Have you ever had a golden opportunity come your way?
I’m talking about an incredible chance to do something important, worthwhile and lasting that practically just landed right in your lap.
Yet because of the risk and discomfort this situation represented, you hesitated and let this golden chance just slip right out of your hands.
At the time, you made excuses and said to yourself no worries.
Another chance like this will come around again.
But it never did.
At least not in the same impactful way.
Well, in the late 1930’s the world had been given just such a golden opportunity.
I’m talking about a rare chance to exterminate unimaginable evil before it got hog wild out of control but instead chose not to.
What exactly am I talking about?
I’m talking about Hitler’s anti-Semitic activities in Europe in the late 1930’s.
If the world had taken aggressive steps to stop this monster while he was still just a radical politician before he became too powerful, half of the world’s Jewish population would not have been murdered.
Instead, the world’s governments decided to stick their collective heads in the sand and attempted to resolve the issue through “peaceful negotiations”.
The world had a “golden opportunity” to stop a madman before he became too powerful but they hemmed and hawed and as a result, let their good luck slip just pass them by and vanish out of sight.
It eventually took a world war involving nations all around the globe to put an end to Hitler’s reign of terror.
Sure, we ended up stopping Hitler but the price we paid was hundreds of million human lives from scores of nations.
Now why am I bringing this up?
I’m bringing this up so you’ll have some perspective of the current situation facing Israel right here in Deuteronomy Chapter 20.
It’s quite similar actually.
See, at this point in Torah, Joshua and Israel have been given a golden opportunity to exterminate unimaginable wickedness in the form of the Canaanites.
And yes when I say “exterminate”, I mean just that.
I’m talking about the mass destruction of human beings in a manner that by our modern standards would be considered unthinkably barbaric and ruthless.
While all of this is difficult for us modern folks to stomach, understand that warfare of that kind was the norm in those days, not the exception.
The mass killing of whole populations of people was NOT unusual during the Biblical era.
That was precisely how nations came and went.
At this point in Torah, the Israelites have been given a golden opportunity to either push out or destroy those whom God has declared are His sworn enemies.
Yet we’re going to find that Israel hemmed and hawed AND…
…out of misplaced compassion decided to go another way and let God’s enemies remain in the Promised Land.
What was the result of that unfortunate decision?
First, they found out the hard way that if you are chosen by God, His enemies become your enemies whether you like it or not.
Second, because Joshua and his generation of Israelites didn’t finish the job, in what may very well be the near future, it again will take another world war involving pretty much every nation on the globe to fully conquer the land per the Lord’s original instructions.
We can see history repeating itself yet again.
Honestly, this was a difficult article for me to write.
And I can understand why this is challenging chapter that most pastors, preachers, and Bible teachers would rather avoid.
The content here is shocking, difficult to accept and has led to all kinds of rationalizations and apologies by those who claim fidelity to God’s Word.
Yet, we must humble ourselves and study Scripture with our eyes wide open, ready to accept what it says minus our judgements and preconceived notions.
See you all next time.
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