God's Offer (Exodus 23:20-33; Jude 5) Series

So let me just quickly say four things on this:

(1) There's some tension between God's language about "annihilating," in verse 23, and the "driving out" in verse 28. You should maybe highlight these two words in your Bibles, to help you see that tension, and remember it. There's a big difference between "driving people out" of their land, and "annihilating" all of them. When we were in our Joshua series, we saw how this idea play out over and over in Joshua. MOST people were driven away. The ones who stayed to fight, were committed to destroying God's people (because their leaders were from the competing Nephilim blood line). And they are the ones who got killed. [I unpack this in the Sons of God, and Joshua series.]

(2) God's judgment on these people groups is justified because of how they lived. They worshipped other elohim. They did detestable practices. And so part of why God gave the land to Israel, is as an act of judgment on the local inhabitants (Read Deuteronomy 9:1-6?).

(3) God's judgment on these groups is motivated in part by his desire to wipe out Nephilim (so also Deuteronomy 9:2). The first group God mentions, in particular-- the Amorites-- are closely connected to the descendants of the Nephilim. And one of God's main goals in the conquest is to wipe out these people-- people like Agag, and Goliath.

(4) The same judgment God brings against these people, God will later threaten to bring against his own people if they rebel. God's expectations are clear-- He demands obedience, and loyalty. And if we read the OT as a whole, we see that there is no partiality with God. When God brought Assyria and Babylon against his own people, He treated his own people in the same way that the Hivites and Jebusites were treated (Jude 5).

If you've found yourself always struggling with the conquest, and feeling bad for the Canaanites, I hope all of that helps. We don't need to be nervous about it. And we for sure don't need to say that the OT reflects a lower, less-evolved, ethical framework.

At this point, let's try to drag our way back to the text. When we read verses 20-28, our passage up to this point, as a whole, what do we see?

What God is doing here, is making an offer to his people. If God's people do their part-- (1) if they obey God's angel, (2) if they treat him with respect, (3) if they refuse to worship and serve other gods, (4) if they cut down the sacred poles dedicated to other gods, (5) and if they refuse to make a covenant with the locals-- then God will bless them with the most important blessings in this life.

He will bless their food, and their water. He will remove all sickness from their midst. No one will be sick with pneumonia, or covid, or the flu. No one will have cancer. God will make every female in the land perfectly fertile. Women, and animals (h/t William Propp), will successfully get pregnant, successfully stay pregnant, and successfully give birth. God will give everyone long, full lives. And God will make sure that every battle they fight, is completely unfair in their benefit (Romans 16:20). God will turn their enemies, so that the back of their neck is exposed. He will send the hornet against their enemies, so that the majority simply leave.