Mobilizing in Moab: Deut 7:1-11. Election

Notes:

Part II: Election for Israel

Israel’s chosenness: “It involved first and foremost entrance into a new status or altered state, and was furthermore what YHWH wanted. When Israel became YHWH’s chosen people, it changed who they were and brought pleasure to him.” Arnold

Israel’s unworthiness,

Election in Deuteronomy: “Israel is chosen specifically to execute the herem ban on the Canaanites rather than to serve as a means of blessing them.” Arnold

Love for Israel: “scandalous and reassuring.” Arnold “it actually confirms rather than problematizes the love God has for the rest of the world, because it shows God’s love to be personal and inclusive rather than undifferentiated and generic.” Arnold.

Sermon Outline:

Introduction:

So this is how one commentary opens:

“Deuteronomy 7 presents one of the most problematic, if not offensive, texts in all of Scripture.”

R.W.L. Moberly: v.2: “The command in this chapter to exterminate the Canaanites is the clearest example in the Old Testament of “what is arguably the single most morally and theologically problematic aspect of the Old Testament.”

Some early church heretics like Marcion taught the God of the Old Testament and the New were two totally different types of gods.

Reassure: It’s challenging, but not entirely so, and one of the benefits we have as we dive into this passage is the advantage of reading this passage from a Reformed perspective, a theological lens that makes this passage make sense.

Destruction of 7 Nations

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you. 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you…

Important to Emphasize at this Point:

The Lord prepares for victory…

“Lord brings,” “He clears away”

The takeover is about to happen:

“That you are entering…”

So the Lord has sort of already given them victory over these 7 nations that Israel is about to cross over and take.

and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

But, Israel must also do something:

“When you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction.”

How do we understand this?

Early church fathers figured this to be allegorical.

Some argue that these words functions “As metaphor for absolute religious fidelity.” Moberly

Points to Clarify:

One time military takeover

Only 4 places that Israel actually carried out total destruction: Jericho, Ai, Hazor, and Laish. “This accords with the archeological record, which does not see evidence for widespread destruction of Canaanite cities, and with text in Deuteronomy that authorize the Israelites to take intact fortified cities.” Block

Not about Ethnic Cleansing, but Spiritual Cleansing:

Note: No military instructions.

Spiritual instructions:

Daniel Block: “Not about ethnic elimination, but ethical scrupulosity.” Block

Not so much ethical, but spiritual!

Arnold: “The real danger of which is not military but religious.”

New Kingdom with a new operating system that completely eliminates idolatry and any temptation for idolatry.

“To destroy”: Herem: “The root itself belongs to the same semantic field as qdš, which means “to consecrate” for divine service.” Block

Herem: Ban, devote, exterminate.

Common ANE:

Daniel Block: “God apparently adapts prevailing practices to his own sacred agenda, though never with the intention of this becoming permanent or universal policy nor of this being the ultimate ideal.”

Military jargon

Completeness of victory was common/hyperbolic language.

Based on a recently published Hittite text describing the ritual, the emphatic verbal expression haḥarēm taḥarîm (“to destroy totally”) seems to serve as shorthand for a complex series of actions: (1) defeating the military forces of a city; (2) slaughtering the population; (3) burning the town; (4) sowing it with salt (Judg. 9:45); (5) pronouncing a curse on it (Josh. 6:26); (6) consecrating it to Yahweh. Most of these elements are featured in Deuteronomy 13:15–16[16–17], which provides the fullest description of the policy.” Block,

Assume this Command is Just:

v. 10= “and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with the one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.”

Deuteronomy 9:4–5 “4 “Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Purging the land of evil.

Same reason God sent the flood: To cleanse the earth from evil.

Face the Challenge Head On:

Conversation with an Atheist: Cold Call

Don’t sugar coat God’s Holiness

Same God in the New Testament:

Romans 9:20–24: “20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”

Justification vs. Sanctification

Tips for Holiness:

Be careful who you commit yourself to?

Don’t be unequally yoked

2 Corinthians 6:14–16 “14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

McConville: “Marriage within Israel serves to strengthen the fabric of the covenant people …; marriage outside it serves to weaken that fabric, because it compromises the allegiance of the people to Yahweh.”

If you intermingle, you will slowly become them.

Loss of identity

Example of Mormon on the plane.

Break, dash, chop, and burn

Election of 1 Nation

v.6: Holy people to the Lord. Belonging to YHWH your God.

6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

Limited Atonement:

Isaiah 53:4 “4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Isaiah 53:6 “6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Ephesians 5:25–27 “25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

v. 7-8; He didn’t chose you because you were all that and a box of chocolates. He chose you because He loved you and is a covenant keeping God.

He loved YOU?

Elected you not to carry out His plans.

Elected you not because you were strong.

Elected you not to be elitist

Chose because of Love.

WHY ME?

Anti-Elect=7 nations who are in their way.

“God love Israel because God loves Israel.” Block

verse 8: Israel brought NOTHING to the election table.

Completely unmerited love.

Keeping the oath: God’s faithfulness.

“Outcomes of Israel’s Chosenness” Arnold

Know what?

The Lord your God is God

The faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.

Repays the evil doer