Deuteronomy 7:12 - Meaning and Application

Here, the warning against idolatry is repeated, along with the warning not to have fellowship with idolaters. “You must destroy those peoples and not serve their gods” (Deuteronomy 7:16). If we enjoy the company of people who do evil, we are in danger of joining their dark works ourselves. Moses also repeats the command to destroy the idols (Deuteronomy 7:25, 26).

The idols the nations had worshiped were hateful to God, so they must be hateful to Israel too. Anyone who truly loves God will hate what he hates. Notice how strongly this is stated: they must “completely detest” and “utterly abhor” it. We too should feel a holy anger toward sin, that dreadful thing the Lord hates. They must not keep the silver or gold on the idols for greed, as if it were a shame to destroy it. Achan paid dearly for taking for himself what God had set apart for destruction.

They must not keep the idols out of curiosity either, as if they were fine objects to hang up in the house or save as ancient relics. No, the fire was the proper place for them. Two reasons are given. First, so they would not be trapped by them, meaning that they might slowly come to like and respect what they should hate. Second, so they would not become cursed things like the idols themselves (Deuteronomy 7:25, 26). Anything that leads us into a trap also puts us under a curse.

Next, Moses speaks at length about God’s blessing if they obey. The rich and steady way he says this shows how much God wants his people to be faithful, and how good it is for us when we are. God gives every assurance that if they sincerely do their part in the covenant, he will certainly do his. “He will keep the mercy he swore to your fathers” (Deuteronomy 7:12). If we stay steady in our duty, we can trust God’s mercy to stay steady too.

If they love God, serve him, and give themselves and their families to him, he will love them, bless them, and greatly multiply them (Deuteronomy 7:13, 14). What more could they want for true happiness? He will love them. God loved us first (1 John 4:10), and if we return his love in obedient devotion, we may expect that love to continue (John 14:21). He will bless them with signs of his favor above all peoples. If they set themselves apart in devoted service, God will honor them with special blessings. He will also multiply them. Increase was the ancient blessing for filling the earth (Genesis 1:28; 9:1), and here it means filling Canaan, that small world of its own. Their families and their goods would both increase. They would not have property without heirs, or heirs without enough to live on, but would enjoy children and provision together.

If they kept themselves free from the idols and practices of Egypt, God would keep them free from Egypt’s diseases (Deuteronomy 7:15). This seems to include not only the plagues that helped deliver them, but also other serious diseases common in Egypt, which God had used to punish that nation’s sins. Diseases serve God’s purpose, and they go where he sends them. So it is good for the health of the body to turn away from the sin of the soul.

If they destroyed the doomed nations, they would be able to destroy them, and no one would be able to stand against them. Their duty was also their advantage: “You shall consume all the people that the Lord your God gives over to you” (Deuteronomy 7:16). And the promise is that “the Lord your God will deliver them to you and will destroy them” (Deuteronomy 7:23). In the same way, we are commanded not to let sin rule over us, not to make room for it or encourage it, but to hate it and fight it. Then God has promised that sin will not rule over us (Romans 6:12, 14), and that we will be more than conquerors over it.

Because the conquest of Canaan had seemed hard and doubtful to their fathers, Moses strengthens them against whatever might discourage them. He tells them not to be afraid of the enemy, and repeats that warning again (Deuteronomy 7:18, 21). They should not be troubled by the enemy’s numbers and strength. They must not say, “These nations are stronger than I am. How can I drive them out?” (Deuteronomy 7:17). We often think the larger army must win, but Moses reminds Israel how God destroyed Pharaoh and all Egypt’s power (Deuteronomy 7:18, 19). They had seen the great signs and wonders by which God brought them out of Egypt. From that, they could easily conclude that he could also drive out the Canaanites. He had already done the greater work, so he could surely do the lesser. And if he had brought Israel out of Egypt, he would not abandon them before bringing them into Canaan. He who began the work would finish it.

They also must not be discouraged by their own weakness. God would send even hornets or wasps, as some read it, to help them (Deuteronomy 7:20). These creatures would likely be larger than usual and would terrify and harass the Canaanites, perhaps even killing many, so that Israel could overcome armies much larger than their own. God had punished Egypt with flies, but Canaan with hornets. Those who do not learn from lighter judgments on others may face heavier ones themselves. Yet Israel’s greatest comfort was this, God was among them, a mighty and awesome God (Deuteronomy 7:21). If God is with us, we do not need to fear what any creature can do against us.

They should also not be discouraged if the conquest moved slowly. The Canaanites would not be driven out all at once, but little by little (Deuteronomy 7:22). We should not think that because the church’s rescue or the defeat of its enemies does not happen at once, it will never happen.

God will do his own work in his own way and at his own time, and we can be sure his way is best. In the same way, the corruption in believers’ hearts is driven out little by little. The work of sanctification, which means being made holy, goes on gradually, but in the end God will bring that judgment to full victory.

The reason given here, as in (Exodus 23:29-30), is, “Lest the beast of the field increase upon you.” God gave the earth to human beings, so it is better for some Canaanites to remain until Israel grows large enough to fill the land than for it to become a place for wild animals, like a home for desert beasts (Isaiah 34:13-14). God could have kept that danger from the wild animals (Leviticus 26:6), but pride, ease, and other sins that often grow out of settled prosperity were even more dangerous. Those sins would be more likely to increase among them than the beasts of the field (Judges 3:1, 3:4).