Word of Encouragement (11/02/2022)

The prayer we have in this passage is an “imprecatory” prayer. To imprecate is to invoke evil or curse on others. The Israelites are asking God to give the Canaanites into their hands. Should God give them victory, they would devote them to utter destruction. To find this kind of prayer in the Bible makes us uncomfortable. It sounds too cruel and vindictive. There are times we may feel angry enough to think bad thoughts about others. But this prayer is extreme, isn’t it? We feel this way because we know what Jesus said: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). We know that we should not pray this kind of prayer against the people, who may give us a hard time.

Then, why did God answer their prayer? God did not rebuke their prayer or ignore it as a bad prayer. He delivered the Canaanites into their hands according to their imprecatory prayer! Was God encouraging their vindictiveness? Was He simply acting like a tribal deity, favoring his people just because they were his people? Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Canaanites drew the first blood. It was at the very least an act of self-defense, which would qualify Israel’s retaliation as a just war.

Of course, many will point out the extreme measure that the Israelites had taken: the Canaanites managed to take some for captives; the Israelites devoted them to destruction—that is, they did not leave any survivors and burned all their houses and possessions. There was nothing “just” about their vengeance, was there?

We must keep in mind that Israel’s military campaign against the Canaanites (not just against Arad) was more than a “just” war; it was a “holy” war. Even though the Israelites took the initiative in this particular battle, Israel’s war against the Canaanites as a whole was sanctioned by God. Why did God sanction it? Because the sin of the Canaanites (or the Amorites) reached its full measure and the time of God’s judgment had arrived (Gen. 15:16). Israel was acting as an instrument of God to bring judgment against them. That is why the Canaanites had to be wholly devoted to destruction.

God in His providence can use any nation to bring judgment on a nation, which reached its full measure of sin. But only Israel’s war against the Canaanites was explicitly sanctioned by God. This was because Israel was a theocracy, which was given both God’s Word and the sword. Israel was an earthly representation of the kingdom of heaven: Israel’s war with other pagan nations represented the spiritual battle between the city of God and the city of man.

The church of Jesus Christ is not a theocracy. Instead of the Word of God and the sword, the church has received the Word of God and the keys of the kingdom of God. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). This extends to our personal relationships, too—thus, Jesus’ command to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. The only imprecatory prayer we should offer to God is against sin (ours and others’) and against Satan and his minions. One day, the LORD will devote them wholly to destruction (by thrusting them into hell forever) because Christ has already overcome them. If so, we should pray that our lives would reflect that future and our present participation in the victory of Christ (however imperfect).  

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