Interlocked Lesson 16 (part 2)

Conquest

*GAME DEALING WITH BAD THINGS HAPPENING*

You see, the wrong perspective on life is “Why does God allow bad things to happen?”

The correct perspective is, “Why does God allow any good to happen to any of us?”

After Israel had sinned by worshiping the golden calf, Why would God allow any good to happen to them?

Shouldn’t he just destroy them?

That’s where we learned last week that God was teaching Moses, we are not blessed for our good deeds any more than we are punished for our bad deeds.

Karma isn’t biblical.

Every day God allows us to wake up is a day we experience His grace.

Today we are going to talk about a difficult subject as the Israelites move towards the promised land.

We’ve discussed Israel in Egypt.

We’ve discussed the giving of the law.

Now we are moving towards Canaan.

If you bought a house today, let’s say 5 years from now you need to move.

However, rather than sell your house, you decide there is more value in keeping it.

So you decide to rent out the house instead.

Do you own the house?

yes.

Do you possess the house?

No… You aren’t living there right now.

Whoever lives in the house is in possession of the house.

This isn’t a perfect example, but this is a helpful illustration to look at the promised land.

Genesis 15:16–20 “16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,”

Again, if you remember what brought Abraham’s family out of that land was the famine in Egypt.

Joseph was already living there, so he brought his family to Egypt to protect them.

God providentially used that one event to show an entire nation that He is God.

Now hundreds of years later, Israel is coming back to that land that God gave to Abram.

Israel had always owned the land.

But they didn’t live there. They had not possessed it.

God was leading them back not just to own the land, but to possess it, to occupy it.

Then God gives a strange command in Deuteronomy 20:16–17 “16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you.”

Wait what?

Destroy people Groups? God commands this?

Can’t God just allow peace to occur between different nationalities?

Uh… Is God being racist here or … is God distinguishing one ethnic group as greater than another?

What is happening here?

It’s really important we understand why God gave such extreme commands here.

God’s old covenant method was to use a family to reach the world for Him.

In the new covenant, God’s vehicle to reach the world is his church.

In the Old Covenant, that vehicle was a family.

Through that family, God would preserve his story and that story would be shared with the world.

But let’s remember also what Israel has a history of doing…

In Egypt, they intermarried with Egyptians and many worshipped idols.

Last year we read how when Israel left Egypt, it wasn’t just Israelites.

Some Israelites stayed behind because they no longer believed in God.

Some people came that weren’t Israelites at all because they did believe God.

In either case, God was using a family to draw people to Himself.

That’s his goal.

But… if the Israelites bought into pagan cultures, they would forget God.

Exodus 34:11–16 “11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15 “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.”

vs. 12 (A snare among you…) - A trap. Idolatry is a trap that leads you far from God.

Why would God call for destruction of these people groups?

Well, in short, it was so that the good news of who God is would continue through the people of Israel (the family of Abram).

BUT! Imagine if that family rejected God?

Matthew 5:13–14 “13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”

This is written to the New Testament believer… but it was true for the old testament believer as well.

In Peru, where Joe just went, there is the idea of Syncretism.

Syncretism is basically accepting all religions into what you believe.

Another worldview in Peru is Anamism.

Anamism essentially gives life to things that do not have life.

trees, rocks, rivers, etc… all can have a soul in the anamistic culture.

Peruvians in the mountains especially are syncretistic and anamistic.

They add all things to their beliefs and also belief all inanimate objects have life.

With these people, you can’t just tell them about Jesus and then invite them into a relationship.

Why? Because they will accept it immediately!

You could go to Peru right now and have most people believe in Jesus in the places we go.

BUT… if you don’t realize what’s happening, then you will miss that they don’t really love who Jesus is, Jesus is just added to everything else they believe.

The only way to truly share Jesus with those people then is to take them to John 14:6 “6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

It’s to slowly walk them through Scripture and show them Genesis 1. and John 1.

Jesus created everything…

He is the true God.

He is the way, not a way to be added to your beliefs.

So in a less violent way, the way to reach Peru for years has been a slow process of relationship building, but also through a violent worldview process of smashing idols.

The only way for the Peruvian to come to Jesus is for the Peruvian to deny Syncretism and Anamism and accept Jesus as the ONE way to salvation.

In the ancient Near Eastern cultures of the early Old Testament, cultures were violent.

Wicked.

It’s difficult for us to have a western mindset and consider this.

But truly for the Israelites it was either assimilate and accept wicked cultures, destroy those cultures, or have those cultures destroy you.

There was no other option and 2 of those are bad.

To assimilate would be to reject God.

There was no other option at this time in history.

But it’s also important to remember, these people living in the land that already belonged to the family of Abraham, they knew that...

They have heard the news of who Israel is.

How God had brought them out of Egypt.

They had the choice themselves to turn to Jesus.

But they didn’t…

So we cannot approach this story either thinking that grace wasn’t offered.

It certainly was.

If we forget God’s grace, we are in trouble.

At the same time, if we never face our sin, we won’t understand His grace.

The reason people groups were destroyed was because there was no one there who had faced their sin and was willing to receive God’s grace.

If those people were there, salvation was availble!

Take Rahab for example.

Not only did God save her from Jericho before God knocked the walls down, but Rahab even became part of Jesus’ lineage if you read Matthew 1.

God can use anyone.

God’s grace is available to all who will receive him.

So in short, is it wrong of God to destroy these people? Absolutely not, because I believe there was a grace period.

Romans 1:18–21 “18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

That verse 20 is important.

“so that people are without excuse.”

Guys, we have no excuse to ignore God.

Neither did those who lived in Canaan.

While Israel was suffering for 400 years in Egypt, the Canaanites were living in the promised land and they also had the opportunity to see God.

To see his invisible attributes and understood that there is a God.

But they didn’t…

For God to command they be destroyed shows us a few quick things this morning:

We are not God.

While this is tough to grasp, God has the ability to love and desire everyone to come to know Him, while also righteously judging those who do not turn to Him.

If the Canaanites pushed further and further into paganism the more Abram’s family was away, why would they all of a sudden come back?

at the same time, no one is too far gone for God’s grace so long as they have breath in their lungs.

The truth is again, we are not God. Thank goodness we don’t have to make those decisions, but we should trust God in his divine wisdom can handle it.

2. Every day is a victory.

We all deserve what Canaan got, destruction.

The fact that God wants us is incredible. We should never take that for granted.

3. According to Romans 1:20, no one is without excuse.

Canaan had no excuse for rejecting God.

Neither do we.

Neither do our friends.

In every difficult circumstance of life thought, I pray we can all say, “Every day is a victory.”

Because it is.

WHy does GOd allow bad things to happen to good people?

No friends, why does a righteous, holy God all sinful people to live even though they reject Him?

Every day is a gift of grace from God for us to accept Him or reject Him.

Every single day.

It’s his grace and it’ll always be His grace.

Do you know that deep grace that paid for your sins?

Do you know that deep grace that’s always holding you together?

I hope you do.

May we always run to that grace and hold on no matter the circumstances.