Show Them No Mercy
Of all the passages or themes in the Bible, (that are least understood and most overlooked) there are few that rival the Israelite acts of genocide against the Canaanites. There will even be some who cringe at the way I have presented it here. Perhaps it would be much easier to deal with if it wasn’t explicitly commanded by God. The failure of the church to handle these passages well has been a great obstacle to defending the faith. But I believe that this failure is a greater problem than the passages themselves.
How do we make sense of these events? Even more, how do we make sense of the fact that this was clearly God’s will, insofar as it was his explicit command to the Israelites to “devote [the Canaanites] to destruction,” and to “show them no mercy.” There are several passages we could consider. For this article, I will consider Deuteronomy 7. The specific reference is as follows:
1“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.”
Understanding the Background
Carefully addressing this issue requires us to go back, at least, to Genesis 15. *We could, indeed, go back to the garden. If the ideas of sin, judgement, and the wrath of God are not clear to you, it would help to read this article before moving on.*
In Genesis 15 we find what is often referred to as the Abrahamic Covenant. The Lord calls Abram out from among all the people of the earth and makes him a few special promises (his name was not yet changed to Abraham; see Gen. 17 for that). Hearkening back to Genesis 12, the Lord says Abram’s reward will be great, to which Abram contends that he has no heir. The Lord promises Abram that “[his] very own son shall be [his] heir” and he will have offspring more numerous than the stars! He then promises him a land for possession. This land, however, will not be taken possession of until “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
The idea of this last phrase is that the people of the land he will possess are a wicked people, deserving of judgment, but not yet ripe for the harvest. There will come a time when their iniquity is complete, and their judgment will be in season. To sum up, if I haven’t lost you yet: God promises Abraham a land and a people. That land is inhabited by people opposed to God. The land cannot be inhabited until the enemy is ripe for destruction and judgment.
This idea of wiping out an entire people is not new to Scripture, but it is particularly offensive to some. God’s wrath was poured out on all the earth in the days of Noah. His judgement rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah. He plagued Egypt for their oppression of His people and killed their firstborn sons. These events are all tied to God calling out a people for himself and saving them from the wickedness of the world—and, by the way, saving them from their own wickedness.
A land, promised to the fathers of Israel, is now being prepared for the people of God, much like the cleansing of the temple. The promised land was indeed an echo of the garden, a type of the temple, and a shadow of the New Jerusalem that is to come. This idea deserves its own article, so maybe we will do that sometime soon…
Warfare as Worship
In addition to the ties of this passage to the fulfillment of God’s gracious promises, we have the idea of warfare as worship. That may sound ridiculous to you, but it was not so to the nation of Israel. In fact, “devote to destruction” was a term of worship. This is why the spoils could not be taken. This is why the Israelites brought the ark into battle and sang songs of worship before, during, and after. In a time of God ruling a single nation on earth as King, in a time where God was establishing an earthly Kingdom as a type of the kingdom to come, in a time where the kingdom was advanced by defeating earthly enemies, warfare was worship.
A few distortions of this idea that must be addressed. First, some use this passage to defend modern warfare. That is a blatant misuse of this passage. There may be other biblical justifications and arguments made for modern warfare, but this is not one. Second, some use this to divide God. This argument suggests that God has somehow changed and went from being an angry God to a loving God. Not much could be further from the truth. Third, some seek to pathologize the writers of Scripture to suggest that they got it wrong and God did not want this. This argument denies the inerrancy of Scripture and must be thrown out wholesale. Unfortunately, there are many other distortions that can be mentioned here. I will leave you with just these few.
A Holy Nation, Chosen by Grace
Deuteronomy 7:1-2 must also be read in light of Deuteronomy 7:6-8. Here it is shown that it is all of grace:
6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Israel was chosen by God to be a holy nation unto God. It was not for their own sake but for God’s sake. Each and every one of them, as well as each and every one of us, deserve to die. They do not deserve to live and enjoy God’s good promises. This is where the good news of the gospel comes bursting forth.
If it were not for the grace of God in Christ Jesus, we too would deserve to be “devoted to destruction.” We have nothing to contribute to our salvation in the sight of God. Jesus Christ and his righteousness alone is our plea. His death is our death. His life is our life. His resurrection is our hope of justification before God and of eternal life. His Spirit is our guarantee. His Church is our family and our home in this wicked world. He will destroy every enemy. He will reign forever. And when he returns, it will not be rainbows and butterflies but a warrior on a white horse, executing judgement and wrath on all who deny him. Jesus came once as servant but returns as warrior. Those who put the revelation of God in the Old Testament at odds with the revelation of Christ in the New Testament fail to see what great war will be made on the final day.
This may not begin to comfort us concerning passages like Deuteronomy 7 but it ought to cause us to fear the holiness of God and to delight all the more in salvation from the wrath of God; by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, on the authority of Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone.
