(Deuteronomy 7:17-26)
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 de-stroyed.
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 therein: 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 7:17-26)
We have in v. 20 a strange statement which is difficult to set in a time sequence although its basic meaning is clear once we know what the hornet is. The hornet was a symbol of pharaohs. The arche-ologist, John Garstang, made this clear some years ago, as did Sir Charles Marston after him.1 The whole area of Canaan and Syria had been under Egyptian power, and the practical effect of the collapse
1. John Garstang, Joshua and Judges (London, England: Constable, 1931), 112-15, 258-60. See also Sir Charles Marston, New Bible Evidence (New York, NY: Flem-ing H. Revell, 1934), 166, 223.
of Egypt’s power had left the various Canaanite states unable to de-fend themselves. They were morally bankrupt, economically rich, and militarily incompetent apparently. The Hornet, or Egyptian mil-itary power, had reduced the Canaanites to the point that a numeri-cally fewer people would easily overthrow them.
The reference to the hornet, or Pharaoh and his power, was at once understandable to Israel. It also was a startling commentary on God’s providence. Egypt had been the great oppressive power, and its overthrow had required supernatural actions. Now their way into Canaan was made easier because of Egypt’s earlier shattering of the Canaanite states. Their ancient oppressive enemy was now their blessing, in that Egypt’s earlier campaigns had left shattered peoples.
A little later, Rahab described to the spies how the Canaanites felt about a people before whom Egypt had fallen:
9. And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath giv-en you the land, and that your terror is fallgiv-en upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
10. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
11. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. (Josh. 2:9-11)
We are too often so absorbed with our fears or problems that we for-get that God works at every end and aspect of all things, so that our deliverance and prosperity come from unexpected sources. Those whom Israel feared in turn feared Israel, and with better reason.
These enemy peoples were also the enemies of God. This is an as-pect of our battles we must never forget: if our enemies are the ene-mies of God, they will, in His good time, be destroyed. Their religion being a false one, whatever its pretenses, everything used therein is an abomination to God. In v. 26, not only is the term abom-ination used, but also “a cursed thing,” and “thou shalt utterly abhor it.” An abomination means something unlawful, unclean, abhorrent, and evil. It is a word that can be used of things, such as idols, or acts, such as lawless sex, or of eating forbidden foods, or of ungodly mar-riages. It can also refer to unjust weights (Deut. 25:13-16), to wearing things pertaining to the other sex (Deut. 22:5), and much more. Such
The Abomination (Deuteronomy 7:17-26) 135 things are important to God because they are His laws. The term abomination does not refer to things seen as trifles by God. For prac-ticing abominations, Canaan had become an abomination in God’s sight, and hence judgment was necessary.
In brief, to regard history humanistically is to impoverish our-selves. It means that we see no force in history other than our own, and this is a sure recipe for defeatism. To deny God’s power at work in history is itself an abomination, a dirty, repulsive, and evil thing.
The concept of an abomination is side-stepped by a humanistic cul-ture, which finds offensive only that which offends humanistic man.
This entire chapter stresses something which Joseph C. Morecraft III has called strength through isolation. Because our view of strength is humanistic, we see strength in humanistic terms.2 We are told to look to God for our strength, not to man. The humanistic approach leads to compromise and to dangerous alliances.
An absolute loyalty to God is set forth as necessary, and three grounds for such a fidelity are stressed. First, God has demonstrated in all His dealings that He is absolutely true to His covenant prom-ises. He had initiated the covenant in grace; man could and can dis-solve it with sin (vv. 7-11).
Second, God’s covenant always gives material blessings, including physical health. We must not reduce God’s blessings to the spiritual realm because the Bible clearly does not (vv. 12-15). We cannot tell God how to bless us; we are plainly told, “He shall choose our inher-itance for us” (Ps. 47:4). God does not discriminate against either ma-terial or spiritual gifts because both realms are His creation and avenues of His blessings.
Third, we are summoned to be faithful because God is always faithful and always present in all His power. As He did to Pharaoh, to Egypt, to Og, Sihon, Amalek, and others, “so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid” (v. 19).
There is more to life than we can see, and we must always walk by faith (vv. 16-26).3
Verse 22 is a remarkable one. God summoned Israel to a total and immediate victory, but He knew their weaknesses. After their initial
2. Joseph C. Morecraft III, A Christian Manual of Law: An Application of Deuter-onomy (Atlanta, GA: Atlanta Christian Training Center, n.d.), 21.
3. Charles R. Erdman, The Book of Deuteronomy (Westwood, NJ: Fleming H.
Revell, 1953), 39-40.
victories, the peoples settled into their designated areas and were less willing to help conquer other parts of Canaan. As a result, the con-quest took some generations. God, in His foreknowledge, refers to this and cites it as something He ordains and uses to bless them:
“thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.” Too quick a conquest would leave unoccupied land, and wild animals would then have the opportunity to increase at a dangerous rate. Modern man has an exaggerated, and probably a conceited, belief in his power to destroy. We are seeing a return of many wild animals once believed to be gone from much of America, and we are seeing an increased destructiveness by many of these pro-liferating animals. It was a blessing of God to Israel that the land was not emptied by conquest and allowed thereby to revert to wilder-ness. A related myth to that of the paradise of wild animals is that of virgin soil. No virgin soil has existed since God created the earth.
Animals can be very destructive of the soil, vegetation, and trees.
In v. 26, there is a very stern warning: “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it.”
In other words, “He who brings an abomination into his house, him-self becomes abominable.”4
Thus, they are not to be afraid of the enemy nations but of God. God is always the significant friend or enemy, and it is His wrath we must fear, not man’s. Therefore, as far as these peoples of Canaan are con-cerned, “Thou shalt not be afraid of them” (v. 18). The antidote to fear is to remember God, and what He has done (v. 18). When they walk in faithfulness to the covenant God and His law, “there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them” (v. 24). This is a remarkable promise from man’s perspective, but, from God’s, it is simply an aspect of His covenant faithfulness.
We live in a fallen world, a sinful world, a world that is militantly at war against God. God’s view of man and nations is not a sentimen-tal one. They either serve the Lord, or they serve themselves. They either war on God’s side against all that He calls an abomination, or they themselves become an abomination. God gives to no man nor nation the option of neutrality. It does not exist.
4. J. H. Hertz, ed., The Pentateuch and Haftorahs (London, England: Soncino Press, [1935] 1962), 781.
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