So far in this miniseries, we have seen how the love of God and the wrath of God are inseparable in God’s character and how that has helped to explain some of our misconceptions about the worldwide flood and the command by God to have Israel wipe out many of the Amorites in their Promised Land when they went to conquer it. Now, let’s look at the New Testament in this same light.

In the New Testament, we see the love and wrath of God are even more intertwined than we saw in the Old Testament. This is because God’s love for us has taken away God’s wrath from us because God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ rather than onto us. We perceive that as his love for us, which it is, but it was also an act of God’s wrath against sin. His ultimate wrath on the earth is postponed until after he comes for his church, his bride.  Therefore, it is something we have not yet seen because it is still part of future prophecy, but it is something that will come to pass.

Also, God is still inclusionary but requires a reality check. As with most countries, you are happily included with them—if you have a passport. He paid for our sins, but action is required on our part. Just because someone has bought you a gift does you no good unless you accept the gift. Why? We are not in His Kingdom until we agree to be in His Kingdom. Contrary to popular belief and song, we are not all God’s children. Why do I say that?

We are born into Satan’s Kingdom. It is in a time dimension. That means there will be an end to it one day. It can be compared to a sinking ship. It requires action to get out of a sinking ship. Jesus said: … whosoever does not believe stands condemned already … (Jn 3:17, NIV). In other words, without making a decision, although it is really a decision of ‘no,’ we go down with the ship. What ties us to this sinking ship is our sin, which is disobedience, or rebellion. Rebellion sounds harsh for disobedience, but it is saying no to anything God has asked us to say yes to. By disobeying, you are actually rebelling against what was asked of you.

We don’t automatically try to get out of the sinking ship because we are blinded by the owner of the ship we are in that there is nothing wrong with the ship. Paul stated the following: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1Co 2:14, NIV). Therefore, action must be taken to become unblinded to Satan’s lies and get out of his kingdom.

We are transferred from the sinking ship (Satan’s Kingdom) to the Lifeboat (God’s Kingdom). However, action is needed on our part. Just because the boat is supplied doesn’t help us unless we get in it. Faith is needed to be transferred from Satan’s Kingdom into God’s Kingdom. Paul tells us the following: “For he (i.e., Jesus Christ) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness (i.e., Satan’s kingdom, the sinking ship) and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (i.e., God’s Kingdom, the Lifeboat), in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Cl 1:13, NIV).

We find ourselves on the sinking ship of Satan’s Kingdom. When we realize we need and want to be on Christ’s rescue boat and accept his invitation to join him, the Holy Spirit becomes our life preserver which we receive from him. Then he transfers us from our sinking ship, Satan’s Kingdom, into the lifeboat, into God’s Kingdom, where we are now saved from destruction and we can have rest. We use the term “saved” because we have been rescued from destruction, rescued from a sinking ship which is Satan’s Kingdom because his kingdom is this world, and it will come to an end and be destroyed along with all those a part of it. We are transferred into God’s Kingdom which is not of this world, outside time, and therefore will last eternally as will we.

Choice is something God has graciously ensured we possess. The Flood occurred to preserve our God given right of choice. Many of the Amorites were destroyed because of the consequences of their choice. That was true for the captivity of Judah and Israel as well. Christ died on the cross to pay for the sin (disobedience, rebellion) so that choice can be tangible to us once again.

God has given us choice, something Satan does not want us to recognize. He wants us to see choice as something bad, something that infringes upon our rights and makes God look vengeful. Yet, without choice we would be mere robots. Choice comes with obedience and disobedience and comes with consequences. What will you choose with your right of choice? Are you prepared for the consequence? Choose Christ = Everlasting home with Christ where wonderment and joy abounds. Choose our current state (which many look at as not making a choice) = Everlasting home with Satan where regret, chaos, and turmoil abounds.

Bottom line: We need to Choose Wisely.

I trust you do choose wisely if you have not yet done so. Today is the day of salvation (2Co 6:2). The lifeboat is waiting. All you have to do is get in.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Last time, we saw how God’s love for us became a major driving force for the worldwide flood which he sent over the Earth. Satan was trying to destroy God’s gift of choice to us and God ensured that did not happen. This time, let’s look at God’s command against the Amorites in the land of Canaan.

What possible reason could God have for wiping out many of the those in the land of Canaan when Israel conquered the land? Why couldn’t they all just get along? God was in the process of creating a standard for the world. Let’s first look at what God told Israel about this:

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Dt 7:1-6, NIV; emphasis mine).

Israel was to be the standard, the beacon, for the entire world. Purity and devotion to God was an imperative given for them to affect the world and lead others toward God. Godliness can devolve into evil and chaos more easily than evil can evolve into godliness and order. God knew this and took precaution in that regard.

You may be thinking, well Abraham was already in the land at one point, why did God lead his descendants out just to bring them back to destroy the people there? Let’s look at what God told Abraham:

“Then the LORD said to him, ‘Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure’” (Gn 15:13-16, NIV).

Here, again, God was being merciful. He was giving the Amorites time to repent and turn away from their evil practices. As you can see, he gave them a lot of time. Also, we should note here that God was enslaving the descendants of Abraham, the people of promise, to try and reach the Amorites who were Gentile. This does not agree with the narrative of God being wrathful to all Gentiles.

So, what was God’s overarching rationale for his actions here? This gave Israel a way to come out of Egypt as an unfettered nation making them totally dependent upon God and allowed them to become an instantaneous nation without ties to those around them. And, as stated above, it gave the Amorites time to respond to God: approximately 500 years, but they did not. The Amorites practiced sensuous and orgiastic fertility cult worship utilizing male and female shrine prostitutes and practiced child sacrifice which included the child being placed in the fire while alive. It was stated that other nations did not go to such extremes in brutality, lust, and abandon in such practices as did the Amorites. In some ways, this is similar to our discussion about the Flood in our previous post. Satan was scheming to prevent God’s promise to Abraham from coming true and blinded the Amorites to God’s love for them.

Before God had Israel conquer the land, God was not silent and did not act by surprise. He gave the people opportunities to respond positively to him:  God supplied the godly influence of Melchizedek (Gn 14:18-20), God supplied the godly influence of Abraham (Gn 12:6), and during the time of Abraham, God caused the destruction of other Amorites through the action of five kings around the Dead Sea area (Kedorlaomer, king of Elam; Tidal, king of Goyim; Amraphel, king of Shinar; and Arioch, king of Ellasar) which should have been a wake-up call for the people in the area (Gn 14:1-12): the following races of giants were destroyed: Zuzim, Emim, Horim, and Avim. This later allowed the Israelites to approach the land from the south without retaliation.

The Anakim and Rephaim, the races of giants, were like garrisons around the land of Canaan. It seems more than coincidence that these races of giants surrounded the Promised Land of Canaan that God promised to Abraham and his descendants. Before Israel arrived, God had those giant races in the area south of the Dead Sea be destroyed which allowed the Israelites to not have to contend with them as they approached from the south when they arrived a few centuries later. Yet, there were three main races of giants remaining once Israel reached Canaan: Sihon, near the upper part of the Dead Sea, Og, in Bashan near the Sea of Galilee, and Anak near the coast. God helped Israel destroy these before they entered their Promised Land to help increase Israel’s faith in him and to show that he would protect them as they entered the land he promised them. Yet, all the Anakim were not destroyed as we do read about Goliath and his brothers who were part of the Anakim race of giants (1Sa 17:4; 2Sa 21:15-22).

The giants during this time were likely between 9 and 10 feet in height (1Sa 17:4). The Israelites who spied out the land of Canaan called them Nephilim (Nu 13:33), likely because of their height compared to themselves and not because of angel origin. Satan had somehow gotten the Amorites to genetically produce giants so he could control the land that God had promised to Abraham. Yet, God took care of the situation: either as judgment or as faith by the Israelites in God showing God would protect them. Some do argue that because of the parenthetical statement in this passage in Numbers: “the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim” that they were, somehow, left over from the flood and evolved into this race of giants. Yet, there is also a verse that states all life on earth was wiped out by the flood (Gn 7:21-23). So, if they were descendants from the Nephilim, then it would then imply one of the wives of Noah’s sons had the angel DNA in her genome. Since Canaan, and the Amorites, were descendants of Ham (Gn 10:15-19), that would then suggest these giants could have come through him and his wife.

Also, despite what some claim, total annihilation was the exception rather than the rule. Details of what God asked the Israelites to do are important. The main goal was to have the people leave the land. God told Moses the following: “I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way” (Ex 23:28, NIV). God used natural elements to clear the land for the Israelites.

God reserved annihilation for the cities of inheritance. God stated the following: “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 you 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” (Dt 20:16-18, NIV; emphasis mine). To God, Israel’s spiritual protection was important as that would set the foundation and purpose for their entire existence.

Any other engagement by the Israelites was to be an offer of peace: “When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace” (Dt 20:10, NIV). Yet, this was not the type of peace we think of today. It was not, you go do you and we’ll go and do us. No, peace here meant forced labor. Resistance to this would result in all men of the city being killed, and the women, children, and livestock would become plunder. That sounds harsh to us today. What was God doing here? Any means that Satan could exploit against Israel and God’s plan for them was eliminated. This was necessary for God to establish his standard.

Next time, we’ll explore this concept of a standard and why that was so important going forward. I hope you’ll join me.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens