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Q
Sam, Shortly after God had given Moses the 10 Commandments, God
instructed the Israelites to kill all of the people who lived in the
Promised Land. Wasn’t that directly opposed to the ‘Thou shalt not kill’
commandment?
A
Hi Kevin, “Thou shall not kill” is actually to be understood as “Do not
murder” (Matt. 5:21, etc.). Scripture makes a distinction between
certain ‘types of killing’, therefore this command does not prohibit
capital punishment then or now (see Ex. 21:16, Rom. 13:4, etc).
When God sent Joshua and Israel into the Promised Land He was doing a
couple of things. First, this was the land that He had promised to
Abraham and his descendants more than 500 years earlier, (see Gen. 12:7;
17:8, etc.) which had been occupied by the Canaanites during Israel’s
absence. (Gen. 46:2-6). Secondly, the Canaanites, as well as the other
inhabitants of the Land were not, as some imagine, innocent people
minding their own business, living peaceably in the Land. They had
completely given themselves over to idol/devil worship and paganism (see
1 Cor. 10:19,20), and their society was totally corrupt. For instance,
one of their common practices was to burn alive their new-born babies in
a sacrificial fire to their demon gods. These were wicked people, and
God did not want his people Israel to be led astray to other ‘gods’ and
their practices. (see Lev. 18:21, Ps. 106:37).
In Ex. 22:20 the Hebrew word for ‘utterly destroy’ is cherem,
which means something devoted or set apart (Lev. 27:21), or for
sacrifice (Lev. 27:26-29). Evil is “set apart” for destruction and this
includes the eradication of paganism, (Ex. 22:20, Num 21:2-3, Deut.
2:34, 7:2, etc). Paganism was and is considered by God an abomination
(Deut. 7:26) and not permitted in Israel. God’s holy anger is against
all evil (Deut. 13:17), and cherem was God’s capital punishment
sentence, so to speak, on a national level. Even today, God’s wrath is
revealed against all sin (Rom. 1:18). The Septuagint (Greek translation
of the OT) word for this ‘offering unto destruction’ is anathema, which
is also used in the New Covenant as well (1 Cor. 16:22, Gal 1:8,9).
God is love, but He is also just. So as a judgment, and warning to the
other nations then and now, God expressed His wrath and commanded Israel
to ‘utterly destroy’ these peoples (see Ex. 23:23, 24).
But the greatest condemnation was their unbelief, a refusal to repent
and turn to God. This is witnessed by one of their own, a woman named
Rahab who believed God. “By faith Rahab the harlot perished not with
them that were disobedient…” (Heb 11:31). God loves all people, and
“…is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance” (2 Peter 3:9b). By faith Rahab was saved; and so also
today for anyone who will believe, for Yeshua became a curse in our
place (2 Co 5:21; Gal 3:13, etc). One day Yeshua will return and there
will be complete ‘cherem’ on unbelievers (2 Thes. 1:7-9, Rev. 19:11-21,
etc). So let’s get busy and get the Gospel out, rescuing as many as we
can, while we can! Y |
