Deuteronomy 7 – Commands to Conquer and Obey

A. The command to conquer the Canaanites.

1. (1-5) The command to bring God’s judgment to the Canaanites and their culture.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

a. When the LORD your God: Israel wasn’t in the land yet, but Moses still instructed them as if it were a certainty. This was based on the faithful promise of God, but it was also according to God’s principle of preparation. God prepares us before He brings us into a place.

b. Greater and mightier than you: Moses acknowledged that the seven nations of the Canaanites were greater and mightier than Israel was at the time. But they were not greater and mightier than Yahweh, the LORD, the covenant God of Israel. God brought Israel to face a challenge that was impossible in their own strength, but it was entirely possible in Him.

i. “The seven nations listed did not acknowledge the sovereignty of Yahweh. Moreover they occupied the land which he had given to his people. Further, they were devotees of other gods whom Yahweh could not tolerate in his presence. They were, therefore, proper subjects for the Holy War.” (Thompson)

ii. “However all these peoples came to be in the land, they were trespassers in the eyes of the Lord, for he already had promised Abraham to give the land to him and his descendants (Genesis 12:1, 7; 13:17; 15:18). The Lord himself would therefore drive them out and deliver them over (natan) to Israel, who would defeat them.” (Merrill)

c. When the LORD your God delivers them over to you: By phrasing this with the word when (instead of “if”), God communicated the certainty of Israel’s conquest in Canaan.

d. You shall conquer them and utterly destroy them: Yet God would not do all the work of conquest for Israel. The extent of the work would depend on their faithful response to what God would do.

i. By spiritual analogy, believers should seek, in the power and victory of Jesus Christ, to conquer and utterly destroy whatever robs them of their spiritual inheritance. In this spiritual sense, to whatever extent the believer is active in this battle, to that extent they will “occupy” and live in what God has granted to them.

e. Utterly destroy them…. nor show mercy to them: The judgment God called Israel to carry out was unique in the way that it used the people of God as His instrument of judgment. This was a severe judgment, yet within God’s right as judge of all the earth. The tribal groups of Canaan were particularly sinful and depraved people, whom God literally gave hundreds of years to repent (Genesis 15:13-16). Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (among other passages) explains the significant spiritual corruption of the Canaanites.

i. Such judgment seems harsh to the modern reader because it is harsh. Modern readers must recognize, that at unique times, God has commanded such judgments. They may happen either through an army that God uses or through judgment that He directly brings, as in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24-25).

ii. The Canaanites knew the judgment of God was coming against them and were afraid of it (Joshua 2:9-11, 9:24-25). They could have acted in faith like Rahab (Joshua 2) or could have surrendered like the Gibeonites (Joshua 9), or they could have left the area. Most of the Canaanites did not take any of these three options, and those who remained fell under the judgment of God.

iii. “These idolatrous nations were to be utterly destroyed, and all the others also which were contiguous to the boundaries of the promised land, provided they did not renounce their idolatry and receive the true faith: for if they did not, then no covenant was to be made with them on any secular or political consideration whatever; no mercy was to be shown to them, because the cup of their iniquity also was now full; and they must either embrace, heartily embrace, the true religion, or be cut off.” (Clarke)

iv. Ezra recorded the words of the prophets who described the land of Canaan like this: The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their impurity (Ezra 9:11).

v. “Albright mentions that the Canaanite Baalism was much cruder and more debased than the religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia. His depiction of some of the acts of Canaanite gods and goddesses in From the Stone Age to Christianity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1946, pp. 175–79) clearly bears this out.” (Kalland)

f. Destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images: Israel was to take special care to destroy anything which would lead them to false or foreign worship. Failure to do this would leave corrupting influences that would turn Israel’s sons from following the LORD faithfully.

i. This radical, complete destruction was important because of the depraved nature of the worship of the Canaanites, who worshipped male and female gods of sex and who presented their children for human sacrifice.

ii. The wooden images were Asherim. “Asherah was also the name of the mother goddess of the Canaanite pantheon, the deity responsible for fertility and the productivity of soil, animals, and humankind. She was represented by either an evergreen tree or by a pole that also spoke of perpetual life. The cult carried on in their name was of the most sensual and sordid type, one practiced in the temples and also under the open sky at high places and in groves of trees. Prominent in its services was sacred prostitution involving priests and priestesses who represented the male and female deities.” (Merrill)

iii. “For Israel, separation from those who did not acknowledge Yahweh was a matter of life or death, for her own faith contrasted so greatly with that of her neighbours that any risk of having it watered down in any way was to be avoided. Israel herself was set apart for Yahweh’s exclusive use.” (Thompson)

2. (6-8) Israel should conquer completely in grateful response to God’s love for them.

“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

a. For you are a holy people to the LORD your God: Israel was holy in their standing before God before they were holy in their conduct. They were set apart to God by His choosing (God has chosen you to be a people for Himself) and were then called to live as chosen people.

b. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number: God’s choice of Israel meant the LORD set His love on them. According to the nature of God’s love, this was not because Israel was inherently more worthy of this love than other peoples. The reasons for God’s great love were found in the LORD, not in Israel.

i. “Why God loved them is not stated in the Pentateuch, but the focus of thought is obvious—it is the character of God rather than any excellence in the people that accounts for the choice.” (Kalland)

c. The LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand: Knowing God’s love for them and His work of redemption, delivering Israel from Egypt, Israel had a strong obligation to obey God, even in the difficult work of bringing God’s judgment on Canaan.

i. This is the great motivation for obedience among the people of God: knowing and walking in the love of God. When believers really trust in God’s love and live with that belief as a conscious fact, obedience is a natural result. God’s people are also motivated to conquer anything that would damage that relationship of love.

3. (9-11) Conquer them completely because you serve a God of justice.

“Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

a. He repays those who hate Him to their face: Over many generations the Canaanites had demonstrated their hatred for God. Now, using Israel as His instrument, God would appoint the Canaanites to judgment.

i. “Such covenant disloyalty deserves recompense, one described here (literally) as ‘repay to their face.’ This expression occurs only here and probably means that the judgment would not be reserved for unborn generations but would fall immediately upon those who had sinned in this manner, right there and then.” (Merrill)

b. Therefore you shall keep the commandment: Knowing God’s faithfulness to those who love Him and the certainty of judgment against those who hate Him, God’s people are motivated to be loyal to God’s covenant with them and to keep the commandment of God.

B. Blessing on an obedient Israel.

1. (12-16) Abundant blessings for obedience.

“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

a. He will love you and bless you and multiply you: An essential part of the covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai and renewed on the plains of Moab was the choice given to Israel (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 27-28). Under this covenant, God promised to bless an obedient Israel in astounding, remarkable ways, making them blessed above all peoples.

b. None of the terrible diseases of Egypt: As in Exodus 15:26, this was God’s promise to an obedient Israel. In many ways, their physical health was directly connected to their obedience. Dr. S.I. McMillen in his book None of These Diseases noted that many of God’s laws to Israel had a direct impact on their hygiene and health. Practices such as circumcision, quarantine, washing in running water, and eating kosher food made a substantial difference in keeping Israel free from disease.

i. Beyond the direct medical implications, obedience also means we are at peace with God – and free from a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety in life. This has an obvious benefit to the health of any person.

ii. Terrible diseases of Egypt: “Is literally the ‘evil, bad, distressing, malignant, or horrible diseases of Egypt.’ Ancient and modern sources confirm that some virulent and malignant diseases, such as elephantiasis, ophthalmia, and dysentery, were common in Egypt (Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis 26:1).” (Kalland)

2. (17-24) Have confidence in God’s strength.

“If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. You shall not be terrified of them; for the LORD your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.

a. You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did: Israel’s remembrance of God’s past faithfulness would give them hope for their current and future challenges.

b. Remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: In facing present and future challenges, Israel was to remember that God had already demonstrated His power and victory in delivering Israel from Egypt. The exodus became the central act of redemption in the Old Testament, constantly referred to as the ultimate display of God’s love and power for His people.

i. In the new covenant, we have a greater act of redemption – the victory won by Jesus in His sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. These become the new centers of God’s redemptive work, which God’s people must constantly keep in mind to meet present and future challenges.

ii. God will send the hornet among them: “The hornets which God would send represented some powerful agency which he would use in the overthrow of Israel’s enemies (cf. Exodus 23:28; Joshua 24:12). The exact connotation of the term is disputed. The phrase may be intended in a fairly literal sense and refer to swarms of stinging insects that might assist the people of Israel in their attacks on the enemy.” (Thompson)

c. You will be unable to destroy them at once: God would go before Israel and fight for them (the great and awesome God, is among you) but He would not drive all the enemies out at once. Perhaps Israel wanted the land all cleared out before them, but God knew it was not best for the land or for them.

i. As it turned out, under Joshua’s leadership it took Israel some seven years to conquer the main strongholds of Canaanite power (Joshua 11:18). After that, it was the responsibility of the individual tribes to possess what God had granted them, driving out remaining pockets of Canaanites.

d. Lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you: The way easiest for Israel was for God to clear all Israel’s enemies out at once. But the easy way had consequences Israel could not see or appreciate.

e. Little by little: Sometimes to our frustration, this is the way God will work in the life of the believer. Victory comes little by little, though God’s people might wish it happened all at once. God wants His people to grow in the process of possessing all He has for them in the Promised Land.

i. Doing it all at once might seem easier and better but will have consequences that cannot be seen or appreciated. God cares that His people grow, and so He often causes them to grow little by little. A squash can grow almost overnight; an oak tree takes a long time.

3. (25-26) Israel must not share in the abominations of the Canaanites.

You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.

a. Burn the carved images: Israel was not to spare any of the idols or objects used in the worship of the Canaanite gods. They could become snared by such abominations.

i. The silver or gold that is on them: “Some of the ancient idols were plated over with gold, and God saw that the value of the metal and the excellence of the workmanship might be an inducement for the Israelites to preserve them; and this might lead, remotely at least, to idolatry. As the idols were accursed, all those who had them, or any thing appertaining to them, were accursed also.” (Clarke)

b. An accursed thing: The conquest of Jericho was only a few weeks away from the sermons Moses gave in the book of Deuteronomy. In the destruction of Jericho, Joshua specifically commanded Israel to destroy any accursed thing (Joshua 6:18). One man failed to do this and was severely judged (Joshua 7:15).

i. Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house: “So reprehensible are these objects that they contaminate those who use them or who even bring them into their homes (Deuteronomy 7:26). Indeed, they render them to the same judgment as was appropriate to the objects themselves, namely, total eradication.” (Merrill)

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