GOD DIRECTED ISRAEL TO DESTROY THE GENTILE NATIONS IN THE PROMISED LAND
Among the most difficult scriptures to understand are those in which God directs Israel to destroy the nations that currently occupied the land. Taken literally, this sounds like God wants his people to kill everyone who currently lives there. Stopping a moment to think about it, however, this makes no sense at all because God does not want anyone to perish.
God’s literal command symbolically represents his command to destroy the religious practices and gods that others worship. If people have set themselves up as gods (i.e., spiritual authorities with the power to direct behaviors and worship) of one kind or another (i.e., religious leaders, business leaders, politicians, bullies, abusers etc.), their status as gods — not the people themselves — should be destroyed. As gods, they compete with God for the service, worship and affection of his people. Because God commanded that his people should have no other Gods before him, it is predictable that he would want to destroy all spiritual entities and structures, both physical and organizational, that stand in the way of this commandment. This includes the destruction of all the ways that anyone might represent and promote themselves as gods that others might choose to follow or serve. They may look spiritual and even have a form of godliness that attracts people to them, but they are Defiled Religions based on human traditions that are to be avoided and destroyed.
God’s purpose in destroying these religious structures and people was not and is not just to remove them so that people involved in those systems will repent and follow him. His more immediate purpose is to destroy them to remove them from temptation so that Israel will not be drawn into following and serving those gods. God knows very well that his people, both Jews and Gentile Christians have a predisposition to follow other gods. This predisposition is very evident in the Golden Calf incident, the Balaam incident and in the examples of the Northern Kingdom’s high places. These temptations are the Giants in the Land that God has challenged his people to face and conquer.