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MARCH 23
a people for Himself, a special treasure above
MARCH 23 all the peoples on the face of the earth. The
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LORD did not set His love on you nor choose
you because you were more in number than
any other people, for you were the least of all
Deuteronomy 7:1–8:20
peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and
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“When the LORD your God brings you into because He would keep the oath which He
7 the land which you go to possess, and has swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought
cast out many nations before you, the Hittites you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed
and the Girgashites and the Amorites and you from the house of bondage, from the hand
the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations 9 “Therefore know that the LORD your God,
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greater and mightier than you, and when the He is God, the faithful God who keeps
LORD your God delivers them over to you, you covenant and mercy for a thousand genera-
shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. tions with those who love Him and keep His
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commandments; and He repays those who
hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will
not be slack with him who hates Him; He will
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repay him to his face. Therefore you shall
7:2 utterly destroy them. All the men, keep the commandment, the statutes, and the
women, and children were to be put to death. judgments which I command you today, to
Even though this action seems extreme, the observe them.
following needs to be kept in mind: 1) the 12 “Then it shall come to pass, because you
Canaanites deserved to die for their sin (9:4,5; listen to these judgments, and keep and do
see Gen. 15:16); 2) the Canaanites persisted in them, that the LORD your God will keep with
their hatred of God (7:10); and 3) the you the covenant and the mercy which He
Canaanites constituted a moral cancer that swore to your fathers. And He will love you
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had the potential of introducing idolatry and
immorality which would spread rapidly and bless you and multiply you; He will also
among the Israelites (20:17,18). bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of
your land, your grain and your new wine and
your oil, the increase of your cattle and the
offspring of your flock, in the land of which He
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You shall make no covenant with them nor swore to your fathers to give you. You shall
show mercy to them. Nor shall you make mar- be blessed above all peoples; there shall not
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riages with them. You shall not give your be a male or female barren among you or
daughter to their son, nor take their daughter among your livestock. And the LORD will take
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for your son. For they will turn your sons away away from you all sickness, and will afflict you
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from following Me, to serve other gods; so the with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt
anger of the LORD will be aroused against you which you have known, but will lay them on all
and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall those who hate you. Also you shall destroy
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deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, all the peoples whom the LORD your God deliv-
and break down their sacred pillars, and cut ers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on
down their wooden images, and burn their them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that
carved images with fire. will be a snare to you.
6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your 17 “If you should say in your heart, ‘These
God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be nations are greater than I; how can I dispos-
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sess them?’— you shall not be afraid of them,
but you shall remember well what the LORD
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your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the
7:6 a holy people to the LORD your God. The great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and
basis for the command to destroy the the wonders, the mighty hand and the out-
Canaanites is found in God’s election of Israel. stretched arm, by which the LORD your God
God had set apart Israel for His own special brought you out. So shall the LORD your God
use, and they were His treasured possession. do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
As God’s people,Israel needed to be separated 20 Moreover the LORD your God will send the
from the moral pollution of the Canaanites. hornet among them until those who are left,
who hide themselves from you, are destroyed.
21 You shall not be terrified of them; for the
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