Deuteronomy 20:10-20 – Dealing wisely with life’s potential loopholes

In Deuteronomy 7:1-6, God made clear that when the children of Israel entered the promised land, they must annihilate the Canaanites. The reason was obvious. God did not want His people to be influenced to worship and serve other gods. To do that would cause God to destroy them too. Deuteronomy 20:17 re-iterated the call to destroy the Canaanites. God’s precise words were  “…you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you….” God’s objective for this order was again made clear in verse 18. He did not want His people to be wickedly influenced by the Canaanites. So He said, “…so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods so that you would sin against the Lord your God.”  

For the rest of the cities that posed no threat to their walk with God, the Israelites were told to offer a treaty of peace. Opportunities would be given to them for a peaceful surrender. If the offer of peace was accepted the people of that city could be made their servants to serve them. However, if they would not accept the offer of peace, the Israelites would have the right to lay siege on the city. They could destroy all the men, but the women, children, and animals would be spared and be taken as spoils of war. These would constitute God’s gift to them. This was how they should deal with cities that posed no threat to their walk with God.  

Deuteronomy 20:19-20 gave instructions on what the Israelites could and could not do when they lay siege to a city. While God’s people laid siege to a city, they were not allowed to destroy the fruit trees. They could cut down non-fruit trees for the purpose of siege, but they must not destroy the fruit trees. To spare the fruit trees meant that they would have to exercise self-control under the most strenuous circumstances. Even in the thick of battle, they had to exercise obedience to God and not destroy the fruit trees as they were instructed. Furthermore, in sparing the fruit trees, they were ensuring their means of support for themselves after the conquest.  

The lesson: while God wants us to remove all sources of influence that could lead us to a life of compromise, He also would want us to deal carefully with those that seem to pose no real threat to us inour relationship with HIm.. We learn from these verses that primarily what God wants is for us to offer peace in the expansion of His Kingdom. However, the war against ungodly influence will be needed to ensure that they will not be a threat to our relationship and walk with Him. Where the influence of sin is concerned, it must be cut off totally so that we will not be led astray. We cannot soft paddle it!