Deuteronomy 7:1,2; Deuteronomy 20:16-18
When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, 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 thou; And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them…
In the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They must “show them no mercy.” Bloody work is here appointed them, and yet it is God’s work, and good work, and in its time and place needful, acceptable, and honourable.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): How does God, the Father of mercies, give His sanction to indiscriminate bloodshed?
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that He might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses,” Joshua 11:18-20. What could be plainer than this? Here was a large number of Canaanites whose hearts the Lord hardened, whom He had purposed to utterly destroy, to whom He showed “no favour.” Why did not Jehovah command Israel to teach the Canaanites His laws and instruct them concerning sacrifices to the true God? Plainly, because He had marked them out for destruction.
JOHN CALVIN: When God had destined the land for His people, He was at liberty utterly to destroy the former inhabitants, so that its possession might be free for them. We must then go further, and say that He desired the just demonstration of His vengeance to appear upon these nations. Four hundred years before He had justly punished their many sins, yet He had suspended His sentence and patiently borne with them, if haply they might repent. That sentence is well known, “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full,” Genesis 15:16. After God showed His mercy for four centuries, and this clemency had increased their audacity and madness, so that they had not ceased to provoke His wrath, surely it was no act of cruelty to compensate for the delay by the grievousness of the punishment.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): In God’s dealings with the nations, in connection with His people Israel, we are reminded of the opening words of Psalm 101, “I will sing of mercy and of judgment.” We see the display of mercy to His people, in pursuance of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and we see also the execution of His judgment upon the nations, in consequence of their evil ways. In the former, we see divine sovereignty; in the latter, divine justice; in both, divine glory shines out.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Behold therefore the goodness, and severity of God,” Romans 11:22. The consideration of both the grace and kindness of God to some, and His severity or strict justice towards others, is very proper to abate pride, vain glory, and haughtiness of spirit; and to engage to humility, fear, care, and caution.
JOHN CALVIN: Why should we wonder that God in His character of Judge exercised extreme severity?
C. H. MACKINTOSH: We have the deluge in the days of Noah, when the whole earth, with all its inhabitants, with the exception of eight persons, was destroyed by an act of divine government. Then we have in the days of Lot, the cities of the plain, with all their men, women and children consigned to utter destruction, overthrown by the hand of Almighty God.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Is not this total destruction of the enemies of the church, a lively emblem of the everlasting overthrow of the ungodly in the day of God’s vengeance? See 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.
A. W. PINK: “The Lord hath made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil,” Proverbs 16:4. That the Lord made all, perhaps every reader will allow: that He made all “for Himself” is not so widely believed. That God made us, not for our own sakes, but for Himself; not for our own happiness, but for His glory, is nevertheless repeatedly affirmed in Scripture—see Revelation 4:11. But Proverbs 16:4 goes even farther: it expressly declares that the Lord made the wicked for the Day of Evil: that it was His design in giving them being. But why? God has made the wicked that, at the end, He may demonstrate His power by showing what an easy matter it is for Him to subdue the stoutest rebel and to overthrow His mightiest enemy.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: The seven nations of Canaan, men, women, and children, were given over into the hands of Israel, for unsparing judgment; nothing that breathed was to be left alive. Now, the question is, Are we competent to understand these ways of God in government? Is it any part of our business to sit in judgment upon them?
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Our conceptions of right are not the absolute measure of the divine acts.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Can we—are we called upon, to account for the tremendous fact of helpless babes involved in the judgment of their guilty parents?
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): For this action I account simply on the principle that God, the Author and Supporter of life, has a right to dispose of it when and how He thinks proper, Romans 9:21-23; and the Judge of all the earth can do nothing but what is right, Genesis 18:25.
CHRISTOPHER NESS (1621-1705): Infants are not innocents, being born with original sin—otherwise infants would not die, for “death is the wages of sin,” Romans 6:23
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Some persons, influenced by a morbid feeling and false sentimentality, rather than by an enlightened judgment, find difficulty in the directions given to Israel in reference to the Canaanites. It seems to them inconsistent with a benevolent Being to command His People to smite their fellow-creatures, and to show them no mercy. They cannot understand how a merciful God could commission His people to slay women and children with the edge of the sword. It is very plain that such persons could not adopt the language of Revelation 15:3,4. They are not prepared to say, “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations.*” They cannot justify God in all His ways; nay, they are actually sitting in judgment upon Him. They presume to measure the actings of divine government by the standard of their own shallow thoughts. In short, they measure God by themselves. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” This, we may rest assured, is the only true way in which to meet such questions. If man is to sit in judgment upon the actings of God in government—if man can take upon himself to decide as to what is, and what is not worthy of God to do, then, verily, we have lost the true sense of God altogether.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Depend upon it, God will never do an unjust thing.
JOHN CALVIN: Away, then, with all temerity, whereby we would presumptuously restrict God’s power to the puny measure of our reason.
C. H. SPURGEON: “The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works,” Psalm 145:17. Let His doings be what they may, they are in every case righteous and holy. This is the confession of the godly who follow His ways, and of the gracious who study His works.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Is the reader troubled with difficulties on this subject? If so, we should much like to quote a very fine passage which may help him. “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever…To him that smote Egypt in their first-born; for his mercy endureth for ever.” Psalm 136:1,10.
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*Editor’s Note: In the King James Bible, the phrase of Revelation 15:3 is translated “thou King of Saints,” but the margin note more accurately translates it as “nations” instead of “saints.”
