Topical Study: Always Be Ready to Give a Defense Life application of the truths of God s Word as it applies to us and our families today

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1 Topical Study: Always Be Ready to Give a Defense Life application of the truths of God s Word as it applies to us and our families today Part 4 Why Does God Tell the Jews to Kill Every Man, Woman, Child, and Animal? Sunday, February 20, 2011 Deuteronomy 9:1-6 (S-903-KL) (All Scriptures are from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.) This Week: Answering the question, If one of the Ten Commandments is Thou shall not murder, why does God tell the Jews to kill every man, woman, child and animal in Canaan as they take the land? Joshua 6: And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, "Go into the harlot's house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her." First, we must review the history of the Canaanites and their response to the Law of God: Where did the Canaanites come from? Why did God tell the Jews to destroy them and animals? Was God swift in his judgment? Where did the Canaanites come from? The background is in Genesis 9 - The world has just been judged in the flood of Noah. Noah s family leaves the ark and starts to live on land about one year after getting into the ark. Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. (Genesis 9:18.) Some years had passed in order for Ham to have a son - Ham is more than 100 years old. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. (Genesis 9:19-21.) This is the first time drunkenness is mentioned in the Bible. We don t know how drunk he was, but enough to fall sleep during the day. and ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. (Genesis 9:22) Some teach that the Bible is implying a homosexual act, but the text does not say that he uncovered his father s nakedness, but that he saw his father s nakedness. Ham was himself a full grown man more than 100 years old. His actions clearly reveal a lack of respect for his 1

2 father; he was treating his father like those who indulge in porn treat those who foolishly uncover themselves in front of others. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. (Genesis 9:23) Something we should practice as it relates to all the nakedness in our culture today. I do not think it applies to young children who are being bathed, for example, but be cautious. So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants He shall be to his brethren." (Genesis 9:24-25) Why does he say done to him? Possibly because Ham had brought his son Canaan, his youngest son in to see also. (See Genesis 10 - The Canaanites settled in the area that is now Lebanon to the Gaza and Mediterranean to the east side of Jordan River.) And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant." (Genesis 9:26-27) Shem became the father of the Shemites Semites today. The Jews lineage traces to Shem (Genesis 10) Noah spoke prophetically about what would happen in the future because of the divine curse of Ham s actions. So where did the Canaanites come from? They were descendants of Noah s grandson, Caanan, whose father was sexually perverted. Why did God tell the Jews to destroy them and animals? Fast forward several hundred years. Jews are getting ready to go into the Promised Land. So how did the Canaanites live in the land that God gave the Jews centuries later? Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'I am the Lord your God. According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances [they had legalized sexual immorality]. You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. 'None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the Lord. The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of your father's wife you shall not uncover; it is your father's nakedness. The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you shall not uncover. The nakedness of your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for theirs is your own nakedness. The nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, begotten by your father she is your sister you shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister; she is near of kin to your father. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is near of kin to your mother. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother. You shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law she is your son's wife you shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, nor shall 2

3 you take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness. They are near of kin to her. It is wickedness. Nor shall you take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the other is alive. (Leviticus 18:1-18) God prohibits incest. This is such a curse in our society today. DNA testing to find deadbeat dads is revealing how many daughters are being violated by family members. Men protect your women! Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is in her customary impurity. (Leviticus 18:19) People mock this, but we now know that but the spread of disease is enhanced during this time. Moreover you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, to defile yourself with her. (Leviticus 18:20) God prohibits adultery used to be illegal in every state in the U.S.! And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 18:21) Shall not devote your children conceived in worship to sex idols by burning them alive in the arms of the idol heated in flames. Used to be illegal in every state now forced to be legal abortion. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22) Use to be illegal in every state, and until December of 2010, was illegal in our military. Now taught as being just as virtuous as marriage between man and woman in every state. Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion. (Leviticus 18:23) Enumclaw, Washington was known around the world (via the Internet) as a place to commit bestiality. There was no law against it until someone was killed on the farm. Can be the source of disease, between animal to man and animal to animal. This is why God told the Jews to kill the animals too. 'Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled), lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. (Leviticus 18:24-28) God declares that any people group who legalizes or practices the above will be vomited out of the land. For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. 'Therefore you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the Lord your God.'" (Leviticus 18:29-30) 3

4 America thrived when these laws were the law of the land. Now we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the additional costs associated with violating these laws of God (additional medical costs associate with STDs, costs associated with children out of wedlock, single parenthood, cost of increased divorce brought about by adultery and other sexual immorality, increased crime and associated expenses to build jails and prisons which house inmates who predominately come from broken families and sexual abuse). The financial cost of our rejection of God s laws is leading to the economic collapse of America and even the weather is acting like we are being vomited. Maybe the Yellowstone quakes are a warning of how we are about to be literally vomited. If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues great and prolonged plagues and serious and prolonged sicknesses. Moreover, He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 28:58-62) Why did God tell the Jews to destroy all the Canaanites and all the animals? Because of the wickedness of the people and the diseases that they were spreading Final question Was God swift in his judgment? Several hundred years earlier, Abraham has been called by God to be the father of a multitude of chosen people. God now promises Abraham that his future descendants, who will become the Jews, will inherit the land currently occupied by the Canaanites. Then He said to him, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it." And he said, "Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" (Genesis 15:7-8) Abraham has no children and the Canaanites are firmly established in the land. So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. (Genesis 15:9-12) Verses 9-12 describe a one sided covenant made by God with Abraham. Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. (Genesis 15:13) Abraham s descendants or the promised lineage of Abraham were to spend 400 years in slavery. History shows that it was the descendants of Abraham through Jacob who went into slavery, not the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael. Therefore, this verse clearly shows that God s promises were from Abraham to Isaac and then Jacob, which is contrary to what the Muslims believe because of the false prophet, Mohammed. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. (Genesis 15:14) God judged the Egyptians and the Jewish tribes left with great wealth, as God had promised. 4

5 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." (Genesis 15:15-16) God is going to cause the Jews to live in slavery and bondage in Egypt for hundreds of years because the wickedness of the Canaanites is not yet to the point that God must judge them. And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. (Genesis 15:17) Meaning the presence of God himself went between the pieces meaning it was a promise that was one-sided not dependent on Abraham. Anyone trying to undo the covenant will suffer the same fate as the sacrifice burning. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." (Genesis 15:18-21) Going forward several hundred years again to the time of Moses and the Jews ready to enter the land "Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven. Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you. Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:1, 3-6) Was God swift in his judgment? No! God waited several hundred years until the sinfulness of the Canaanites had completely corrupted the people and the land. We are heading there as a nation unless we repent SUMMARY It was not murder for the Jews to utterly destroy these people. It was the judgment of God (using the Jews) for their wickedness, and only after a very long time of being patient, waiting for them to repent. God had judged the world at the flood, but the Canaanites didn t care and pursued evil to their own destruction. There have been many judgments throughout the centuries against nations who do the evils listed in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. No nation has survived the legalization of sexual immorality. All have fallen from moral decay and attack from outsiders. Will America be any different? This time the entire world is calling evil good and good evil. Maybe we are getting close to the time that Jesus prophesied that the world would be judged by fire instead of water. Judgment against the Canaanites was like you would expect to be given against someone trying to kill your children. Consider what happened to the Jews because they let the Gibeonites live (Joshua 9). From 5

6 Judges chapters 19-21we know that the Gibeonites corrupted the Jews into sexual immorality leading to civil war. God is a holy God. God is a merciful God. He is long suffering, but he will not always tolerate the wickedness of man. He loves us enough to send Jesus as a way to be forgiven. God s wrath was taken by Jesus on our behalf so that we can cleansed of all sin even the ones listed in this study. But if we reject His law and His salvation gift in Jesus, then only judgment awaits. 6