This probably seems very brutal to our ears. It’s one of the reasons some people have problems reconciling the picture of God in the Old Testament and the picture of God in the New Testament. In this case, we don’t have to look very far for a rationale behind the destruction of the Amorites. This is what God told Abraham:
Genesis 15:16 (WEB) “In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”
What were the sins that God foresaw? We get some insight in Leviticus 18.
Leviticus 18:1-9 (WEB) “I am the LORD your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived. You shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes. You shall do my ordinances. You shall keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am the LORD. None of you shall approach any close relatives, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, nor the nakedness of your mother: she is your mother. You shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife. It is your father’s nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or born abroad.”
Leviticus 18:21-25 (WEB) “You shall not give any of your children as a sacrifice to Molech. You shall not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. You shall not lie with a man as with a woman. That is detestable. You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it. No woman may give herself to an animal, to lie down with it: it is a perversion. Don’t defile yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled. The land was defiled. Therefore I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out her inhabitants.”
Thought for the day: One thing that is sometimes lost in our understanding is that God waits over 400 years to bring judgment. Even in judgment, He shows mercy. That’s what we see in the cross. God’s judgment falls on Jesus Christ, so that we can receive mercy.
Isaiah 53:5-6 (WEB) “But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
