Sermon Tone Analysis

Why did God Command the Destruction of Nations?

Part 1

This morning we are going to begin studying what for many people is a troubling passage of scripture.

It is a passage that skeptics, atheists, and even some professed Christians would say indicates that God is not nice, or God is not fair, or the God of the Old Testament is not the same God as we see in the New Testament, because the God of the Old Testament is full of wrath and judgment and the God of the New Testament is all nice and gracious and merciful.

Of course, this is utter nonsense.

The God of the Bible, both testaments, is the same God.

Only by twisting and perverting the scriptures could anyone conclude that there are really two different Gods in the Bible.

But twisting and perverting the scriptures is something that many have taken up as either their professional occupation or at least their hobby.

They say the God of the Old Testament is not loving, even though the entire Old Testament proves the love of God.

They say the God of the New Testament is not full of anger and wrath towards sin, even though the New Testament is full of language about God’s wrath towards sin, and Jesus talked about Hell and the punishment for sin almost more than any other topic.

Without understanding some very important concepts about God, this passage is indeed difficult to grasp for many, and it isn’t the sort of question you can answer in a brief statement.

Let’s read the passage and then we will see what I mean about its difficulty:

Now the there are two main objections to this passage, and a couple of perhaps lesser objections.

The first objection is how or why could a good God demand that entire people groups be wiped out?

And the second is, why can’t God’s people marry outside their own nation?

I believe there are four very important doctrines to understand in order to answer this question.

And Lord willing, over the next four weeks, we are going to use this passage to get into those four doctrines.

So if you expected a quick and easy answer to these objections to give to your skeptical friends and family, I’m afraid I just cannot make it that easy.

Why?

Because I can’t even do it myself.

I can’t answer these objections in just a few minutes conversation, and I doubt that any of us could satisfy the skeptical people in our lives by just giving a brief explanation.

So I am going to encourage you to stick this one out.

This may even be the type of series you will want to go back and listen to again once it is complete so that you can better understand the reasons why God commanded Israel to eliminate these people, and why he would not allow the people of Israel to intermarry with the pagan people around them.

I will give you a quick hint, though.

Neither of these have anything really to do with race.

They have to do with keeping the faith pure.

So we cannot take these to mean we somehow have an obligation or right to kill any foreign people based on this, nor can we say that people cannot marry someone of a different race.

This is absolutely not a conclusion we can draw from this.

So here are the four doctrines, or topics, that we are going to dive into in the next four weeks to help us understand this passage:

The holiness of God

Sin (and the dangers it brings)

God’s Wrath

God’s Sovereignty (In everything, including salvation)

These four doctrines all are intertwined.

They are very important for us to understand, both for the believer and the unbeliever.

For the believer they are important so that we can better understand the faith, that we can properly worship God, that we can remind ourselves of the destruction that comes with sin, and that we can call others to faith by presenting the gospel in a clear way.

For the unbeliever, learning these things will hopefully lead them down the path to salvation.

Being taught these truths, and the work of the Holy Spirit to convict someone of their own sinfulness and convince them the truth of the gospel may very well be salvation.

So rather than dodge this difficult passage, We are going to take it head on.

Sometimes the preacher may feel tempted to gloss over or skip over a passage such as this.

I feel no such temptation, because as I have been studying this, I believe the teachings on this passage can be very good for all of us, to understand and know God better, and when we know him better, to love Him better, to worship Him better, and to live our lives in a manner worthy of our calling in Christ.

So We Begin with the Holiness of God

The Holiness of God

This topic, by the way, cannot possibly be fully taught and treated rightly in just one sermon.

Entire books have been written on this topic.

If I had to produce a list of five books every Christian should read, “The Holiness of God”, by RC Sproul would be on that list.

Sproul spent a lot of energy urging believers to strive to understand the holiness of God; If he had a pet topic that would have been it.

One reason for this focus is because without grasping at least a sense of the holiness of God, we will always tend to question His ways and means.

We will view His good actions through our human or fleshly lenses and may, God forbid, even conclude that in some cases, God is wrong.

So the study of the holiness of God is an important one.

And this week, I may just post a blog and give some resources for you to go deeper into this subject than I will be going in this sermon today.

So what is the holiness of God?

I think for a definition this morning we will use this one from the Lexham Survey of Theology:

The Holiness of God speaks to God’s existence separate from his creation and, at the same time, to his pure and utterly incorruptible nature.

There are many scriptures we could reference to make this point.

For example, in Isaiah 6:1-6

In verse 3, the Seraphim, which are heavenly beings who are mentioned only there in Isaiah.

They call to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!

Then Isaiah see a demonstration of the holiness of God, and his response is a quaking fear.

He instantly realizes that he cannot stand in the presence of the Holy God and live.

However, Isaiah is provided a remedy for his unclean lips.

A burning coal from the altar touches his lips and cleanses him.

This is one of many examples in scripture of God providing to an unworthy person the means, the cleansing needed, to approach him.

And it is interesting that Isaiah’s immediate concern is his mouth, or his lips.

James wrote that the area of speech is a critical area for us to seek holiness with.

James3.2

In the understanding of some Jewish religions scholars, if a man could live a single day without sin, any man, just one day without sin, it would bring about the end of times.

One day without sin would represent such perfection in that particular line of thinking.

But we know we cannot do it.

And perhaps this is why some religious devotees have taken vows of silence, because of the great potential to sin in our speech.

Yet the speech we make only reveals the thoughts we have, such that even in James’ view, the one who does not stumble being perfect, even what is unsaid does not account for the evil in our thoughts.

So none of us could stand before this holy God.

Yet we are to worship Him in his holiness:

So God himself is holy; remember our definition: The Holiness of God speaks to God’s existence as completely separate from his creation and, at the same time, to his pure and utterly incorruptible nature.

He is completely separate.

That is what Isaiah recognized.

He was not fit to stand in God’s presence!

And let us not forget that these Israelites that Moses is speaking to also recognized that there is danger in the holiness of God for sinful people.

They were so afraid of God’s holiness, that they begged Moses to speak to God for them.

They wanted a buffer, so to speak, between them and God.

Moses was told to take off his sandals, because He was on holy ground when God was near.

Many times in scripture we are told that God cannot be looked upon in his holiness by and person and the person could live, unless God himself provided for this.

Holiness means set apart.

So we are also going to look in 2 weeks at how God’s people are holy.

He set them apart, so they are holy.

That is God’s sovereign choice.

And in the passage we are looking at today, we see that Moses reminds the people of this again as well.

God chose because He chose.

Not because they were a large nation, it was simply because God loved them and so in response to his grace, they were to keep the commands he gave them.

God’s holiness is also revealed in the very careful precautions the priests had to take to approach the holy place in the temple.

Making a mistake would mean death.

Lev10:1-3

The ark of God was also holy.

God was very clear that it should not be touched, and He proved how serious he was:

What does the holiness of God have to do with Deuteronomy 7? Everything!

Why did God tell His people to eliminate those 7 nations?

Because a holy God cannot interact with sin.

A Holy God is also a God of justice, and he cannot allow people to constantly do evil without bringing justice to the evildoers.

The command to destroy them totally, that is, men, women, and children, has often been thought of as unethical for a loving God.

However, several points must be kept in mind concerning these people.