We're looking at Deuteronomy Chapter 20 this evening, Principles Governing Warfare for the Children of Israel. Remember, they're gathered on the plains of Moab, listening to a series of exhortations from Moses with specific application of God's holy law, the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, which was set forth in Chapter 5 and then expounded and applied or given the rules for application for when they get into the land of Canaan. Obviously, when they go into the land, they need to dispossess the land of the Canaanites, so certainly that will mean warfare. And that's what chapter 20 deals with.
The chapter does not provide exhaustive and comprehensive rules for war, but like the instructions given to kings in chapter 17, it provides some fundamental principles that must govern the wars of Jehovah. So I'll pick up reading in chapter 20 at verse 1. When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
So it shall be when you are on the verge of battle that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you.
Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. Also, what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not eaten of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it.
And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her. The officers shall speak further to the people and say, what man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.
And so it shall be when the officers have finished speaking to the people that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people. When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you and serve you. Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it.
And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself, and you shall eat the enemy's plunder which the Lord your God gives you. Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.
When you besiege a city for a long time while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. If you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege. for the tree of the field is man's food. Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down to build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it is subdued. Amen.
Introduction
So we've seen over the last several chapters how they were to regulate criminal justice within the nation, within the people, the community of Israel. Here we see that the justice of God must also be exercised in the execution of war beyond the borders of Israel. And so this chapter breaks down the three primary considerations. The first is there are general instructions in verses 1 to 4.
Secondly, there are specific exemptions in verses 5 to 9, and then directions on how to engage with enemy cities in verses 10 to 20. So the general instructions, the specific exemptions and the engagement with enemy cities is what is being detailed here in chapter 20, again with reference to the wars they would fight when they go into the land and when they fight with other nations or other peoples outside of the specific confines of Canaan. Now at this particular time they would not have had a standing army. That probably did not occur until David King of Israel.
At that time, they had a more formalized standing army. So what we're finding here is an army in its seed form. And then as they develop later on, you'll see more of a formalized application of the military arm of Israel. But here again it's just seed form, these are primary or fundamental principles that must govern them as they engage with the enemy.
General Instructions: Do Not Fear
Notice the first section, the general instructions, verse 1 is an introduction to the entire chapter and it deals with the enemy described when you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you. The reality of war is already assumed. Again, they're not going to wander into the land of Canaan and the people there say, wow, you're here from Yahweh, we're going to leave, so that you can just take everything that He is going to give you. No, remember, these are the people of the land that built the cities, they dug out the wells, they planted the vineyards, they built their homes, all these particulars.
When Israel comes in, the Canaanites aren't going to willingly yield these things up. So the reality of war is here assumed, but as well the strength of the enemy is assumed. Notice, when you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you. The Lord God is not lying to them, He is telling them that the enemy is formidable.
There is a real threat as they enter into the land. It's not going to be a cakewalk. It's not going to be, you know, an international ping pong game and the winner sort of takes all. There will be combat.
There will be blood. There will be death. There will be all those things. all those horrors associated with war. But notice the specific exhortation given to them in verse 1, do not be afraid of them.
When you go out to battle, when you see your enemies, when you see their horses, when you see their chariots, when you see them outnumber you, you need to not be afraid. This is the exhortation that must be adopted. It must be imbibed. They must come to grips with this reality.
Do not be afraid of them, and then there is an example provided to them, or the experience that they have known. Notice, do not be afraid of them for the Lord your God is with you who brought you up from the land of Egypt." So the presence of God in the midst of Israel and the power of God having delivered them from their greatest foe which was Egypt, that Lord is with you. That's why they can stand before their enemies even though they're more numerous and they're well armed, heavily armed, they cannot fear because of the presence and power of God the Lord Most High." So that's the general introduction.
The Priest's Exhortation to Israel
Now notice the priest's instructions in verses 2 to 4. Now the priest in Israel didn't serve like a military chaplain today. The priest in Israel not only interceded for the people, but there would be sacrifices offered up on behalf of the people there would be consecration of the people, and when the armies of the Lord marched into combat, they took with them the Ark of the Covenant. And so the priests would attend to the Ark of the Covenant.
So they were not some bystanders, they were not just on the sidelines. sort of rooting and hollering for the children of Israel, but rather they were participants in these battles as well. If not armed combatants, they were certainly a part of the armies of God Most High. So the priest functions here to exhort them, to encourage them, and to challenge them. Notice in verse 2, "...so it shall be when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, and he shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies." Again, it's a solemn scene.
When you stop and think about it, they're about to enter in. Remember, we have seen In Israel you have this mixture of cult and civil life. You have the priest speaking to the armies of Israel, preparing them for holy war, preparing them for the wars of Yahweh. He says, today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies.
This is the specific exhortation. Do not let your heart faint. Do not be afraid and do not tremble or be terrified because of them. Again, we've already seen that sort of in the general introduction.
You're not to be afraid of your enemy. The priest develops this in a bit more detail. Do not let your heart faint. Do not be afraid.
Do not tremble or be terrified because of them. If you turn back for just a moment to the book of Exodus, The Song of Moses, after the children of Israel come out of Egypt, after the children of Israel come out, they are rejoicing in God the Lord. They are rejoicing in the deliverance that He has provided. And if you look at Exodus 15, at verse 14, we'll see that it is not to be Israel who faints, it is not to be Israel who trembles, it is not to be Israel who is terrified before the enemies of the Lord, but rather it is the enemies of the Lord that are to faint. that are to tremble, that are to be terrified before God and before His people.
Notice in Exodus 15, 14. The people will hear and be afraid. Sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed.
The mighty men of Moab, trembling, will take hold of them. all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away, fear and dread will fall on them. By the greatness of your arm they will be as still as a stone till your people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over whom you have purchased." So standing on the plains of Moab, the Lord God through Moses is telling them that when you are standing before battle, do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, do not tremble or be terrified because of them. Rather, the enemies of Jehovah ought to fear. The enemies of Jehovah ought to tremble, they ought to be terrified, they ought to be fainthearted.
Remember that report of Rahab the harlot. Remember when she confesses the majesty of Yahweh. She says, we heard, we saw, we understand that He delivered you from Egypt and He brought defeat of Sihon and Og. Our hearts fainted, we trembled, we feared. when we thought of that reality.
And that is precisely what is to be the case when men come before the living and the true God. It isn't the people of the Lord that should faint. It isn't the people of the Lord that should be afraid or tremble or terrified. It is the enemies of the Lord that should have that response.
Just by way of An interesting side note, I actually preached on that Rahab passage today at the old folks' home. You know, 10 plus old dolls and guys heard about Rahab the harlot. And I think they were encouraged by that. And it makes me happy, not because I preached it, but because we should be happy.
We should be encouraged. when we see the grace of God manifested in the salvation of Rahab the harlot. But the priest exhorts, but then the priest gives a reason why. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, do not tremble, do not be terrified because of them. Why?
For the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. So there is specific biblical warrant for referring to these as the wars of Yahweh. They are God's fight. The Lord is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you.
Already In the book of Deuteronomy, in rehearsing God's faithfulness with these people, Moses has indicated this reality, that the Lord God has fought for His people. Deuteronomy 1.30. The Lord your God who goes before you, He will fight for you according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes. Deuteronomy 2.24.
Deuteronomy chapter 2, 24. Rise, take your journey and cross over the river Arnon. Look, I have given into your hands Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon and his land. Begin to possess it and engage him in battle.
This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you. And then again in chapter 3, verses 2 and 3. Verse 2, let's see here. And the Lord said to me, Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand.
You shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon. So it is the Lord who goes before them. It is the Lord who fights for them. It is the Lord who saves them.
And lo and behold, when you turn to the book of Joshua, you see that very thing played out. You see God undertake on behalf of the children of Israel. Now remember, when they leave the plains of Moab and they enter into the promised land, their obedience to these commandments and these statutes and the ordinances are less than stellar. It's less than perfect.
And nevertheless, God goes before them He fights for them and He saves them. It is a blessing indeed. That self-same song of Moses in Exodus 15 at verse 3, they describe God this way, the Lord is a man of war, the Lord is His name. That's why when we get to Revelation chapter 19, it shouldn't surprise us that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
That Jesus fights the battles with that sword that proceeds from his mouth. That he goes forth riding, conquering, and to conquer. He is the man of war, that takes to him the battles of his people, and he wages the good warfare, and he executes his enemies. So that's the general instruction, verses 1 to 4.
Basically, do not fear, God is with you. His presence and His power, He goes before you, He fights your enemies, and He will in fact save you.
Specific Exemptions from Military Service
Now notice the specific exemptions. When I say exemptions, I mean just that. There are persons exempt from military service. And we'll see why in just a moment.
But if we had to sort of characterize two broad categories, there are humanitarian exemptions and there is a psychological exemption. The humanitarian exemptions are just that. A man builds a house and he hasn't had a chance to live in it yet. The word dedicate here probably isn't the best way we could depict it.
It probably just means he built his house and now he's not going to get to live in it. He's going to go fight wars in Canaan. God says if he's built a house and hasn't been able to live in it yet, let him live in it. These are humanitarian concerns.
If you were being drafted at the time of war and your father was dead and you had no brothers to help your mother, perhaps you could get a humanitarian exemption to the draft. Well, the same was true in Old Covenant Israel. So, if a man had built a house, God says, let him live in his house. As well, if a man had grown a vineyard, but he hadn't reaped the fruits or the benefit of that vineyard yet, what does the Lord say?
Well, hopefully it'll be there for you when you get back in a year's time. No, go and deal with your vineyard and reap the benefit and the fruit of that particular vineyard. Or what about the man who was betrothed to a woman? He gets to marry her, lest he be betrothed, go fight wars in Canaan, and get a dear John letter while he's out on the battlefield, or a dear Saul letter, or a dear Abe letter, or whatever it might be, right?
God is good. God is gracious. God is kind in these particulars. In fact, if you look over at Deuteronomy 24 and verse 5, Deuteronomy 24 verse 5, when a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business.
He shall be free at home one year and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken. I defy anybody to tell us that the Old Testament is this harsh, barbaric code. What employer is going to give you a year off when you first get married? This is not going to happen.
God is good. God is kind. God is gracious. If we ask the rationale behind these humanitarian exemptions, it's probably this simple.
With God the Lord on your side, you can cut loose some of your conscripts. When God the Lord goes before you and He fights for you and He saves you, if there are men that fall into this particular category, let them live in the land. You see, the purpose that God had for Israel was to come into the land and to enjoy the benefits therein. So God is allowing His people to reap the blessings that He has ordained for them.
Just a couple of quotes from a couple of commentators to try and fill out this rationale. Christopher Wright says, dependence on Yahweh's superiority liberated Israel from dependence on human superiority and thereby freed some Israelites from military service. It probably wasn't the case that every man had planted a vineyard, every man was betrothed to a woman, and every man had just built a house. We don't need to worry about numbers when God the Lord is on our side.
He goes before us, He fights for us, and He will most certainly save us. Craigie said, Israelite strength lay not in numbers, not in the superiority of their weapons, but in their God. You see, what God has promised in terms of His presence in their midst, in terms of His power to save, in terms of His power to defeat the enemies, relieves some of the pressure. They're not like the Canaanite nations. whose gods do not help them.
So they better have the most chariots, they better have the most horses, they better have the most people, if they will ever do well on the battlefield. Not so in Israel. The presence and the power of God ensures that liberation from trusting in numbers, trusting in horses, trusting in chariots. Again, Craigie says, thus, in these exemptions from military service, it is clear that the important aspects of normal life in the land take precedence over the requirements of the army.
But this somewhat idealistic approach was possible only because of the profound conviction that military strength and victory lay in the last resort, not in the army, but in God. You see, the take-home message is, is when Yahweh is with you and when He fights for you, you don't have to press every single human being. into service. Now, of course, you trust God, you keep your powder dry. You trust God, you use the men who haven't planted vineyards, who haven't built houses, and who haven't been betrothed to women.
You use those men. God calls us to use means, but ultimately, victory lay with Jehovah the King. So those are the humanitarian exemptions.
The Psychological Exemption
Notice what I call a psychological exemption. Notice in verse 8. Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, what man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.
So this isn't a humanitarian concern. This guy's got a faith problem. Again, this doesn't alter the fact that God goes before, that God fights, and that God saves. But what God calls upon Israel is to demonstrate commitment to Him.
So if a man is going to resist the command, if a man is going to reject the command, what the officers or what the men in charge of the military aspect say is, if you're not with us, then go home. On the one hand, if you go out there and you're a wimp, you will be a bad witness for God. If you're out there and you're just like a Nancy, and you can't fight, and you won't fight, and you're constantly bickering, you're constantly arguing, you're constantly complaining, the Canaanites are going to look at you and say, that bespeaks something of his God. But as well, the specific rationale indicated here is what?
You're going to affect your brethren. Isn't it the case? Winers have more sway over people than do the solid. We see that in Numbers 13 and 14.
Joshua and Caleb say, let's go at once and take the land of Canaan. The ten whine. The ten say, no, there's giants in the land. The land isn't good.
Who does the congregation gravitate toward? You can have ten people saying, let's go do this, and one gainsayer, and unfortunately the heart of man at times is attracted to the negative Nelly, if I can use that terminology there. So this is what the Lord says, weed them out. What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted?
Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart. Now, notice, it doesn't say execute him. Court-martial him, take him to the central tribunal, deal with him with stones. No, just don't let him come into battle.
I think the giving of this instruction would hopefully put a little grit and determination into any man who was worth his salt. Any man hearing this would hopefully guard his heart against the tendency of being a whiner and of being a wimp. But you see, this actually plays out in the book of Judges. Judges chapter 5, in the Song of Deborah, she speaks of those who willingly engage in battle.
Contra this mandate. Notice in Judges 5-2, when leaders lead in Israel, when the people willingly offer themselves, bless the Lord, It's a good thing when the leaders lead, when men have grit and determination. They don't pass the buck, they don't lie down, they don't go and whine, but rather leaders lead in Israel and the people willingly offer themselves. That is cause to bless the Lord.
Now notice a negative application in Judges 7. Judges 7, 1. Then Jerobel, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Herod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, my own hand has saved me.
Get rid of some of these troops. Get rid of some of this army. Get rid of some of this militia. Send some of these people away.
Because if they go in as numerous as they are and they gain victory, then they're going to boast and be proud and arrogant and say, we did this on our own. Now notice how God says in the first wave to weed people out. We often think about the drinkers of water, and that's how God whittled down the armies of Israel. But the first way, the first means, was what we find indicated in Deuteronomy 20.
It says, Now therefore proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead. So hopefully it would have put some grit in their bones, but it didn't, at least with these 22,000 people. 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remained. That's pretty incredible, isn't it? Well, you see, that's an application.
That's a reality. There is that psychological distress. There is that emotional instability. There is that lack of courage, that lack of boldness, that lack of efficacy, that lack of trust in the living God.
And so the officers say, if you have that, man up and confess it. Because if you get out into a foxhole and you start whining and sniveling like a little girl, you have the tendency of affecting your brethren. And we certainly don't want this to spread like gangrene among the armies of Israel. So you see this was a means whereby there were exemptions to military service.
Craigie again says, the object of the officers of the people was not to get the largest possible army, but the best possible army. That's what's in view here in Deuteronomy 20. The best possible army was the one wholly committed to God and absolutely confident in his strength and his ability for the battle lying ahead of the army. So it wasn't the largest number.
It was the best number. If you had a humanitarian exemption, you were dismissed from military service. Not forever. Once you betrothed that honey and you were with her for that year, you went out to battle afterward.
Once you started reaping the benefit of that vineyard and you lived in that house for a while, you couldn't waive your military life. You had to man up at some point and go out and fight in the wars of Yahweh. But you see, there are those humanitarian exemptions and this psychological exemption because ultimately it is God the Lord who goes before us, it is God who fights for us, and it is God who saves us. So we don't have to have the most, the biggest number of people.
We just need to have the best number of people within Israel to go and engage in these battles for the living and true God. So that's the general instructions, the specific exemptions.
Engagement with Enemy Cities
Notice thirdly, the engagement with enemy cities. The first section are the cities far off, verses 10 to 15. Actually, go back to verse 9 for just a moment. And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
You see, just because God is with us and God's power goes before us, doesn't mean we don't use military strategy. Doesn't mean guys just show up. No, it means that you are a disciplined army serving the Lord in the manner that He's instructed. You have captains appointed so that there's leadership.
Men don't do well, generally speaking, by just sort of wandering around out in the wilderness. They need a leader, they need a team of leaders to direct them and to make them most efficient in battle. That's what verse 9 indicates there.
Cities Far Off: An Offer of Peace
Now notice the engagement with the cities afar off, verses 10 to 15. Notice at the end of verse 15, Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. These nations will be dealt with in the rest of the chapter. those nations within Canaan, those nations which are under the ban, those nations which they have been commanded to utterly destroy and to dispossess from the land. We'll get to those in just a moment.
But Israel was never commanded to dispossess the land of Canaan and then go and utterly destroy every other human being on the face of the earth. This would go contrary to the very mission instituted by God to Abraham. Remember in Abraham, all the what would be blessed? All the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Remember in Deuteronomy chapter 4, it's assumed that when they're functioning as a godly commonwealth, the nations around will be able to look upon them and say, what great nation is like unto this, that has God for its Lord, and has these laws to regulate? So their mandate was never world domination, and utterly destroying everything and everybody that ever lived. No, verses 10 to 15 indicate that when you come to one of these cities, make an offer of peace. You see, within Deuteronomy, within even these principles governing warfare, you see this idea of even love. offer peace to these particular cities.
So notice in verse 10, when you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. It's beautiful, isn't it? is to go out and destroy everything, kill everything. I mean, if they reject your offer of peace, there's certain sanctions that you will impose. But initially, you are to go and offer peace to them.
If they submit to that, they become your vassal. That means your subordinate. And then they will ultimately benefit in that exchange. It's not some harsh, barbaric thing.
It would be a means and a way whereby the peoples would come into contact with the living and true God. And what most commentators agree with here is that when they offer this peace, it's an offer of a covenant. It is an agreement. You'll see an example of this in the book of Joshua in chapter 9.
There's a group of men called the Gibeonites. They provide a ruse. They put on Joshua. They pretend to be from a long way off.
They dirty their face, their bread is stale. They come and they cast themselves upon Joshua. They say, your servants have come from a long way. Joshua enters into covenant with them.
He failed to seek counsel from the Lord. Nevertheless, they had to honor that covenant. And so, the Gibeonites became subject to the Israelites. But that wasn't just a one-way street.
Later when the Gibeonites were under threat, Israel came to their defense. So there was mutual benefit within this agreement. Certainly Israel would benefit more having them as a subject people, having them as vassals, having them pay tribute, but Israel would provide protection for them. So that's what's going on here.
And again, it's not unique to Israel. Other nation states were doing these sorts of things as well. So in verse 10, there is to be this offer of peace. Notice verse 11, and it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you and serve you.
Again, that Joshua 9 demonstrates this or illustrates this very, very beautifully. Christopher Wright says, an offer of peace probably implies a vassal treaty in which the city would become subject to Israel. The terms of surrender strictly include only such subject labor. This is important.
Again, people say, oh, it's full of barbarisms and full of inhumanity. No, Israel is very humanitarian, even in the way they fight wars and in the way they deal with other nations. Here's what he says. No other humiliation, violation of human rights, excessive brutality, or plunder were to be allowed.
Subjection itself may seem bad enough. I mean, we read this and we go, whore of whores. Let me face it, being a vassal to a hopefully godly nation is not the worst thing that can happen. Being a vassal to Assyria is a little bit of a different ballgame.
Here's what Wright says. But when one sees carved in stone what the Assyrians, for example, did to their conquered or surrendered victims, for example, some were impaled on stakes, captives were chained to one another by hooks through the nose, or one merely reads of the known excesses reported by Amos, restraint is the correct word for what is permitted here. So this offer of peace and the covenant that is subsequent to it is restraint. It is humanitarian.
It is, in a very real sense, a demonstration of the love of God to even enemy people. So they could have impaled them. They could have, and you see this in the Old Testament scripture, this idea of hooks in the nose. This wasn't piercing an old covenant in Israel.
This was the way Assyria kept their prisoners together. They would put a hook through the nose and put a people on a line. and then lead them that way. When you were being exiled from Samaria to Assyria, it wasn't under your own provision. It was via a very harsh and brutal way.
So Israel was not to function that way. If you offer peace, and they accept it, and they open their city to you, then they will continue subject in terms of labor, in terms of those sorts of things. But it wouldn't be brutality, it wouldn't be the infliction of punishments cruel and unusual. Now
When the Offer of Peace Is Declined
notice what happens if the offer is declined. You've got to remember, the offer of peace has been made. If the people accept, then everybody lives happily ever after. If the enemy city declines, then that enemy city has to put its money where its mouth is.
They've got to fight Israel. Well, here is God's mandate with reference to those who decline. Now, verse 12, if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, remember now, they're an aggressor. They're not dealing peaceably.
This isn't an instruction to go in and just find a bunch of hippies laying around and utterly destroy them. No, they're an aggressor nation at this point. That's what we find here in verse 12. If the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it.
Now the rules of war dictate that you win, that you go in in the name of Yahweh of Israel and you take their land. Verse 13, and when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, again, there it is, God goes before us, God fights for us, God saves us. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. Again, this is humanitarian.
I realize it doesn't look that way. But only males are considered enemy combatants. You're not to kill the women and the children. Do you think that rule played out in Assyria?
Do you think that rule played out in Babylon? There's a psalm, I believe it's 137, that most of us are embarrassed to read the last verse. Because the last verse says, blessed are those who crush the heads of the babies of the enemies of the Lord. That's difficult for most of us.
But you've got to remember, that's what the enemies of the Lord did to Israelite babies. Okay, so it's a lex talionis, it's an eye for an eye. The enemies of God did not play according to Yahweh's rules. When they went into besieged city, they didn't just target the males as enemy combatants.
They targeted the women, they targeted the children, they did whatever it was that they wanted to do. You see, here God is restraining His people. Even when they fight, they are not to be like the enemies of the nations around them. Verse 13, When the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword, but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all that is spoil, you shall plunder for yourself, and you shall eat the enemy's plunder, which the Lord your God gives you.
So the city was to be besieged, the men alone were to be treated as enemy combatants and killed, the women and children were spared, the spoil was taken as a gift from God, and then the summary statement in verse 15, thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. Again, we jump into this in 21st century North America, we say horror of horrors, but if you look at the passage, You offered peace to them. They became the aggressor. If they want to engage in this tangle, then you will win this exchange.
And the way you must do it is carefully regulated by God. You're not to be like Assyria. You're not to be like Babylon would later be, but rather you were to fight as the children of Israel. Yes, deal with the men as combatants, but spare the women and children.
Take the booty or the plunder for yourselves as a gift from the living and true God.
Cities Under the Ban
And then verses 16 to 20, we've already seen this enacted in chapter 7. You can go back to chapter 7, verses 1 to 5. chapter 7 verses 1 to 5, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, 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 you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, like those cities that are afar off.
You can make a covenant with them. You can offer a peace treaty to them. You can accept them as a vassal state to yourself. But with these nations within Canaan, these nations clearly identified by the Lord God, You shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them.
You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire. So that is essentially what we find here in verses 16 to 18. The cities of these peoples, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them. harem principle, that is that anathema, that is a devotion to destruction, because God the Lord says so. And the specific reason in the context, we know there are other reasons, we've already rehearsed those.
Leviticus 18, one of the reasons why God is bringing judgment upon Canaan is because they had gross sexual wickedness. According to Deuteronomy chapter 18, another reason why God is bringing judgment to bear upon them is because they engaged in the occult, witchcraft and spiritism. Well, here specifically the reason why God highlights this harem principle with reference to these cities is found in verse 18. Lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God." We've seen traces of this already in the book of Deuteronomy.
If Israel goes into Canaan, and they do not utterly destroy, and they do not get rid of the idols and the altars, what will eventually happen? Israel will bow down to Baal. And it shouldn't surprise us when we get out of the plains of Moab, we enter into the Promised Land, how often do they actually utterly dispossess any cities? I think there's once or twice.
And what happens when they end up in Canaan? They become Baal worshippers, they become Molech worshippers, they become Asherah worshippers. So all the things that God is saying to them to do in this particular instance is to a, protect His holy character, to serve as a parameter, serve as a hedge, that within Israel He would be seen as the Holy One of Israel. but to protect the people of God so that they do not compromise, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God." We need to understand, God knows our hearts better than we do. God knows our temptation better than we do.
God knows our proneness to wander. He knows our proneness to leave the God that we love. And he dictates and he mandates and he commands and he exhorts and he pleads and tells us, don't do that because you're going to end up sinning against me. Now, of course, we do it.
We end up sinning against him. And that's why Jesus came to die for sinners and to rise again. In fact, Deuteronomy 20 ought to again show us the glory of the cross and why we need Jesus Christ our Savior. So the specific reason indicated in this context is the temptation presented by the Cainites would ultimately lead Israel to sin.
And then verses 19 and 20 end in an interesting way.
Preserving Food-Bearing Trees
Don't cut down trees that provide food. Undergirding this entire section seems to be the sixth word. You shall not murder. Don't destroy trees that provide food, food to sustain you, food to sustain future generations.
Don't do that. There's already an ecological concern that God sets forth in this chapter. We ought not to be tree-hugging environmental worshipers or worshipers of the environment, but there ought to be a righteous respect for the food-yielding capabilities of the world that God has set around us. We ought not to, you know, defoliate whole forests.
We ought not to make it the case that no person could ever be sustained on a parcel of land again. No, don't cut down the trees if you can eat of them. Now the trees which you know are not trees for food, you may destroy and cut down, to build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it is subdued. So if you have trees that are not fruit-yielding or food-yielding, you can cut those down.
You can fashion them into weapons. You can fashion them into whatever it is that you need to besiege this particular city. But the trees that yield food, leave them. That's not a very good way to promote life.
It's not a very good way to promote health and happiness in the land. So it does go along with what has preceded in terms of some principles governing warfare in the land of Canaan. Well, let's pray and then, if there's any questions, we'll take those.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank You for this, Your Word, and we thank You for its clarity, we thank You for its beauty, we thank You, Father, for the fact that You have spoken and that You have recorded for us. And we pray that we learn the lessons that You have for us in this passage, that we would see something of Your glory and Your majesty and of Your holiness and of the way that You participate in the lives of Your people. As well, God, I pray that we would see the great temptation that lies all around us and help us to resist these things and thus to live in a manner that is consistent with your holy word. And we thank you for this time together and we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.