They Must Thoroughly Cleanse The Land of Both Its Peoples and Its Idolatry, And He Himself Will Be With Them To Enable Them To Do It (Deuteronomy 7:16-26).
This reference to their enemies who hate them leads back to the subject of the destruction of their enemies in the land. The land must be thoroughly cleansed of them. And they need not be afraid of them because Yahweh Himself will be with them to deliver them.
(In this passage it is ‘thou' (the nation as a whole) all the way through except once in Deuteronomy 7:25).
Analysis in the words of Moses:
a You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you (Deuteronomy 7:16).
b If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I. How can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them (Deuteronomy 7:17-18 a).
c You will well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid (Deuteronomy 7:18-19).
d Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you (Deuteronomy 7:20).
e You shall not be frightened at them (Deuteronomy 7:21 a)
e For Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a great God and a terrible (Deuteronomy 7:21 b).
d Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little. You may not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you (Deuteronomy 7:22).
c But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will discomfit them with a great discomfiture, until they are destroyed (Deuteronomy 7:23).
b He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under heaven. There shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them (Deuteronomy 7:24).
a The graven images of their gods you (ye) shall burn with fire. You (thou) shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it to you, lest you be snared in it, for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God and you shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is a devoted thing (Deuteronomy 7:25-26).
Note that in ‘a' they were to consume all the peoples whom Yahweh their God delivered to them without pity (because they had been ‘devoted' to Yahweh), nor were they to serve their gods, for that would be a snare to them, and in the parallel it is stressed that they are to destroy those gods in the form of graven images and not bring ‘devoted' things which are an abomination into their houses otherwise they too would become ‘devoted' to Yahweh because they had turned to idolatry (‘devoted' means ‘devoted to destruction). In ‘b' they begin to fear in their hearts saying, “These nations are more than I. How can I dispossess them?” But they are not to be afraid of them, for in the parallel He will deliver their kings into their hand, and they will thus make their name perish from under heaven. No man will be able to stand before them until they have destroyed them. In ‘c' they are to well remember what Yahweh their God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt, and recognise that so would Yahweh their God do to all the peoples of whom they were afraid, and in the parallel they are to be sure that Yahweh their God will deliver them up before them, and will discomfit them with a great discomfiture, until they are destroyed. In ‘d' Yahweh their God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before them, while in the parallel, while in the parallel Yahweh their God will cast out those nations before them little by little. They may not consume them at once, lest wild beasts increase in their vicinity. In ‘e' they are not to be frightened at them, for in the parallel Yahweh their God is in the midst of them, a great God and a terrible.
‘ And you shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.'
He repeats again the command in verses 2-4, which will further be repeated in Deuteronomy 7:22-26. All this repetition is in order to drive it deep into their heads and hearts so that it becomes second nature to them (which sadly for their future it did not). Positive living was to be accompanied by a resolute turning from sin. They were to consume all the peoples whom Yahweh delivered up to them. They were not to spare them. They were not to have compassion on them. Nor were they to spare their gods. For this was Yahweh's land, and only what was responsive to Him could be allowed to live there. If they failed in all this it would be a snare to them, a trap that would entice them to their own destruction. It is this that is one of the basic themes of the chapter, with Yahweh's choice of Israel, and His promise to fight on their behalf being the supports and encouragements which make it both the divine will and possible of fulfilment. For if they failed in this the dream would collapse. Unless the land was purged the blessed future would not be capable of fulfilment. Sin must be fully dealt with if righteousness is to prosper.
There is the warning here that we too should continually search our hearts in order to ensure that no idol has possessed them and limited our love for Christ. It is true of us also that if sin is not dealt with, righteousness will not prosper. If it was so important that the land should be cleansed from all that was corrupt, how much more important is it for us that we too should remove from our lives all that corrupts. It is not enough to be positive. We must also root out all that is negative.
‘ If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I. How can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them. You shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.'
He now makes allowance for their possible fears, for he is aware of their weaknesses that so often reveal themselves. He acknowledges that they might well begin to fear, and ask how they can hope to cope with peoples more numerous than themselves, and better armed. But he assures them that it is not a problem. They are not to be afraid. They are to remember what Yahweh did in Egypt to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, and the great trials and tests that their eyes saw, for Yahweh tried Pharaoh until Pharaoh broke and gave way. And they are to remember the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm (also working through Moses' outstretched arm), Yahweh's arm laid bare, by all of which Yahweh brought them out of Egypt. So will He do to all who oppose them, and all the people whom they have to meet, and of whom they are afraid.
‘ Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you.'
For Yahweh will fight for them. He will send on their enemies all kinds of catastrophes, natural and otherwise, like the descent of hornets on unsuspecting people (compare Exodus 23:28; Joshua 24:12). It is possible that ‘send the hornet' was a saying which signified promised catastrophe. Nothing was more fearful than a swarm of hornets. The result would be that those who were left would hide themselves, but it would do them no good. Their enemies would perish from before them. This promise was important. The point was that Yahweh had all kinds of ‘secret weapons' that He could release which were not the normal weapons of warfare.
“Hornet” (tsi‘rah). The word only occurs here, and in Exodus 23:28 and Joshua 24:12. Some would translate as ‘depression, discouragement' but a more positive foe appears to be in mind. It comes from the root word which means being ‘struck with a skin disease'. Hornets viciously attack the skin. This promise may have been in mind in Revelation 9:1-11.
But the context may suggest that the description has the Angel of Yahweh in mind, pictured in terms of the fearsome hornet, swarming down on the enemy and causing them to flee in terror. The Israelite attacks in all quarters may well have seemed like swarms of hornets, coming from nowhere and buzzing round their cities and towns. Compare how the Amorites had come down on their fathers like bees (Deuteronomy 1:44).
All knew, or had heard and been warned, of what happened when a swarm of hornets descended. Woe betide whatever was beneath. The bravest of armies would desperately run for cover before such a foe, for there was no fighting them. Then they would cower and hope that they did not select them as their target. All they could do was run, and hide, and hope, and seek to cover themselves, while aware that the hornets would seek many of them out. (Compare Deuteronomy 1:44, but there they were only bees, here they are hornets). So would God use His own weapons as though they were hornets, to seek out their enemies. The hornet in mind may even have been of thoughts buzzing in the mind which frightened their foes to death (compare Deuteronomy 2:25; Deuteronomy 11:25; Exodus 15:14-16; Exodus 23:27).
‘ You shall not be frightened at them, for Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a great God and a terrible.'
If their foe seemed terrible, let them consider their great and terrible God, the One from Whom they had withdrawn when the covenant was given (Deuteronomy 5:5; Deuteronomy 5:25). There will be no need then to be frightened, for their great and terrible God Who is among them would come and give them victory, in the same way as He had revealed His greatness and His terribleness in Egypt.
‘ And Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little. You may not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you.'
Yahweh is not unaware of the problems before them. He will certainly cast out the nations from before them. But He will not destroy these nations all at once. He will do it little by little. This is so that the land may not become unoccupied, and thus be taken over by a multitude of wild beasts. While initially the first thrust would be devastating, settlement of the whole land would take considerably longer, as the book of Joshua makes apparent. It could not just happen overnight. Settlement took time and effort. Of course, His people were not intended during this process to live among the Canaanites. Once they occupied each area of land, where ‘their feet stepped', it had to be cleared of Canaanites. But it would take time. Meanwhile Canaanites would be allowed to live where Israel had not yet settled (but not, of course, associated with - Deuteronomy 7:1-5).
Thus God even had a purpose in delaying the driving out of the Canaanites. This question is a complicated one. The delay was partly due to lethargy, disobedience and unbelief. But God turned it also to good purposes. It would teach them war (Judges 3:2), it would test whether they were willing to obey His commandments (Judges 3:4), and as here it would keep the land in good condition until they possessed it. And we must remember that Canaan was not just all open country. It was not easy to settle. The settling of a land like Canaan with its forests, and mountains, and plains and multiplicity of cities would take a great deal of effort and time. Israel had to learn how to live there gradually. Doing too much too soon would have been fatal.
Why then did God not simply keep the wild beasts out? Had not Leviticus 26:6 said that He would remove savage beasts from the land? One answer is that He tends not to interfere in the workings of nature where it is not necessary. Men learn from facing the problems of life. Too easy a settlement would have led to sin all the quicker. And besides the land would not stay still. Even without wild beasts it would become overgrown and return to the wild. But as with the Canaanites, he would remove savage beasts from the land gradually. And their arrival in too large numbers was meanwhile being hindered by the presence of the Canaanites. he was not giving them a wild and barren land, but a cultivated one and one good to live in.
‘ But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will discomfit them with a great discomfiture, until they are destroyed.'
Nevertheless in the end He would deliver all their enemies up to them. He would discomfit them with great discomfiture until they were destroyed. He would ensure the eradication of evil from the land as long as they remained faithful.
‘ And he will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under heaven. There shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.'
Their kings would be able to do nothing about it. They might seem to Israel to be important and powerful but before Yahweh they would be helpless. They would be delivered into their hands. And their names would perish and be forgotten in the world of their day. ‘From under heaven' simply means ‘from the world'. None would be able to stand against Israel, until all were destroyed. It is difficult to see how God could have made it more clear that while He was fighting for them they would be invincible.
‘ The graven images of their gods you (ye) shall burn with fire. You (thou) shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it to you, lest you be snared in it, for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God.'
But in receiving all this help they must remember His instructions. They were to burn their graven images with fire, totally and completely. They were not to look at the silver and gold on them, or covet it, or seek to take it for themselves. For it could become a snare to them as they remembered where it came from. And it was an abomination to Yahweh. The idea of idolatry as an abomination is constant in Scripture, as is Yahweh's abomination of anything that keeps us from Him.
We too must remember that gold and silver might seem desirable, but if it comes at the cost of our love for God or makes us compromise it is too costly.
‘ And you shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is a devoted thing.'
Thus they must not bring such an abomination into their residences. It was devoted to destruction. And were they to do so let them recognise that they might themselves become a ‘devoted' thing, themselves being devoted to destruction, because they had taken what was ‘devoted to Yahweh' (see Joshua 7) into their residence. Rather they were to detest and abhor any such thing. Here we are reminded that as with holiness the contact with a ‘devoted' thing can cause the contacter to be ‘devoted' to destruction.
If only we would take these severe instructions to heart we might be more severe with sin in our own lives. It reminds us that sin must not be tolerated. It has to be rooted out. It has to be driven out. It has to be destroyed. Whenever we see anything in our lives that is interfering with His pre-eminence in our hearts we must not spare it. We must rid ourselves of it completely. Only then can Christ reign truly in our lives.