This was no ‘spur of the moment’ decision by God. In
Genesis 15:13-16, God tells Abraham that his descendants will be slaves in a
foreign country for 400 years but that they will return to the land of Canaan
after “four generations”. The reason given for this delay is because “the sin
of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure”. Similarly, the judgment
on the Amalekites was given in Deut 25:17-19 but fulfilled only under Saul in 1
Samuel 15:2… a gap of 300 years. But, during this intermittent period, do we
see evidence of God sending witnesses to the gentiles?
At the time of Abraham there is evidence that the
Canaanites had some knowledge of the true God:
·
The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were
close to Canaanite territory, and the deliverance of Lot were evidence of God’s
judgment against sin (Genesis 18-19).
·
Abraham lived among them and was a wealthy and
powerful man (he was even able to rescue Lot from the united forces of four
kings according to Genesis 14). His faith in God should have been a witness to
the Canaanites.
·
The mysterious Melchizedek was king of Jerusalem
and also “priest of God Most High” (Genesis 14:18). He must surely have taught
his people about the true Creator God (Genesis 14:19).
It seems that over the period from Abraham to Joshua, the
Canaanites had gradually rejected what they knew about God and moved deeper
into sin. It was only when their sin reached a certain level of severity that
God decided to use the Israelites to bring judgment on them.
Probably the clearest sign that the warnings had gone out
to the Canaanite kingdoms is seen in Joshua 2:8-13; in the words of Rahab the
prostitute who gave shelter thereby saving the lives of the 2 spies sent by
Joshua ”Now before they lay down, she
came up to them on the roof, 9 and said to the men: “I know that the Lord
has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all
the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. 10 For we
have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came
out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on
the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 And
as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain
any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in
heaven above and on earth beneath. 12 Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by
the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to
my father’s house, and give me a true token, 13 and spare my father, my mother,
my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from
death.”
Rahab the prostitute was able to discern from what she
and other Canaanites had heard about Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and
victories over other Amorite kings, that God was giving the land of Canaan to
the Israelites and, because of her faith in God demonstrated in her statement
and her rescue of the Israelite spies, she was saved from destruction and
included in the nation of Israel. She even became an ancestor of King David
and, eventually, Jesus Christ! Sadly, she is the only Canaanite we read of
coming to faith in God, although surely others had the opportunity.
Let’s not forget the Gibeonites in Joshua 9 who literally
bent over backwards in literally tricking the Israelites to spare them… why did
they do this? Just like Rahab and the other tribes living in Canaan, the
Gibeonites had heard of the juggernaut tribe of Israel.
We see many such instances strewn across the length and
breadth of the Scriptures, refer to the words of the soldier at the time of
Gideon (Judges 7:13-15), the Lord in His mercy had even revealed to the
soldiers of the Midianites in a dream that they would be defeated by Gideon but
still they persisted in their war with the Israelites resulting in an utter
defeat.
Even during the time of Solomon we see Queen of Sheba in 1
Kings 10 where she comes to visit him having heard of the blessings of the Lord
on him.
Unlike us, God knows the future. God knew what the
results would be if Israel did not completely eradicate the Amalekites. If
Israel did not carry out God’s orders, the Amalekites would come back to
trouble the Israelites in the future. Saul claimed to have killed everyone but
the Amalekite king Agag (1 Samuel 15:20). Obviously, Saul was lying—just a
couple of decades later, there were enough Amalekites to take David and his
men’s families captive (1 Samuel 30:1-2). After David and his men attacked the
Amalekites and rescued their families, 400 Amalekites escaped. If Saul had
fulfilled what God had commanded him, this never would have occurred. Several
hundred years later, a descendant of Agag, Haman, tried to have the entire
Jewish people exterminated (see the book of Esther). So, Saul’s incomplete
obedience almost resulted in Israel’s destruction. God knew this would occur,
so He ordered the extermination of the Amalekites ahead of time.
In regard to the Canaanites, God even clarified the
reason behind the command to totally eradicate them from the land… God
commanded, “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. 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 20:16-18). The command to eradicate was
given so that the corrupt practices of the Canaanites do not defile Israel too…
much like a single rotten fruit in a fruit basket soon infects the entire
basket. The Israelites failed in this mission as well, and exactly what God said
would happen occurred (Judges 2:1-3; 1 Kings 11:5; 14:24; 2 Kings 16:3-4). God
did not order the extermination of these people to be cruel, but to prevent
even greater evil from occurring in the future.
Inspite of all their horrible abominations, the Lord was
long suffering and patient… when their iniquity was “full,” divine judgment
fell. God’s judgment was akin to surgery for cancer or amputation of a leg as
the only way to save the rest of a sick body. Just as cancer or gangrene
contaminates the physical body, those elements in a society—if their evil is
left to fester—will completely contaminate the rest of society.
Still we see in all the instances of “mass killings”, the
love of God in the form of clear witnesses, time given to repent and salvation
by grace through faith:
1.
Flood: Noah was the witness to the known world before
the flood, we read in 1 Peter 3:20 “who once were disobedient, when the
patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of
the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through
the water.” A clear timeline of 120 years was given – Genesis 6:3 and even the
name Methuselah, the man who had the max known lifespan, his name meant “at his
death, the flood will come”… just imagine, every time anyone called his name,
it served as a reminder to mankind of the incoming judgment. To be saved from
the flood, all that was needed was to enter the Ark… but except the close
family of Noah, no one chose to enter the ark.
2.
Sodom and Gomorrah: As seen in Genesis 18,
Abraham bargains with God to spare the cities even if 10 were found righteous
but even that minimal number was not found amongst the depravity… 2 Peter 2:7
says that Lot was the righteous witness to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
3.
Egyptians and the Red Sea: The 10 plagues were
possibly the greatest witness of the presence and power of God… the repeated
pleas of Moses to Pharaoh to repent resulted in nothing. In this instance, we
see possibly the clearest sign of the heart of God to embrace all who reach out
to Him… Exodus 12:38 “A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and
herds—a great deal of livestock.”
Contrary to the vitriolic rhetoric of someone like
Richard Dawkins, the God of the Bible is a God of justice, long-suffering, and
compassion.
You can’t read the Old Testament prophets without a sense
of God’s profound care for the poor, the oppressed, the down-trodden, the orphaned,
and so on. God demands just laws and
just rulers. He literally pleads with
people to repent of their unjust ways that He might not judge them. “As I live, says the Lord God, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and
live” (Ez. 33.11)
On another occasion God saved some thirty-two thousand
people who were morally pure (Num. 31:35). (5) Finally, the battle confronting
Israel was not simply a religious war; it was a theocratic war. Israel was
directly ruled by God and the extermination was God’s direct command (cf. Exod.
23:27-30; Deut. 7:3-6; Josh. 8:24-26). No other nation either before or after
Israel has been a theocracy. Thus, those commands were unique. Israel as a
theocracy was an instrument of judgment in the hands of God.
The book of Revelation teaches Christ will come to earth
and literally destroy millions because of the rebellion and unbelief of man’s
heart. In fact, the tribulation period, which is described for us in Revelation
6-19, will among other things, demonstrate the true nature of man and just what
lengths he will go to in his sin and rebellion when left to himself. Christ
spoke of this time in Matthew 24. So the Old Testament is not alone in
demonstrating God’s wrath and judgment against sin.
Nothing could so illustrate to the Israelis the
seriousness of their calling as a people set apart for God alone. Yahweh is not to be trifled with. He means business, and if Israel apostasizes
the same could happen to her. As C. S. Lewis puts it, “Aslan is not a tame lion.”
(... To Be Continued in Part 5)
No comments:
Post a Comment