God Acts To Remove Wickedness

The Deluge of Noah's day was a case of such intervention. Says Genesis 6:11, 12: "The earth came to be ruined in the sight of the true God and the earth became filled with violence. So God saw the earth and, look! It was ruined, because all flesh had ruined its way on the earth." Would God allow the wicked to snuff out the last vestige of morality left on earth? No. Jehovah felt obliged to bring a global deluge to rid the earth of those who were bent on violence and immorality.

It was similar with God's judgment against the Canaanites. Jehovah revealed that out of Abraham would come a "seed" through which all the families of the earth would bless themselves. In harmony with that purpose, God decreed that Abraham's offspring would be given the land of Canaan, a land inhabited by a people called the Amorites. How could God be justified in forcibly evicting these people from their land? Jehovah foretold that the eviction would not come for some 400 years - until "the error of the Amorites" had "come to completion." (Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14, 15; 15:13, 16; 22:18) During that period of time, the Amorites sand deeper and deeper into moral corruption. Canaan became a land of idolatry, bloodshed and degraded sexual practices. (Exodus 33:24; 34:12, 13; Numbers 33:52) The inhabitants of the land even killed children in sacrificial fires. Could a holy God expose his people to such wickedness? No! He declared: "The land is unclean, and I shall bring punishment for its error upon it, and the land will vomit its inhabitants out." (Leviticus 18:21-25) Jehovah did not kill the people indiscriminately, however. Rightly disposed Canaanites, such as Rahab and the Gibeonites, were spared. -Joshua 6:25; 9:3-27.

Next time: Fighting In Behalf Of His Name

Draw Close To Jehovah, 2002