"You will destroy all the peoples that the LORD your God is handing over to you. Show them no pity. And don't serve their gods because that would be a trap for you." (Deut 7:16)
From our perspective today, in an age of grace, this is hard to read. We can judge Yahweh without understanding all the facts.
For example, did you know that Yahweh told Abraham that his descendants would spend 400 years in slavery in Egypt because Yahweh had to wait until the evil of the Amalekites reached it maximum? Does this mean there was also a chance for repentance in that time as we read about with Nineveh?
By the time Israel had been released from slavery the area God was sending them into had descended into great evil. It had taken on the sense of a mystical land, filled with giants, witchcraft, human sacrifices, divination and everything that flew in the face of Yahweh's holiness.
Yahweh treated it like a disease that had to be surgically removed and Israel was warned to remove it all or they would become infected. Israel was Yahweh's judgement on these nations that refused to turn from their unacceptable choices, traditions, and culture. Yahweh also planned to demonstrate his glory through his great outpouring of blessings for Israel, a nation that had promised to model the correct way of living under the one true God.
Through Jesus the Church has also been raised up to model a life of blessings so the whole world would see and know Father. But so many of us refuse to receive these blessings and prefer to limit and reduce Yahweh down to our level.
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