“And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou
shalt make no covenant with them, no shew mercy unto them.” (Deuteronomy 7:2)
In Deuteronomy we read about the Lord commanding Israel to destroy certain
nations because of their wickedness and worshiping of false idols and gods. The
Lord commands Israel to go into these nations and destroy all of their false
idols and also their places of worship. These are the nations that the Lord
commanded Israel to destroy when he delivered them into their hands:
·
Hitties
·
Amorites
·
Canannites
·
Perizzites
·
Hivites
·
Jebudites
Among these nations were the
Canaanites. The Lord commanded Israel to destroy the Canannites because they
had become so wicked and evil “that only just reparation is the death of the
guilty parties.” (Old Testament Student Manual) There was no other way for God
to show mercy unto the Canannites than to destroy them. They had gotten to the
point where if God had allowed them to survive their wickedness would have
spread to Israel and destroyed it as well. Some of the sins that the Canannites
committed were idolatry, prostitution, homosexuality, inter-marriage, etc. Some
may see this destruction as God not being merciful, but He was in fact very
merciful and had given the Canannites plenty of time to change their ways. “God’s
patience allowed them a few centuries from Abraham’s day to Joshua’s and then
His judgment was ordered executed.” (Old Testament Student Manual)
Reading these scriptures and the Old
Testament Student Manual scared me a little because I see many similar sins
being committed in our own society. One quote that really stuck out to me in
the Old Testament Student Manual was the following: “Prostitution and
homosexuality had become religious practices to the point where the people were
entrenched in depravity and proud of it.” I see the sanctity of chastity and
the importance of marriage between a man and a woman getting lost in our
society. In our recent election, states voted to legalize gay marriage and to
add to the number of states that have already made it legal. We see people
standing up for this wickedness and taking pride in it. We know from the scriptures
and from the example of the Canannites that the Lord looks down on this
behavior.
We are also a society (especially in
the United States) that focuses a lot on material objects and puts a lot of
importance on obtaining them and showing them off. How many times do we place
focus on worldly things more than God? If we place anything in priority above
God then are we not too guilty of worshiping false idols? This is something
that I know I have struggled with and it is hard to remain focused on God when
everything around you is vying for you full attention. We must look to the
consequences that the Canannites and other nations have suffered because of
their wickedness. We must be careful that we don’t get swept away in all the
empty promises of the world and that we truly value what is important. Let us
remember to love our Savior and put Him first in our lives and as we do that
everything else will work itself out and we will be able to retain the promise
that we will be protected in our righteousness.
