Deuteronomy Chapter 7
Commands to Conquer and Obey
A. The Conquest of the Canaanites is Commanded
1. (Deuteronomy 7:1–5) – King James Version (KJV)
“When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.”
God speaks through Moses with absolute certainty, not saying if Israel enters the land, but when the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land. Israel has not yet crossed the Jordan River, but God speaks as though it is already accomplished, proving that His promises are guaranteed, and His plans are not dependent on Israel’s strength but on His faithfulness. He lists the seven nations of Canaan—greater and mightier than Israel—to remind them of their own weakness and the impossibility of success without divine intervention. God leads His people into battles they cannot win on their own so that they might learn dependence on Him rather than their own ability.
God commands Israel not merely to defeat these nations but to utterly destroy them. They were not to make covenants, treaties, alliances, or even show mercy. This was not cruelty, but holiness. These nations were steeped in idolatry, ritual prostitution, and child sacrifice. To allow them to remain would result in Israel compromising with evil and eventually adopting their abominations. God knows the human heart. Intermarriage would not convert the pagans to righteousness, it would convert Israel’s children to idolatry. This is why God says, for they will turn away thy son from following me, showing that spiritual corruption often enters slowly through relationships.
The command to destroy altars, images, sacred groves, and carved idols shows that God does not tolerate divided worship. He rejects all syncretism, where His people attempt to worship Him and tolerate idols at the same time. Their obedience required not only removing the enemy but removing every symbol, structure, and reminder of false worship. God knows that what we fail to destroy will eventually enslave us. Many believers want to weaken sin, but not utterly destroy it. They want to manage it, not crucify it. Yet the Lord commands complete obedience, for anything less invites future defeat.
2. (Deuteronomy 7:6–8) – King James Version (KJV)
“For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
God reminds Israel that their calling to destroy the Canaanites is not rooted in hatred but in holiness and love. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God. This means they were set apart, not first by behavior, but by divine choice. Their holiness is positional before it is practical. God chose them for Himself, to be a special people, His treasured possession, above all the nations of the earth. This was not because of their greatness, strength, or population, but purely because of His sovereign love and His covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s love is self-originating, not a response to human merit. Israel was the fewest of all people, insignificant in the world’s eyes, but chosen by God to display His glory.
Their obedience, therefore, is to be motivated not by fear or legal duty alone but by the knowledge that the LORD loved you. When a person truly believes that God loves them, obedience becomes a willing act of devotion, not a burden. The same God who loved them also redeemed them. He brought them out of the house of bondmen by a mighty hand, breaking the power of Pharaoh. This redemption is both historical and theological: Israel belongs to God by creation, covenant, and redemption. Because they are His, they must not compromise with idols or pagan nations. To tolerate sin or marry into idolatry is spiritual adultery against the God who loved and redeemed them.
3. (Deuteronomy 7:9–11) – King James Version (KJV)
“Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.”
Moses declares the character of God as the foundation for obedience. Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God. Israel is commanded to recognize, not merely feel, that Yahweh alone is God. He is the faithful God, steadfast, unchanging, and entirely trustworthy. He keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments. His faithfulness to His promises stretches beyond human memory or lineage. Yet this same faithfulness also applies to judgment. God will repay them that hate him to their face. His justice is personal, direct, and unavoidable. He delays at times, but He is never slack. Those who persist in hatred and rebellion, like the Canaanites did for centuries, will face Him and be destroyed.
Because God is faithful in mercy and faithful in judgment, Israel must respond with obedience. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments. This is not legalistic servitude but covenant loyalty. The people must obey not only because God loves them, but also because He is holy and just. To disobey Him is to align oneself with those He will judge. To obey Him is to walk in the blessing, protection, and covenant love He freely gives. Israel’s conquest of Canaan, therefore, is an act of justice against wickedness and a demonstration of God’s faithfulness to His promises.
B. Blessing on an Obedient Israel
1. (Deuteronomy 7:12–16) – King James Version (KJV)
“Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee: thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.”
God now reveals His promised blessings for obedience. He begins by saying that if Israel listens to His judgments, keeps them, and does them, then He will keep His covenant and mercy that He swore to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This does not mean God’s love is earned, but that covenant blessings are experienced through faithful obedience. God’s love is constant, but His blessings are conditional upon their willingness to walk in His ways. He promises to love them, bless them, and multiply them. This blessing touches every aspect of life. Their families will grow, the fruit of the womb will be blessed. Their grain, wine, and oil will prosper. Their cattle and flocks will increase. God ties His blessing to the land He swore to give their fathers, showing that obedience brings fruitfulness in the very place God planted them.
Israel will be blessed above all peoples. Unlike the surrounding pagan nations that suffered infertility as a curse from their false gods, God promises that among His people there will not be a male or female barren, nor even among their livestock. This shows that God alone is the giver of life. He also promises physical health and national protection, saying He will take away all sickness and will not place upon them the diseases of Egypt which they had seen and feared. These diseases were judgments upon Egypt’s idolatry and rebellion. God would instead lay such afflictions upon those who hate His people.
But with blessing comes responsibility. God says they must destroy the nations He delivers to them. Their eye must not pity. Mercy towards what God has condemned becomes rebellion. They must not serve the gods of those nations, for doing so will become a snare, a trap that leads to spiritual ruin. God reminds them that His blessings are never an excuse to tolerate sin. The land would flourish only if it remained free from idolatry. Israel must not only receive God’s covenant blessings, they must guard those blessings by complete obedience and zeal for holiness.
2. (Deuteronomy 7:17–24) – King James Version (KJV)
“If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.
And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.”
God anticipates the fear that would rise in Israel’s heart when they looked upon the fortified cities, trained armies, and powerful nations that stood before them. They might say within themselves, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? God does not condemn the reality of their fear, but He commands them not to submit to it. Instead, they are to remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt. The memory of God’s past faithfulness becomes the foundation for present courage. They saw with their own eyes the plagues, the signs, the wonders, the Red Sea parted, and Pharaoh’s armies drowned. The God who destroyed Egypt is the same God who now leads them into Canaan. What He has done before, He can do again.
God promises He will act. He will send the hornet among the Canaanites, whether this refers to literal stinging insects, supernatural panic, or consuming fear, it means God Himself will weaken the enemy from within. Israel is told, Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. His presence is their strength. This is not their battle alone, it is the Lord’s war carried out through His people. Yet God also tells them He will not drive out all their enemies at once. Instead, He will remove them by little and little. This delay is not a failure of power but an act of wisdom. If the land were emptied instantly, wild animals would multiply, fields would go untended, and chaos would spread. God’s timing protects His people from consequences they cannot foresee.
This teaches that God’s work often unfolds gradually, not because He is unable to act swiftly, but because He cares for His people’s growth and preservation. Israel may have desired immediate possession of the land, but God desired their maturity, faith, and sustainability. He would deliver kings into their hands. Their enemies’ names would be erased from under heaven. No one would be able to stand against them. But this victory would require patience, obedience, and trust in the God who fights for them. Their conquest of Canaan would be both miraculous and methodical, divine and disciplined, proving that God’s ways are perfect even when they are not immediate.
3. (Deuteronomy 7:25–26) – King James Version (KJV)
“The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.
Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.”
God concludes this section by commanding Israel to deal ruthlessly with idolatry. They are to burn the graven images of pagan gods with fire. Not only were they to refuse worship of these idols, they were to eliminate their existence entirely. Israel was forbidden to keep even the silver or gold that decorated these idols. What the world might see as valuable, God calls a snare. To take the gold from an idol was to make profit from idolatry and to bring a cursed object into fellowship with what is holy. God makes it clear that anything dedicated to false worship is an abomination to Him. Spiritual danger does not only exist in bowing before an idol, but also in bringing pieces of that idolatry into one’s life under the excuse of usefulness, beauty, or wealth.
God warns them not to bring these abominations into their homes lest they become cursed like the thing they possess. This reveals a solemn truth. What a person allows into their home often finds its way into their heart. The Lord does not permit idols to be repurposed, remodeled, or stored away. They must be destroyed. He commands His people to utterly detest it, and utterly abhor it. This is not casual dislike, but holy hatred against that which attempts to dethrone God. Idolatry is not just sin, it is spiritual treason. Therefore Israel must not tolerate it in any form, large or small. They are to view idols the same way God does, as detestable and cursed things.
This command applies spiritually today. Believers must not only avoid worshiping false gods, but must also reject anything that competes for ultimate devotion, whether it be material wealth, sexual immorality, occult practices, or worldly ideologies. What God calls cursed must not be entertained, collected, or admired. Holiness demands separation, not admiration of the things God hates. Israel’s victory in the land depended not only on defeating armies, but on cleansing their hearts and homes. To conquer Canaan and then keep its idols would be hypocrisy and disaster. To obey this command was to protect their future, their families, their worship, and their fellowship with God.
