Scripture: When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.” And the LORD heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.
Numbers 21:1-3 ESV
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Observation: Yesterday’s Daily Focus marks the transition of the first generation of wilderness wanderers to the second in preparation for entering the Promised Land. Having circumnavigated Edom, they now draw near to the Jordan in south-central Moab. At the base of Mount Hor, the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron and informs them that the time has come to gather Aaron to his people. So Yahweh commands Moses to take Aaron and his son Eleazar up the mountain, where Aaron will vest Eleazar in his holy garments. After completing the ceremonial transfer of priestly leadership, the Lord takes Aaron to his heavenly home. Then, upon returning to the base camp without Aaron, they wept with the nation for thirty days over their deceased high priest in honor of his nearly forty years of service.
The setting for today’s reading is a battlefield in the region of Arad in the Negev (located approximately twenty miles south of Hebron and twenty-five miles north of Mount Hor, where Aaron died). The impetus for the conflict is that Arad’s king hears that Israel, the same tribal nation that had suffered a devastating defeat forty years earlier in the neighboring territory, is approaching the northern edge of the Dead Sea in Moab. So he preemptively leads a raid on Israel and takes captives.
But this is a new generation with no personal memory of the prior devastating loss. Hence, Israel vows to the Lord that if he gives these Canaanites over to them, they will devote their enemy’s cities to destruction, following the command their elders failed to uphold. Pleased with their intent, the Lord fulfills his end of the promise and hands this Canaanite king and his army over to Israel, who then razes Arad’s cities. Accordingly, the victors name the place Hormah (ḥormāh), a noun related to the verb ḥāram (“to devote to destruction”).
Takeaway: There’s more to naming this battleground (Hormah) than its literal meaning. The previous generation’s failed campaign against the Canaanites and Amalekites resulted in a devastating defeat. Indeed, their adversaries pursued Israel beyond the Canaanite border to an adjacent region called Hormah (Numbers 14:45). Thus, with the reversal of fortunes, they renamed the battleground Hormah in honor of God granting them victory, thereby redressing the disgrace of their fathers.
Our takeaway? The idea of devoting an enemy to destruction for God is problematic from our modern perspective of justice and mercy. Why would a loving God command his people to “devote to destruction” any human life? From the historical context, Israel’s conquest aligns with Yahweh’s divine pronouncement to Abraham that his offspring will sojourn to a foreign land where they will serve their master under affliction for four hundred years. But at the appointed time, they will return to Canaan “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Genesis 15:16b ESV). Thus, as theologian Ronald Allen contends, “The cup of iniquity of the people of the land was now full; Israel was to be the instrument of the Lord’s judgment to cleanse the land of the people who had polluted it” (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Numbers, p.874 ).
From a theological standpoint, this is not a choice between whether God is acting justly or mercifully. His judgment against unrepentant nations, past and present, is based on his attribute of holiness that must not be compromised by dwelling among people of unatoned sin. Thus, our Lord demonstrates justice and mercy in bringing even his chosen people to account through the later-to-come second exile. The ultimate example, however, is the sacrifice of his only begotten Son: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV). Indeed, being “devoted to destruction,” Christ incarnated our loving Father’s justice and mercy by drinking the cup of our iniquities and thus removing the barrier of our sin so that he and the Father might dwell with and in us.
Still, being uncompromising regarding not dwelling with people of unatoned sin, at that moment when his Son bore our sins in his body, the Father turned away from the Son, causing the Son to suffer an existential agony that far exceeded his physical pain. Yet, Christ endured his cross, scorning its shame for the “joy” set before him: we, his brothers and sisters (Hebrews 12:2).
Our part? If we fully understood the ravages of unchecked sin manifested in serial murders, genocides, and a holocaust, we would better understand why our loving God would command his people to destroy vessels of sin. While this is not justification for capital punishment or holy wars, we as ambassadors of Christ should very much be about the mission to transform the darkened, sin-infested corners of our world with the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God; Ephesians 6:17), our prayers for our those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44), and our sacrificial love for our enemies (Matthew 5:44)—all of which invoke his justice and mercy.
Prayer: Father God, thank you for your Son, who devoted his human body to destruction to cover our sins and rescue us from ruin. So, please help us pay it forward by engaging in his ongoing mission to expand his kingdom to the godless stretches of our world, invoking your justice and mercy through Scripture, prayer, and sacrificial love that spark the birth of spiritual, eternal beings filled with divine grace. Amen.
Rev. Gordon Green, M.Div., M.A. Counseling
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