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were not to expect that even God would call on them again for this strange work of judgment…. War was to
be merely defensive. Under no circumstances was a war for war’s sake encouraged. 126

Part of God’s judgment involves a people’s rejection of his mercy. Creation testifies to the reality of God’s
love, as does his continued gifts of sunshine and rain and daily life for the vast majority of people on earth.
Wherever his people have existed, some sense of God’s grace has surrounded them and has been a witness
to other nations. The Egyptians had opportunity after opportunity to escape judgment. The example of
God’s dealing with the Egyptians was communicated later by word of mouth to these near-neighbors in the
Promised Land. We can only guess what might have been if they had turned from their practices.

“Every forecast or prophecy of doom…had a suppressed ‘unless’ attached to them….
Canaan had, as it were, a final forty-year countdown as they heard of the events in Egypt,
at the crossing of the [Red] Sea, and what happened to the kings who opposed Israel along
the way. We know they were aware of such events, for Rahab confessed that these same
events had terrorized her city of Jericho and that she, as a result, had placed her faith in the
God of the Hebrews (Josh. 2:10-14). 127

God does judge. He judged the world with a flood. He does judge individuals. Hell is a real place where
people judged by God spend eternity. His principles of judgment never vary, even if he no longer
commands one nation to wipe out another nation under his specific orders. Our discomfort about his
judgment is understandable, yet our discomfort cannot change the fact that the God of the Bible, both Old
and New Testaments, is the judge of the world.

Let’s Practice…

1. The form of Deuteronomy is called a ____________________________

2. The Ten Commandments function as a __________________________ for the rest of the law.

3. God anticipates that Israel will respond to his law with obedience or disobedience? Explain.

4. God’s relationship with Israel was based on love or fear? Explain

5. In what way does God’s promise to forgive sin in advance promote obedience?

6. God’s command to Israel to kill the Canaanite people is called ____________________________

7. In His place as judge of the world, God punishes some people eternally in _______________________

126 William Benton Greene, Jr., “The Ethics of the Old Testament,” Classical Evangelical Essays, Walter C. Kaiser, ed.
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1972) 222.

127 Walter C. Kaiser. Ethics. 268.
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