than enough offers of peace already. Knowing our loving and merciful God like we do, there is no doubt He has gone above and beyond in trying to get these people to repent. He knew their hearts and knew they would never accept Him as Lord but He made the effort anyway.
Because their time is up, the Lord mentions by name the tribes He intends to destroy. "However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them---the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites---as the Lord your God has commanded you." (Deuteronomy 20:16-17) These people have reached the point of no return in their rebellion against the Lord. I do believe it's possible for a person to harden their heart so much that nothing the Lord says will ever get through to them. But we have to keep in mind that this was a purposeful hardening of the heart; they deliberately forsook the Lord. As Jesus says regarding anyone who deliberately rejects the light and love of the Lord in favor of living in sin, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19) The nations of the promised land loved darkness because their deeds were evil. They wanted to continue doing evil and they rejected the Lord's light and love so they could continue living in darkness.
The Lord is accomplishing two purposes by wiping out these particular tribes. He's pouring out judgment on them for their sins and He's protecting Israel from committing the same sins. He tells us what will happen if these tribes are not wiped out. "Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 20:18) He is removing the idolatrous tribes from the land not only because they've brought judgment upon themselves but also because He wants to shield His children from them. The idolatry is too strong, too seductive, and too exotic for Israel to resist. Considering it wasn't that long ago that they left Egypt---the most idolatrous nation on earth at that time---idolatry is a real threat to them. The sights and sounds of idolatrous worship are already commonplace to the Israelites. Things that become commonplace can be easily adopted into a person's lifestyle. Sin can lose its ability to shock a person when they are surrounded by it on every side. A sin that no longer shocks is a sin easy to commit.
The Israelites aren't to leave alive anything that breathes in certain territories but they aren't to adopt a "scorched earth policy". There's no need to destroy trees that will be of value to them. "When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?" (Deuteronomy 20:19) Trees that don't produce fruit can be cut down but are also useful to the Israelites. "However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls." (Deuteronomy 20:20)
I'm struck by the fact that even a tree which is physically dead can be useful but a spiritually dead human is not of any use---not to the Lord and not to their fellow man and not even to themselves. A spiritually dead person is their own worst enemy. A spiritually dead person is an enemy to those around them because they can drag the spiritually weak down into the depths of sin with them. A spiritually dead person is an enemy to the God they despise and have rejected. The time has come, in the Old Testament, to remove the spiritually dead from the promised land. They've been dead so long they cannot be revived by anyone or anything. They wouldn't want to be revived if that meant submitting to the Lord's authority and serving Him. It's sad and it ought to break our hearts, just as I'm sure it broke the Lord's heart, but there's nothing else He can do that He hasn't already done for these nations. He must protect those who belong to Him---the children of Israel---and that means removing the temptation of idolatry by removing the idolaters.
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