Mercy
Alongside God's judgment in the Old Testament, I still see his unfailing mercy in his willing to work with an imperfect bunch of people who continually grieve him.
I'm not doing this because you're good, but because they're so horribly evil, and so I can keep the promise I made to your fathers. It also gives more of a clue into just how despicable these people were to warrant God's command to utterly destroy (chawram) them. Leviticus 18, 19, and 20 give us more of a clue to their perversions and the extent to which it gained God's specific attention like the world of Noah, and Sodom and Gomorrah before it. The Land of Canaan and the 7 nations on God's hit list.
Even so, God told Abraham, "I will not destroy the city if there are 10 righteous living there." This clues us into God's criteria for destroying cities and nations. You see God even have mercy on the righteous of these nations by allowing Israel to spare the Gibeonites and Rahab. So there's no indication in the bible that God destroys the righteous alongside the wicked.
Lets put this in modern language. Will God destroy such and such a nation? Not if there's enough righteous people (i.e. Christians). And if there's not, he always warns them to get out before the judgment comes (Lot's family, Rahab, etc.).
And let's be clear of one thing. Innocent blood spilled does cry out against you. See Genesis 4:10, Leviticus 18:24-30, Numbers 35:33. That's um, 50 million abortions and counting...
Created over 2 years ago
