Faithful on Fridays Blog

Part Four

One thing I’ve learned about God is that He tolerates wickedness for a time, conversely, when He’s ready, takes vengeance; for example, the Amorites. The most powerful tribe of ‘ites’ living in Canaan, the Promised Land, were known for their intense idolatry and evil practices including deviant forms of sexual immorality, child sacrifice, and shedding of innocent blood. These customs were viewed by God as atrocious, repulsive, vile, and yet He was patient.

After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction. Genesis 15:16

It’s no surprise that eventually God required His chosen people to completely destroy them for they defiled the land God gifted to them and that spiritual influence must be driven out.

In those towns that the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 20:16-18

God was and is serious. Spiritual influences who defy Him will only lead you into sin and it’s consequences as seen in Gaza recently. Satan is also patient, waiting for just the right time to attack, as the Amorites, with detestable, loathsome, and despicable warfare tactics. It seems as if the land of Gaza, part of the Promised Land, is ready to purge these practices from the land once again.

Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways. Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out. Leviticus 18:24-25

Decapitating babies, violent rape, and murderous atrocities may warrant the destruction of Hamas, the Amorite spirit or influence, when His measure of their sins is complete. 

God brought Joshua and the Hebrew people over the Jordan River (Josh. 24) and into Israel with the promise of victory over the ‘ites’ but also to the value of worshipping God alone.

But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

Israel decided to serve the LORD, their God, and obey Him alone. Last week rabbis called for a National Day of Prayer in Jerusalem and many joined them, Jew and Gentile alike, crying out for help from the God of their salvation as their ancestors had done. That’s the Biblical perspective we follow as well.