What did it mean to be devoted to destruction?

Who were free to bind themselves by a vow we learn in Num. 30, and the binding nature of such an engagement Deut. 23:21 sets forth. Here we learn what could be thus set apart for God. Now in two ways might living things be vowed to Him. They might be consecrated to Him in life, or they might under certain conditions be devoted to Him for ever. This last kind of vow is here called cherem (Lev. 27:28-29). Men, animals, and also fields could be thus devoted; for such no redemption was permitted (28). As regards men, such a vow was probably intended only to affect those who were the enemies of God (1 Kings 20:42) and of Israel (Num. 21:3), for their death was the only possible fulfilment of it. Of this the Canaanites are an example (Deut. 20:17), as well as the Amorites under Sihon and Og, on the east of the Jordan (Deut. 3:6-7). Later on the Amalekites were ordered by God to be thus treated (1 Sam. 15:3). So Samuel hewed Agag, their king, in pieces before the Lord, when Saul had in disobedience preserved him from death. To devote (charam) anything to God was a solemn and an irrevocable act, and this Jephthah learnt to his cost; who, in accordance with his rash vow to offer up as a burnt offering whatsoever should come forth out of his house to meet him, if he returned victorious from the fight, felt himself constrained to sacrifice his daughter, who was his only child. His rash vow caused him to descend into the tomb childless, the bright object of that home having been immolated by the father's hand. Jephthah had opened his mouth to the Lord, and he could not go back (Num. 30:2).

(6) But the same strong hand is also upon the evil; and this is the significance of the cherem, or ban, according to which that which was evil or defiled with evil was sanctified to God in its destruction. "For there can be no doubt that that which lay at the foundation of the ban was that of the compulsory dedication of something which resists or impedes sanctification; so that in all cases in which it was carried into execution by the community, or the magistracy, it was an act of the judicial holiness of God, manifesting itself in righteousness and judgment." (Keil.) Here ransom could not be. Things that are evil, and persons most unholy, shall thus in a coming day be holy to the Lord. All this also depends not on weak human will to accomplish it: it is the judgment of the Lord, and love will acquiesce in it as a necessity of holiness.

DEVOTED TO DESTRUCTION (vv. 28-29)

This is the case of something, or someone being placed "under the ban" (v. 29) because of the serious corruption of sin. Once this devoting to destruction has taken place, there is no release, no redemption. Therefore, whether it may be principles of evil or humans identified with the evil, once the pronouncement of God has taken place against the evil, it cannot be reversed. God deals constantly in great grace seeking to bring people to repentance, but in spite of this, some resist this great mercy of God and eventually manifest themselves as enemies of God, determined to act in rebellion. Therefore, they become as Romans 9:22 describes, "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction," and "they stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which also they were appointed" (1 Peter 2:8).

To the believer it ought not to be a question whether Israel was justified in the conquest of Canaan; and the endeavours to soften the matter, whether by Jews or by Christians, are vain. It was righteous vengeance on earth, not wrath from heaven, still less grace reigning by righteousness as in the gospel. It is not well founded, if Scripture be our authority, that Joshua proposed flight or peace, with war as the unwilling alternative; nor is there any ground to suppose that the Canaanites would have been spared in case of surrender, whatever the mercy to individuals exceptionally. The Canaanites were devoted, in the most stringent and solemn manner, to utter destruction. It was not vengeance on the part of Israel, but of God, who was pleased to make His people executors of judgment.

Further, "Thus shalt thou do to all the cities which are very far off from thee." There was one exception: there must be no peace with the Canaanites; not because they were dreaded as rivals, but doomed to destruction because of their abominations and seductions. It is well known that some find a difficulty in this. Possibly it may interest others, if it do not relieve the first of their difficulty, to know that, typically considered, the Canaanites represent the emissaries of Satan, the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, — those rulers of the darkness of this world with whom we are called to wrestle now. They are specifically the powers of evil which continually turn every link of religion into a means of deliberate and ruinous dishonour of God. With such there can be, there ought to be, no terms, no compromise, no cessation of the fight at any time or under any possible circumstances. This is the typical force of what is referred to here.

I may just add the further remark, that of all the nations on the face of the earth, there was no such hotbed for every kind of corruption among men, and for all wickedness and abomination in the sight of God, as the Canaanites whom God devoted to destruction. It was therefore perfectly just, as far as righteousness was concerned, to hold up these Canaanites for a solemn warning to all the world and to all times. If national righteousness was sought, if there was to be the honour of God maintained in Israel, they must be extirpated; and there were the wisest reasons for doing that work by the sword of Israel. In the last lecture we saw that, so far from passing over His own people, God never dealt with any nation with the same strictness as with Israel. We saw that every soul of Israel perished in the wilderness except the two spies who stood for God even against their fellows as well as the multitude, and certainly, if God caused that all Israel should fall in the wilderness because of their sins, if He did not even spare the single fault of Moses which he himself records, where can men complain justly of the doom that befell such corrupters of the race, sure above all to be the moral destroyers of Israel had they been spared? In fact the children of Israel had not the faith to destroy them as they ought; they had not therefore the fidelity according to God's word to exterminate the Canaanites, and so much the worse for themselves; for they became the means of dragging Israel into abominations, and thus drew judgments down on them after no long time.

So far as to Israel, simply looked at as from within: a sterner duty awaited them as to the land into which Jehovah was about to bring them. They were completely to destroy out of it the Canaanite inhabitants, showing them no mercy, making no covenant or alliance with them. Over and over again the cause of this has been explained. They were a people whose iniquity was now full, as in Abraham's time it yet was not. (Gen. 15.) The land itself was spuing them out for their abominations, and Israel was in this respect but the executioner of divine judgment, not of their own passion or lust of acquisition. Instead of destroying them, as He might, by plague or famine, He chose Israel to perform this office, and thus gave His people themselves the most solemn lesson that could be given them, in the holiness of His own nature, and in what sin is before Him. They themselves would incur similar awful judgments if they followed them in their sin, of which their loathsome gods of lust and murder were the full outcome and expression. There must be no dalliance with this evil, no league of any kind with those infected with it. Axe and fire must deal with all its symbols, and Israel must be wholly devoted to Him who had set His love upon them in all their insignificance, and in that love, and faithful to His promise to their fathers, had now redeemed them to Himself. Thus they knew God, this true and faithful God, — faithful in holy judgment as in loving mercy.

As to the enemy, a besieged town was always to have the offer of peace by submission. If it resisted, it suffered the penalty of resisting God, not man merely; but the non-combatants were to be spared. The Canaanites, as under the divine curse, are excepted from this. As to the land, the fruit-trees were not to be cut down, but left to minister to the support of life.

The last case provided for is where a whole city is gone astray from God, in which case it comes under the ban, and is to be destroyed utterly, never to be rebuilt. Thus only could the mercy of God go forth in blessing once more for the land.

Israel were called to fight the Lord's battles. The moment they put their foot upon the land of it was war to the knife with the doomed inhabitants. "Of the cities of these people which the Lord God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breathes." This was distinct and emphatic. The seed of Abraham were not only to possess the land of Canaan, but they were to be God's instruments in executing His just judgement upon the guilty inhabitants, whose sins had risen up to heaven, and become absolutely intolerable.

Saul was bidden by Samuel as the mouthpiece of God to utterly destroy Amalek, who was the implacable enemy of God’s people. Man, woman, infant, suckling, ox, sheep, camel, ass, all had to be utterly destroyed. We may not call in question God’s decrees. They are altogether justified. The circumstances call for them.