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

Remnant is a term that is not uncommon for Israel. Here are some of the times it was used:

 1.      It was first used by Joseph when he stated that God allowed him to save a remnant of Jacob’s family (Gn 45:7).

 2.      It was used of Israel being preserved from the ravages of Assyria (2Ki 19:4).

 3.      It was used by God to state that the remnant of Judah that was saved from the sword would be taken captive (2Ch 36:20).

 4.      It was a term Ezra used to describe those that returned from Persia back to Jerusalem (Er 9:8).

 5.      It was used by Paul to state the Jews who would turn to Christ during the time of the Gentiles (Ro 9:27, 11:15).

The term has also been applied to Gentiles as well: It is also a term used by the prophets to state Gentiles who would accept Christ during the Tribulation (Is 11:16).

We can see from this that the righteous have always been the minority. In broad strokes, the righteous minority prior to Christ were the Gentiles, and the righteous minority after the time of Christ are the Jews. Even within Israel, though, were both righteous and unrighteous. We know of people like Moses, Joshua and David were righteous and followed both the spirit and intent of the Law. However, we know there were many ordinary people who did the same. We have an example with Elijah, who after killing the prophets of Baal felt he was alone in his serving God; however, God told him there were over 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal (1Ki 19:18). We also know there were many who did not serve the Lord and is the reason for the prophets’ announcements of doom and captivity.

As we stated in previous posts, the Jews were the Christian majority in the beginning of the Church Age but became the minority as more and more Gentiles became Christians. When many Christians became anti-Semitic, it caused a big rift between Christians and Jews which isolated more and more Jews from Christian contact and influence. Today, many Jews are pretty much agnostic when it comes to their relationship with God. They are strongly tied to tradition but necessarily to God Himself. Therefore, although the Jews are the Christian minority today, that will not always be the case. We read that one day, it will again be the Jews who will lead the world in the worship of God (Zc 8:23). This will occur after Jesus Christ returns. Although Israel as a nation rejected Jesus Christ the first time, they will accept him when he returns; their sins will be forgiven, and Israel will once again be righteous before God (Zc 12:10). Then they will fulfill their original charge to lead to world in the worship of God (Ex 19:6). It is good to know that God always fulfills his promises no matter how long it takes.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Well, we are almost at the beginning of another year. Many people make New Year’s resolutions. However, they are usually forgotten before March can ever arrive. Somehow, we have turned the word resolution into an oxymoron. After all, what is a resolution but a choice that one makes resolute. The word ‘resolute’ means “admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering.” Yet, we have made this a tradition of wishes and not resolutions. Wishing or being resolute can make all the difference.

Our choices have consequences: either good or bad. But the consequences may affect others and not just ourselves. Let’s look at a few that others have made. Adam, for example, decided that he wanted things his way and bound the whole world to being born into sin. Yes, that was a choice with consequences – severe consequences. Even David, the man after God’s own heart, disobeyed by wanting to know how many was in his kingdom rather than just relying upon God’s protection and caused severe consequences that affected many within his realm. Then there is Joshua who made a choice to follow God and was able to defeat all of Israel’s foes. Or Gideon who decided to fight a war that most would consider impossible to win yet God won the war for him. Therefore, small decisions can have huge consequences or huge rewards. Many times it is not the actual action that makes the difference but the willingness to act that God honors.

Then there is one of the biggest decisions of all. God, before he even created Adam decided that he would redeem mankind (Ep 1:4). Even though He knew the decision Adam would make, he still allowed Adam to freely make his decision. However, God’s decision also had consequences. The second person of the trinity became man in the form of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for all the sins of mankind: past, present and future. This act of Christ becoming man forever changed his relationship with the first person of the trinity, whom we call God the Father. No longer would he be relating spirit to spirit. Christ forever remains a man (1Tm 2:5) so that he can forever relate to us humans. Although, not in our present state, of course, but in our transfigured, or resurrected, bodies (1Co 15:49). All of us who have accepted what Christ did for us on the cross will one day spend an eternity with our redeemer, our Messiah and King.

So, what decision will you make this year? Will it be a wish or a resolution? Can your decision be as resolute as God’s was for us? Will you accept His resolute decision and the action he accomplished on your behalf? If so, that will make 2019 a year like none other for you. Then what you wish for deep down will become a resolute decision that will take you on through life and through eternity to come.

Have a wonderful, happy and prosperous 2019! Both physically and spiritually.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens