We have come to Deuteronomy 20 in our studies.
Previously; we have seen God begin to set up a worship structure, then a governing structure for Israel. He is giving them new structures because He is preparing them to become the fulfillment of his promises to Abraham.
God is keeping His covenant and bringing about the new nation of Abraham’s descendants that He wants to set forth to be the pattern for all other righteous nations of the earth.
In the same spirit of preparing them; God is going to give Israel another new form of structure for creating and operating their new nation’s military.
Have you ever understood that God had rules of war already established from way back in ancient beginnings of time?
Remember the battle of the Kings? Abraham was there. Remember how Abraham and his men came to help Lot when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed? Abraham’s armies followed the ancient protocol that they had been given from the Order of Melchezidek.
God had established fair rules or protocol for battle way back then, and until Israel was formed; those rules had always been observed by Israel’s descendants (the righteous ones anyway.)
Do you understand that in order to take the land of promise the people of Israel would have to go to war with those already inhabiting the land?
Many people stop here and ask why a kind and loving God would let Israel come into a land that was already established and take over those people’s lands and possessions as if they were entitled to do so.
Guess what?
They WERE entitled!
Israel, as the descendants of Abraham, was entitled through the covenant that God made to Abraham long before these others ever came into the land.
There were sacred altars and sacred historical places within the land that already belonged to Abraham. Some of it had been bought legally, such as the burial grounds, and the land where Abraham had owned a well that was eventually run by Hagar. There were seven other wells that Abraham and his descendants had negotiated for and obtained legally. Jacob had also legally purchased property in the land of Schechem. There were other properties that had come to them through legal and proper means. Witnesses had been standing in the gates when these transactions took place.
Long before the famine came to Canaan, which caused the Israelites to move to Egypt; Abraham and his descendants had been given the land by God in a Covenant that could never be broken.
It was an everlasting covenant.
Those living there had not purchased the property from anyone; they had come in while the Israelites were off being held in bondage and slavery in Egypt, and they had taken over their old homesteads.
Now; since many, many years and generations of people had passed; they thought they had owner’s rights.
God was about to remind them that their claim wasn’t legal.
If the people inhabiting the land of Canaan during this period of history had been God-fearing people; this whole story might be completely different.
They were not.
The people living in Canaan were all VERY pagan; to the core.
Idolatry was rampant in the land and all types of false gods were worshipped in all types of temples and high places. All of this was an abomination to God.
Why would a God who established the earth with human beings created in His image, who were specifically made to give glory to God, ever want such things going on in the land where the history of the people who worshipped Him and adored Him and kept His ways had begun to form a Great Family; from which a Messiah would come?
Why would God ever want that land to be taken over by pagans and false believers?
This had never been God’s desire for the land; but it had happened. It happened because God has an enemy named Satan. Satan has forever tried to scheme his way into owning all that belongs only to God.
It will never happen.
God is so much stronger than Satan.
Today, unthinking and shallow-minded people look at this situation as if it were similar to the plight of immigrants of today; and they try to make crazy comparisons.
This situation isn’t at all the same. If you are going to make comparisons; please compare like situations, or you have no leg to stand on in your arguments.
The people of Israel in no way compared to the immigrants of today.
The people we speak of in this lesson were RETURNING to their INHERITANCE FROM GOD; not intruding on another nation’s freedom.
Those living in the land were actually the guilty; not the people coming back home.
These people living in the land were nomads who had come in and taken over what Israel had established long before having to flee to Egypt because of the circumstances of a famine.
Israel wasn’t coming back to run natives off their property; they were coming back to claim what had originally belonged to them in the first place.
God had not let them forget their inheritance. It was covenantal and it all started with Abraham.
In order to take back their inheritance though; the people of Israel must begin to form armies.
These who had lived in the oppression of slavery needed to be shown once again how to fight and how to become victorious toward what belonged to them.
People who had just spent 40 years wandering around in the desert needed to be more organized for battle. God was telling them how to go about it.
So; in chapter twenty of Deuteronomy God was laying down His ways to form a mighty military in Israel. One that could fight in a righteous way for a righteous cause.
As I mentioned above; in ancient times long before these days we speak of here, God had established rules and protocol of war for Israel. Those previous battle rules said that before they entered a city they were to proclaim that peace was possible. If the inhabitants wanted to cooperate and become subservient to the nation declaring war; then they were allowed to stay and live peacefully among the soldiers who brought the new nation into the land.
If this didn’t happen; the battle raged on and all male inhabitants of the land were killed by the sword. Then the women, children and possessions were considered the plunder of war that went toward paying for the war’s expenses.
This time was different in God’s eyes.
God was changing battle protocol and for good reason.
In this battle of Israel taking back their homelands; the former rules and protocol were changed. God told the people when they entered the land of their enemies (those who had stolen their inheritance) that they should spare no lives.
In this case everything and everyone that was not of Israel was to be completely destroyed!
Why would a just God proclaim such a harsh way to the new army of Israel?
It was because God had given these people who had inhabited the land a million chances to change and to return to worshiping Him as The One True God.
They only seeped further and further into pagan idol worship and pagan ways.
God had judged them and found them guilty.
He thought them irredeemable; and not only that; God brought up the fact that they would work like a poison if left in the land; doing the biding of Satan and swaying the Israelites who were weaker to accept and follow their pagan ways.
No; God wanted a clean country; a place that belonged only to His governing, His ways and His people.
Does this mean I’m a proponent of ethnic cleansing?
God forbid that you think such a thing! I would never be capable of making such a terrifying decision as this.
No man should EVER have that power or control.
The only righteous judge is God and God alone.
That is why it wasn’t a wrong choice in this case. God was the leader who made the decision. God alone knows the answers; the beginnings from the endings; and what is truly right from wrong. In this case He made a harsh, but necessary judgement.
This new nation was to be a pattern for the rest of the world. The original pattern had to begin pure and right and good. It could not experience corruption right away. First the strength of the nation had to be built up through obedience to God.
Israel needed time to settle and grow and to nestle into becoming God’s shining light on a hill. It could not happen with pagan forces living among them.
What seems unbearable on the surface; and horrible for many to think about; actually became the salvation of the nation in the long run.
God was protecting His people; though it meant bad news for all other people.
The others had been given many chances to change and to become obedient to God in the land; they had failed every test and they had long ago been judged and found guilty.
By this time many prophets had come and gone and proclaimed the One True God to no avail to these pagans.
So; in Deuteronomy 20:1-4 God tells Israel how to go to war:
(Deuteronomy 20:1-4) When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid, do not panic or be terrified by them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
These were good words for Israel in fighting their physical battles. They are also good words for us today in fighting against the huge spiritual battles that loom out there in the darkness of the world.
Heed the word of God.
Do not be afraid; because God is always standing in the midst of the praises of His people.
Lift up God’s name and give Him praise and He will continue to lead us through the darkest days ahead.
In the end; we are on the side of victory!
Never forget the end of the story.