Deuteronomy 20

Can there be mercy in war? Here we see God allowing certain Israelites to avoid war, and even allowing the residents of the cities they were coming against to escape death. Why were some of their own allowed to avoid battle? The common denominator is desire. If you are distracted by hearth, home, or even fear, then you would be of no use in the coming battle, because the battle was going to be harsh. Some cities could surrender, but others would be taken by bloodshed. And then came the executions. It seems so harsh to us today, separated by millennia. However, the deeds of the cultures they were defeating were deemed so horrible that God didn’t want those deeds (many connected with their idolatry) to infect His people.

Thought for the day: There is a balance in the Christian life. While we do want to reach people, we also don’t want their deeds and ideas to become our deeds and ideas.

James 4:4 (WEB) “You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”