#331 The Ox and the Ass

When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, 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 thou;

2 And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

6 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:

8 But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:

13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

15 And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.

20 Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.

22 And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

23 But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

24 And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.

25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therin: for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.

26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing. Deuteronomy 7

I grew up in church, but it was under a very free will evangelical style of preaching. When I started to read passages like this, I thought God unreasonable and not as kind even as me. I did not understand Him to be Sovereign in salvation, and I could not even begin to conceive holiness. Verse 25 was a concept alien to me, not even salvage the gold, who would do that? What was so special about this people that they would inherit this land? Everything I read about them pointed to a people much like the people they displaced. They whine for 40 years, they look back at their captivity as preferable to their freedom. Many of them would like to revolt against Moses and Aaron, later in their history they will kill their own prophets and prefer kings to God. The prophet Isaiah writes of God's judgment on this nation, we read:

Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us some survivors,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11 “The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. Isaiah 1:9-11

It is held in Jewish tradition, the Talmud, that this same Isaiah was sawn in half. In the verses above they are clearly compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, what a blow to the ego. Their sacrifices, He took no pleasure in the blood of bulls. If those things were more than images, more than teachings, more potent in the mere acts, then why did they have to sacrifice over and over again, and why did God not take pleasure in this? God is Holy and Just and He is infinite so infinitely so. The blood of Bulls, lambs and goats could not forever remove transgression, the fallen state. What then does it take to be right with God? This is only the beginning of the first half Of Isaiah, what some would call the first gospel. Read the whole thing, it is written 700 years before the coming of Christ, and yet it is gospel. 

 Back to this people though, they did not choose God, He chose them. The righteousness afforded them is foreign to them, it is the imputed righteousness of Messiah yet to come. They could have been just like Sodom and Gomorrah, just like the people they displaced in the land, but God showed mercy, He made a covenant with them. He displayed His righteousness through an unwilling people. 

So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. Romans 9:16

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. They have learned the hard way, outside of the promised land, that they are more easily influenced to their nature than to that which is foreign to our sin natures. They are witnessing God's judgment on sin, and it has happened in their own ranks as well. We say that we live now in the dispensation of Grace and yes, we do. Is this grace license to marry as we wish? I should think not, is marriage not the reflection of our relationship to God? Are we scattered to many? Are we faithful? I cannot chose for my children, but I am told to raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. My friends offer their psychology, "be nice to the boy and that will cause your daughters not to be interested in the ones you don't like," a reverse psychology. Well it's my intent to be nice to all their friends and anyone else for that matter, because all are made in the image of God. I would rather be sincere in this and share the gospel. The law is rules and stringent, grace is the fulfillment of the law and a changed heart. I would that my girls not put relationships above God, and I know this only comes from a renewed heart and mind. I can only tell them the truth and pray that they put God first in this, this being one of the most important choices in their life. Does becoming a Christian dissolve your present marriage? No, not unless they want to leave. Men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. We are to be a testimony to the unbelieving spouse. It is not the prosperity gospel you may have wanted to hear, but rather the cross that you shall hopefully find so joyous to bear. I have been married some 15 years now myself and my wife was a baby Christian when we started out, but looking back I was truly the bigger baby, arrogant, selfish, and it is a wonder that she is still here. 

To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you[b] to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? 1 Corinthians 7: 12-16