Day 299 - Deuteronomy 20

From: Chapter-A-Day: Volume 1 By: Norman W. Berry

Deuteronomy 20 • 1 min. read • grade level: 7

V.1-4 This will sound hard to believe, that the loving, tender God who we know, could be the same Person as we read of here, leading people into war! Maybe 1 Cor. 15:46 and 10:11 will help us. The Lord is teaching us lessons in our new spiritual life from the physical lessons of the Old Testament. Israel’s enemies were the nations living around them, about 14 of them — our enemies are those around us who Satan uses to attract us to go back into the world from which the Lord has taken us. (Read Eph. 6:11-12¹¹Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹²For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:11‑12)). Do you get the idea? It wasn’t how well they could fight, or how good their weapons were, but to realize that God was their Leader and their strength. We need to realize this too.

V.5-9 Notice how carefully God makes arrangements for all these cases. Those who were afraid were not worthy to go out to battle.

V.10-11 God did not delight in battles. But He was going to give them the whole land.

V.13-15 How to treat the nations farther away from Israel.

V.16-20 How to treat those in the land they were going to possess.