This chapter is related to the second commandment: You shall
not have other gods (Deut. 5:7-10)…
YOU SHALL NOT MAKE
ALLIANCES
The Israelites were just about to enter the Promised Land;
however, that land wasn’t desolate, since there were Canaanite nations living
there. Because of this, God commits to help Israel disperse their enemies. But
in the process, the Lord requests the Israelites to also do their part:
(Deut. 7:1-2) 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.
God will:
> Bring them into the Land to posses it
> Help them defeat the enemies
Israel has to:
> Defeat the enemies
> Not make an alliance or covenant
> Show no mercy
> Leave no trace of anything pagan, complete destruction
The Lord knew that the Israelites would be tempted to make
an alliance with the people, because that was the easy way out. Although this
might sound cordial and peaceful, the problem was that the Canaanites not only
worshipped their own idols, but their evil works had reached its worst.
Therefore, if the Israelites made an alliance with them, they would imitate
their evil, pagan traditions which would make them stray from their
relationship with God. This is why God instructs His People to refuse making
any sort of alliance with these pagan nations.
In the Bible there is room for compassion, but it never
sacrifices justice and righteousness. Further ahead (in the Law for War, in
Deut. 20), we will see that before conquering a city, God instructs the people
to offer terms of peace (Deut. 20:10), thereby giving them the chance to
surrender. This implied submitting to the God of Israel and to the Israeli
lifestyle, in accordance to God’s order.
If they submitted, they could live; if they didn’t, they had to be
destroyed.
This way of “destroying the enemies” might sound drastic,
but it was the only solution. If the Israelites made an alliance with the
Canaanites (not only politically, but also through marriage), they would end up
being corrupted, and in the end, they would have had to be destroyed as well.
(Deut. 7:3-4) You shall not
intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their
daughters for your sons, (4) for they would turn away your sons from
following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would
be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
Rejecting the Canaanites and the Amorites was not because of
an ethnic reason, but because of matters of faith. These people worshipped
other gods, and that affected their entire lifestyles. That is why, the Lord
instructed the Israelites to destroy every single trace of pagan worship in the
Promised Land.
(Deut. 7:5-6) But thus shall
you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their
pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. (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.
DO NOT IMMITATE
CANAAN’S INIQUITY
The main reason for eliminating the enemies was to end with
all the idolatry and iniquity in the Land. This chapter of Devarim doesn’t list
what were the specific abominations of the Canaanites, but it does in Leviticus
and further ahead in Deuteronomy…
(Lev. 18:1-5) And
the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (2) “Speak to the people of Israel
and say to them, I am the LORD your God. (3) You shall not do as
they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do
in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their
statutes. (4) You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk
in them. I am the LORD your God. (5) You shall therefore keep my
statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am
the LORD.
After this introduction, the Bible gives a long list of
sexual sins (Lev. 18:6-23). And it ends by saying:
(Lev. 18:24-30) Do not make
yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am
driving out before you have become unclean, (25) and the land became
unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its
inhabitants. (26) But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none
of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you
(27) (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these
abominations, so that the land became unclean), (28) lest the land vomit
you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before
you. (29) For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do
them shall be cut off from among their people. (30) So keep my charge
never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before
you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your
God.
Here we can clearly see that the problem wasn’t against the
Canaanites, but against sin. Later in Deuteronomy other abominations are
mentioned which explain why the inhabitants were driven out.
(Deut. 18:9-12) When you come
into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not
learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. (10) There
shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an
offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets
omens, or a sorcerer (11) or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one
who inquires of the dead, (12) for whoever does these things is an
abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations
the LORD your God is driving them out before you.
Also in the end of chapter 12 it says this:
(Deut. 12:28-31) Be careful to
obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with
your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the
sight of the LORD your God. (29) “When the LORD your God
cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you
dispossess them and dwell in their land, (30) take care that you be not
ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that
you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their
gods?—that I also may do the same.’ (31) You shall not worship the
LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that
the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn
their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
WHY DID GOD CHOOSE
ISRAEL?
When we see the rejection towards the other nations, it is
natural for us to ask: what is so special about the people of Israel that they
were chosen over all the others? This makes it clear:
(Deut. 7:7-8) 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.
The Lord himself makes it clear that he didn’t choose Israel
because they were better than other people. The comparative advantage that Israel
has is that they have Yehovah as their God.
(Deut. 7:9-10) Know therefore
that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant
and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a
thousand generations, (10) and repays to their face those who hate him, by
destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him
to his face.
All throughout the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), we see a
massage that is repeated: there is a blessing for those who keep the order of
God; on the other hand, curses will reach those who break God’s laws. This is
the secret to life:
(Deut. 7:11) You shall
therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that
I command you today.
The blessing will come to Israel not because they are the
“chosen people” but because they know God’s orders. If Israel obeys the
commandments all will go well with them; but if they walk away from God’s way,
they will see the consequences, just like any other nation.
BLESSING WILL COME
In the next verses, Moses describes the blessing that the
Israelites will receive as a result of keeping God’s laws:
(Deut. 7:12-15) And because you
listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep
with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your
fathers. (13) He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also
bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your
wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in
the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. (14) You shall be
blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you
or among your livestock. (15) And the LORD will take away from
you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will
he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.
If the people of Israel want to receive all these blessings,
they have to eradicate all evil from the Promised Land…
(Deut. 7:16) And you shall
consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you.
Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that
would be a snare to you.
FEARING OTHER
NATIONS’ POWER
One of the reasons for which Israel could fall into the
temptation of making an alliance with the Canaanite nations is because these
nations were more powerful than Israel when it came to military power. Moses
knew that the Israelites would feel unable to defeat them, and doubt would come
into their hearts.
(Deut. 7:17) If you say in
your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’
So before they could express that, Moses gave them the
answer:
(Deut. 7:18-19) you shall not
be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did
to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, (19) the great trials that your eyes saw, the
signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which
the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your
God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
Israel had witnessed God’s miracles in Egypt and in the
desert, so they shouldn’t doubt about God’s power. It didn’t matter if the
enemies were giants or if their cities were surrounded by walls, they could
defeat them with God’s help. The next verses describe how…
(Deut. 7:20-21) Moreover,
the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are
left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. (21) You shall not be in
dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and
awesome God.
The word “hornets” is not literal, but it is figurative. In
Hebrew it is: Tsirah, which comes from the root tsarah which means:
scourge, or devastate. In Exodus it relates it to terror and confusion.
(Ex. 23:27-28) I will send my
terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you
shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. (28) And
I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the
Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.
Joshua described the conquest also using this image:
(Joshua 24:11-14) And you went
over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against
you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your
hand. (12) And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before
you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your
bow. (13) I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that
you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and
olive orchards that you did not plant.’ (14) “Now therefore fear
the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the
gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve
the LORD.
Israel has to be aware that although they have to fight, it
is God who gives them the victory.
(Deut. 7:23-24) But
the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into
great confusion, until they are destroyed. (24) And he will give their
kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven.
No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
Let’s take note that God does not “take away” our problems,
but he allows us to face them. Why? Probably because there is something for us
to learn in the process.
LITTLE BY LITTLE
Another interesting point in the description of the conquest
is that it should be done “little by little”, and it says why…
(Deut. 7:22) The LORD your
God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may
not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous
for you.
In Exodus it also mentions this concept:
(Ex. 23:29-30) I will not
drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and
the wild beasts multiply against you. (30) Little by little I will drive
them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.
When a city is conquered, but it is not immediately
inhabited, what happens is that wild animals begin invading the homes and empty
lands, and they destroy it. It is better to conquer at the same rate that the
cities can be inhabited.
This principle also applies to the spiritual realm. Jesus
explained that when a man is freed from an evil spirit, he must be filled with
the Spirit of God; otherwise, if he remains empty, he will be filled again by
evil spirits.
(Matthew 12:43-45) When the
unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places
seeking rest, but finds none. (44) Then it says, ‘I will return to my
house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept,
and put in order. (45) Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more
evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that
person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.
We can also see this principle in spiritual growth, because
we cannot become perfect overnight after we meet the Lord; but rather, little
by little we defeat our indwelling enemies.
THE IDOLS ARE ACCURSED
The conclusion of the chapter returns to the main theme: You
shall have no other gods. The Bible clearly explains what we must do with the
idols:
(Deut. 7:25-26, NKJV) You shall burn
the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or
gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be
snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your
God. (26) Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest
you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly
abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.
“Accursed” in Hebrew is Cherem, and it means: something that
has been dedicated. It can also be translated as forbidden or cursed.
Interestingly, this word literally means: red or something pierced.
This description applies to the idols. Since these are
abominable and bring curses, the only thing left to do with them is to destroy
them; and if they are not destroyed, they will become a trap that will make us
fall.
More lessons on
Deuteronomy: DEVARIM (Deut.)
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