Test #6: Occupying the Land
Did God endorse genocide? (chapter 7)
The Bible is crystal clear on God’s desire for his people to be righteous:
Our righteousness is not our imitation of God, but God’s own righteousness given to us as we trust him.
Our righteousness is not an unintentional instinct that happens when we follow certain rituals, but a cooperation with God based on understanding who God himself is.
We have looked at the “tests” God administered to his people. We have seen their understanding and living out his righteousness. We must be totally serious about the wages of sin. Justice won’t let God (or us) merely brush evil aside and say it does not matter. We also must be totally serious about God’s mercy that devised a way for us to be free from sin by the payment of the Lamb of God for us.
As we watch the Israelites settle into the Promised Land, we notice that they are not in a holy huddle of all like-minded people. They share the land with people from other religions and philosophies. It is a marketplace of ideas. We are surrounded by opportunity and danger. Influence can go both ways.
Judges 3:1-5 (ESV) Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
The bold phrase, that they “might know war” is translated by some versions as “might learn how to fight.” But that is exactly what they were not to learn. They had no standing army, no arsenal of armor and weapons, no battle training. All the nations around them had this approach to war. But Israel was to depend on the Lord for their protection.
Whenever they were faithful to God, they lived in peace. Whenever they turned from God to follow idols, war came to them. Believers in our day also have a hard time learning God’s ideas about war, conquest, and genocide. Historians divide our human story by defining the newer and more devastating weapons we generate.
God’s way is for us to know the justice and the grace of God, thinking about both sides of right thinking through the eyes of God himself. And, leaving the retribution of good and evil in his hands.
How it always worked
Judges 5:1-2, 8-11 (CSB) On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang:
“When the leaders lead in Israel, when the people volunteer, blessed be the Lord. . . . Israel chose new gods, then there was war in the city gates. Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel. My heart is with the leaders of Israel, with the volunteers of the people. Blessed be the Lord!
“You who ride on white donkeys, who sit on saddle blankets, and who travel on the road, give praise! Let them tell the righteous acts of the Lord, the righteous deeds of his villagers in Israel, with the voices of the singers at the watering places. Then the Lord’s people went down to the city gates.”
The Ideal Option –
The Israelites could be a nation of priests, taking the message of God’s truth and salvation to their pagan neighbors: neighborly contact at the village well, walking through town, and singing God’s praises. Having neighbors who did not know the Lord was a perfect opportunity to tell the nature of the true God and his righteous standards of good and evil. Praising God’s wonders publicly would be a strong influence on those following the wrong way. They could explain God’s promises to send a Savior who would be the Lamb of God to pay the penalty for all who would believe.
The results would be a law-abiding civilization of people seeking true righteousness. It would give peace a chance.
The Repeated “other” Option –
The Israelites could be a nation of experimenters, following the moral and spiritual advice of other religions. Forsaking the ways of the Lord to follow false gods would result in the deterioration of society: increase in violence, idolatry, and loss of peace. War always came to their gates because God allowed neighboring nations to oppress them until they returned to him.
Under these distressing conditions, “leaders would lead” and “people would volunteer.” They did not know tactics of warfare, they couldn’t find a shield or spear among 40,000. But they showed up. Weapons? Just grab something that is handy. God wins the victory, not us.
Ehud specially made a left-handed sword
Jael grabbed a tent peg
Shamgar grabbed an ox-goad
Gideon’s men grabbed shofars and torches
Samson grabbed a jawbone
Learning God’s way of war is not military discipline and grand strategies. It is spiritual discipline and reigning in life. (See Jeremiah 10:24.) It is trusting God to fight for you. But you still need to show up. (Read this entire poem in Judges 5.)
The “Refrain” of the book of Judges
Someone might tell you the refrain of Judges is, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” That is not even close to the real refrain. That phrase is used twice in Judges, and neither time is it when a “judge” was leading. The true refrain of Judges is, “The land had peace for 40 years.” That refrain appears 4 times, though to be accurate one of the times it was 80 years.
Can you think of a country that ever had such extended eras of peace?
God’s Plan for the Future of His People
God now has his people scattered out around the world. They are living among people who don’t yet believe in him. This is a long-term strategy, especially during times of captivity and dispersion. We live in this pattern today, so we can be priests of God for our neighbors and associates.
The potential for influence can go either way. God’s people can speak of his righteous deeds and praise him in the company of those outside. We are called to be his representatives and declare his gospel by our words and by our lives.
But the danger of being influenced by others is real also. We can be drawn to the values and customs and ceremonies of false gods. We theoretically could abandon the ways of the Lord and conform to the patterns of the world around us.
We are being tested. Our instructions are not to kill those who might tempt us to turn away from the Lord. We do need to grasp the terrible difference between God’s righteousness and the twisted understanding of good and evil that surrounds us.
If this sounds similar to the New Testament message, remember that when asked to explain himself, Jesus began with Moses.