“For he will turn your children away from following me in order to serve other gods. If this happens, the anger of Adonai will flare up against you, and he will quickly destroy you.”-Deuteronomy 7:4
We are given a list of seven nations the Lord has marked for destruction in Deuteronomy 7.
They are as follows:
“…the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites,Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.”
Since a good majority of these tribes were descended from Canaan (Noah’s grandson), in terms of general identity, they are lumped together and given the name “Canaanites“.
This would be the exact same thing as labeling a man from the Tribe of Benjamin or Reuben an Israelite.
“Israelite” is the general identifying term and “Benjamin” would be the tribal affiliation.
However, technically speaking, this isn’t the case for every one of the seven names listed above.
Some of the names are about tribal identity and others are about regional identity.
We could go really deep into this if we wanted to but it’s not that important right now.
What IS of incredible importance, especially for us as believers is why God is calling for such extreme measures against the native inhabitants of the land of Canaan.
I’m talking about the prohibition against any form of tolerance whatsoever including no intermarriage and absolutely no peace treaties.
Why is the Lord being so harsh in this regard?
The reason is simple and it is something we should all take to heart.
The reason God is so adamant that the Israelites maintain a very strong and impenetrable wall of separation between them and the Canaanites is because…
…future generations of Israelites will be drawn away from their God and fall into idolatry.
Understand that God isn’t speaking hypothetically here.
He is making a statement of fact.
He is saying if you do any one of the forbidden behaviors He has mentioned, the chances that they will fall into idolatry aren’t like 50% or even 90%.
It’s more like a guaranteed 100% that they will fall away from the worship of the true living God and fall into idolatry.
So what’s the lesson for us?
Simple.
It is absolutely impossible to buy into the ways of this fallen world or marry a nonbeliever and not get sucked in to the point where you faith will be seriously undermined.
This is something I’ve also learned from my multimillionaire sales mentor.
He has told us countless times that “proximity is power” and “you can’t win over your environment“!
It is absolutely essential that you surround yourself with those who are likeminded and are going where you want to go…
…and more importantly, it is absolutely essential that you STAY AWAY from those who are on a path to destruction.
You may think you are strong and have an iron will power that won’t break no matter how intense the pressure gets.
I’ve got news for you.
You are wrong.
You will NOT win over your environment.
You are never going to win when you do those very things God has told you not to do.
There may be times when it seems like you aren’t reaping any negative consequences and you breath a sigh of relief.
Well, I’m here to warn you…any sense that you won’t be punished is completely delusional.
The shoe is going to fall and when it does, it ain’t gonna be pretty.
No man can break God’s Laws with impunity and expect to get with it.
Bottomline:
Israel’s survival in Canaan is directly connected to their exclusive worship of God which is to be demonstrated by obeying His Torah.
And Israel’s destruction is directly connected to their disobedience of His Torah.
The nature of God’s punishment would of course differ depending on the severity of Israel’s disobedience.
God might cause them to be harassed by the gentiles or send them a famine or have them ruled over and oppressed by evil Israelite kings who would make their lives miserable.
Finally, in a worst case scenario, the Lord would outright kick them out of their land…which is what eventually happened.
Moses has to make a couple of things very clear to this younger generation…things that are totally contrary to how the world thinks.
FIRST, Israel has to understand that their gaining possession of the land of Canaan has nothing to do with superior military acumen or a larger numbers of soldiers.
Nope…the only reason Israel is going to be victorious is because the Lord has decided that Israel is going to be victorious.
God has made a sovereign decision to favor Israel and discriminate against the people of Canaan…
…and that is that.
It’s a done deal.
SECOND, the real underlying reason why God is going to enable Israel to lay waste to the indigenous inhabitants of the land of Canaan is because of the covenant He entered into with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
What Moses tells Israel is reassurring because all they have to do is show up and the victory over the land is their’s.
Yet Moses also tempers his reassurance by warning the people that all of these great blessings can and will be reversed if they disobey the Lord’s commands.
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