“The Question Regarding ‘Cherem’ ” 4-28-24

Overview

The Question of Cherem: Reconciling God's Love and God's Judgment

Hebrew is a language rich with words that warm the heart. Shalom greets another with the desire for peace and well-being. Hesed describes the unshakable, bedrock love of God. But there is another word that has troubled readers for centuries: cherem—meaning "appointed for utter destruction." It appears in passages like Deuteronomy 20:16-17, where God commands Israel concerning the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites: "you must not let anything that breathes remain alive." How do we reconcile this command with the God who is love 1 John 4:16, the God whose Son tells us to love our enemies Luke 6:35-36? The early heretic Marcion couldn't reconcile it and simply discarded the Old Testament along with parts of the New. That is not an option for the faithful. Scripture provides its own answers.

The first answer is found in the very next verse: "so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord your God" Deuteronomy 20:18. The cherem protected the covenant people. In Genesis 12:1-3, God promised Abraham land, offspring, and blessing—and through that offspring would come the Messiah, the blessing for all nations. The peoples of the land practiced abominations God had explicitly warned against Leviticus 18:24-30, and Exodus 23:31-33 makes clear that any covenant with them or their gods would be "a snare." God prohibited syncretism—the blending of true worship with false—because such blending would have destroyed the very people through whom salvation would come.

The second answer is tucked into a verse easy to overlook: "they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" Genesis 15:16. For four hundred years, God gave the peoples of the land time to repent. His judgment was never hasty or impulsive; God is immutable, never seized by fits of rage. Rather, judgment came when the time of His patience had reached its end. Peter applies the same principle to our own day: "The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief" 2 Peter 3:9-10.

We live now between Christ's first coming to save and His second coming to judge—in the time of God's patience. If His mercy is spurned, only His justice remains. But here is the gospel: Jesus has gone to the cross and borne our sin; the tomb is empty, the sacrifice accepted. In Holy Baptism—a "last judgment in miniature," as Luther called it—God claims us as His own and gives us the victory of the cross. Through Word and Sacrament He sustains and strengthens the faith He has given. So we do not live in fear of the day His patience ends; we pray, "Come, Lord Jesus, come." And in the meantime, we go and tell others of the One who prepares us for that day.

Transcript

Would you open your Bibles please with me for our study today to the book of Deuteronomy 3s

in the Old Testament, the 20th chapter. 9s

If you are using a Pue edition of Holy Scripture, you are going to find that on page 164 13s

in the Old Testament. 18s

Deuteronomy the 20th chapter for our study today. 20s

Shallow. 28s

Shallow. 29s

It is really a multifaceted word. 30s

It can mean, hello. 36s

It can mean, goodbye at the heart of it is extending the desire for the person that you 40s

bring that greeting to that they might have peace and good health. 47s

So, beautiful, beautiful, rich, rich Hebrew word. 54s

There is another Hebrew word. 62s

Hescent. 64s

Hescent. 66s

That means the unshakable love of God. 68s

The unshakable love of God. 74s

God's love is indeed glorious that we read of in Scripture and the descriptor of 78s

then of God's love in Hescent being unshakable. 84s

It is that solid bedrock that unchangeable nature and expression of love. 90s

Hescent. 98s

That is a beautiful, beautiful word. 99s

Hebrew is full of rich, rich words that invoke such a positive response. 104s

And then there is chara. 118s

Chara. 123s

Over the centuries, that word has invoked a question, a question. 124s

The Bible tells us in Genesis 12th chapter of a great, great covenant that God had made 141s

with Abram and Sarah. 149s

We know a little bit later as Abraham and Sarah. 151s

It was a one-directional covenant. 155s

In other words, God said, this is what I'm going to do for you. 157s

And we read in Scripture in the 12th chapter of Genesis. 163s

It says, now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your 166s

father's house to the land that I will show you. 173s

I will make a view a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. 178s

So that you will be a blessing. 185s

I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you, I will curse. 189s

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 196s

That is a foundational covenant in Holy Scripture. 203s

We see the redemption story played out page after page after page in Holy Scripture. 206s

We see God living out this covenant. 213s

And you can reduce the covenant to a little acronym. 217s

You can use law before it. 220s

Does it help someone remember what the covenant was? 223s

Land L, O offspring, B, blessing, long. 227s

There's Genesis 12th. 232s

God said, I'm going to give you a land. 235s

To give you offspring from Abraham and Sarah, God promised would come this great nation. 238s

And out of that great nation would come the Messiah that would be the blessing. 247s

The blessing for all. 255s

Land, offspring, blessing. 258s

If all of the story as God manifests its his covenant, 264s

we see the great offspring that God brings about. 270s

We see how the people became so numerous. 274s

We see how they wound up in Egypt under the impressive hand of the Pharaoh. 277s

But God freeing them, propelling them to the promised land. 285s

We read when they come to the red sea and the hoof beats of Pharaoh's army is behind them. 292s

And God pulls the waters back of the red sea into his people walk across undrient ground. 299s

God's grace that even their feet didn't get muddy. 310s

We follow the story. 316s

We read of the giving of the ten commandments. 320s

God codifying what he wrote in the heart of the human being. 326s

We know in the heart that murders wrong. 333s

We know in the heart that stealing is wrong, et cetera. 335s

And what God did with the ten commandments is he codified the natural law written in the heart. 339s

The ten commandments never ever, ever given to save. 346s

It was a codification. 350s

It was a writing down of what he writes in the heart. 351s

We follow the story with regard to the people. 360s

We go from Moses to Joshua and the conquest of the land that God has written. 364s

God had promised. 376s

And we read in the 20th chapter of Deuteronomy, beginning with verse 16. 380s

But as for the tones of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, 390s

you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. 398s

You shall annihilate them. 406s

The hittites and the amorites, the keenonites, the parasites, the hyvites and the jibbiusites. 411s

Just as the Lord your God has come at it. 418s

Embedded in that verse is the word. 428s

Charam. 434s

Charam. 435s

That word that invokes the question. 438s

That word means appointed for other destruction. 441s

To annihilate them, the hittites and the amorites, the keenonites and the parasites, the hyvites and the 471s

jibbiusites, just as the Lord your God has commanded. 479s

And that's the issue, isn't it? 488s

That's the issue. 491s

Because the command here to do this, as God's people come into the land, 495s

God's command there to annihilate the people that are in the land. 503s

God's command to invoke the Charam upon them. 510s

That command comes from God. 515s

And that's the question that evokes then with regard to the word Charam, 522s

since it comes from God, why? 530s

And really theologian, the name of Marcian. 544s

He wrestled with this. 549s

And Marcian's solution is he threw out the Old Testament. 551s

He threw it out. 558s

He threw out parts of the new. 559s

That's why he's understood as a heretic today. 561s

Because he threw out the Old Testament and he threw out parts of the new. 567s

He said, because he couldn't reconcile it. 572s

He couldn't reconcile it. 576s

How on the one hand, Scripture speaks of a God of love. 579s

And then on the other hand, you have God's command to Charam the people, 582s

to annihilate them, to utterly destroy them. 591s

He couldn't understand that. 594s

So he jettisones the Old Testament. 598s

He jettisones parts of the New Testament. 600s

Beloved, that's not an option. 603s

It's not an option for us to do that. 604s

And certainly not to defend Marcian at all. 608s

But how do you reconcile it? 615s

How do you reconcile it? 618s

Jesus says, as was read in our Gospel today, in Luke, 623s

the sixth chapter, he says, but love your enemies. 628s

Do good and lend expecting nothing in return. 633s

Your reward will be great. 640s

And you will be children of the most high. 642s

For he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 646s

Be merciful just as your father is merciful. 652s

You've got Luke 6. 678s

And then you've got Deuteronomy 20 and other passages. 684s

You've got the Charam. 689s

How do you reconcile it with what John writes in 1st John 4th chapter? 693s

When he says, so we have known and believed the love that God has for us. 698s

God is love. 704s

And those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them. 706s

And to reconcile, verse 18 gives one of two answers to the question. 718s

Two answers. 731s

Verse 18 gives the first of why God institutes the Charam as the people come into the land. 733s

Look, please, at verse 18 of our text. 743s

Right after he says in 17, you shall annihilate them. 748s

The hit types and the amorites, the canonites and the parasites, the hybites and the jibbiusites. 752s

Just as the Lord your God has commanded you. 757s

It says, so that. 761s

Okay, so there's the clause. 763s

This is here's the rationale for it. 764s

Here's the reason for it. 766s

So that they may not teach you to do all the apparent things that they do for their gods. 767s

And you, the sin against the Lord, your God. 778s

There's a reason there. 783s

There's the reason clause. 785s

So that they may not teach you to do all the apparent things that they do for their gods. 787s

And you, the sin against the Lord, your God. 793s

When the people came into the Promised Land, the nations there were wicked. 801s

They were wicked. 808s

In Leviticus, the 18th chapter, God gives a warning to his people. 812s

And he says, do not defile yourselves in any of these ways for by these practices, the nations I'm casting out before you have defiled themselves. 817s

He then goes on to say, for whoever commits any of these abominations shall be cut off from their people. 832s

So keep my charge not to commit any of these abominations that were done before you and not to defile yourselves by them. 840s

I am the Lord, your God. 851s

I won't go into the abominations that spelled out in Scripture, but you see what God is appalled about. 854s

It's the abominations, it's the expression of the evil that was occurring from the people in the Land. 863s

That's the reason then, the first one that he says, so that you may not teach you to do all the apparent things that they do for their gods. 873s

And you thus sin against the Lord, your God. 885s

God imposes the Charam, because the people in the Land were a source of temptation for his people. 890s

He imposes the Charam, because this is the people that God had formed, Genesis 12, the covenant. 906s

This is the people that God had formed out of which would come the Messiah. 918s

And if those people did not survive, then what is put into absolute jeopardy, what would not occur is then the Messiah coming forth from the people if the people would be destroyed. 922s

What he's addressing is the issue of syncretism, what syncretism. 937s

Syncritism is God's prohibition on the blending of elements, the blending of elements from different religions, because God knows if there's a blending of the elements of different religions with his people, the people will be destroyed by it. 942s

That's why it's recorded in Exodus 23, chapter. 966s

I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the city of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Ufretis. 970s

For I will hand over to you the inhabitants of the Land, and you shall drive them out before you. 979s

You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. 987s

It will surely be a snare to you. 992s

Put succinctly, God calls for the Charam to protect his covenant people. 997s

For he cannot let his covenant people be destroyed. 1012s

For out of the covenant people comes the Messiah. 1022s

The question of Charam, the first response then, is God protecting his people. 1029s

There's a second reason. 1046s

There are between 725,000 and a little bit over 800,000 words in Holy Scripture. 1051s

Depends on the translation. 1065s

Outside of those translations that are paraphrases, the translations that are out there are some better than others. 1069s

There are. 1077s

But they're all faithfully trying to take the ancient text there out of Hebrew and Greek, and they're trying to bring it forward to today for our understanding and use of language. 1079s

So they're trying to be faithful to the ancient language and they're trying to bring it forward in an accurate way. 1094s

The reason why there's such disparity between the number of words in Holy Scripture is there are words that are simply just not a one to one equivalent coming out of Hebrew and Greek there. 1103s

So that's why the translators are trying to be faithful to the text there and they're going to come up with some different solutions sometime. 1112s

So 725,000 words to over 800,000 words depends on the translation. 1122s

Have you ever wondered why some of the verses are in the Bible? 1130s

Do you ever wonder why you put that one in God? 1138s

Because it doesn't seem well all that important. 1143s

But every word is a treasure, every word is God's inspired word. 1149s

And so the question then to ask is why is that in there? 1154s

I think of Genesis the 15th chapter. 1161s

There's a story of Abraham. 1164s

A deep sleep comes upon Abraham and God communicates to Abraham. 1166s

And God tells Abraham that his people are going to be aliens in a land that is not their own. 1173s

And they're going to be oppressed for 400 years. 1183s

And after the 400 years, God is going to free the people and they're going to leave with great possessions. 1185s

One looks then from Moses or from Abraham to Moses to Joshua. 1197s

And one sees then this line one sees the story. 1213s

And right after that count, the very next verse in Genesis the 15th chapter, 1218s

right after God gives to Abraham this prophetic view of what's going to happen with the people. 1223s

Right after he tells him you're going to die in an old age. 1230s

The scripture says this in Genesis 1516. 1233s

And it says, and they, speaking of the people, 1237s

and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. 1239s

Now remember the list in Deuteronomy 20, who is in the list? 1255s

Remember the Amorites? 1259s

There is one of the groups there. 1261s

God is saying that the people are going to come back here to this land that I am giving in the fourth generation, 1263s

because the iniquity of the Amorites isn't complete. 1273s

What is that tell us? 1279s

What is that tell us? 1282s

And one of those verses where you say, 1283s

I wonder why that's there? 1284s

What does that tell us? 1286s

His God was giving time for the people in the land to repent. 1291s

He was giving them time to turn around and go a different direction. 1306s

But what the response was was simply greater iniquity. 1314s

When God's judgment was realized, that was not a hasty action. 1324s

When God's judgment was realized, it was the expression that the time of his patience had come to an end. 1337s

God had given the prophetic word to Abraham. 1354s

He had given the time to repent. 1357s

And then the iniquity of the Amorites had come. 1360s

The iniquity of the people of the land had come to the point. 1365s

And the time of his patience came to an end. 1370s

The first reason then why the chairam was initiated was to protect the people. 1379s

The second reason was because the time of his patience had come to an end. 1384s

That's not how we can lose our patience. 1399s

So we can lose our patience. 1403s

We can just fly off the handle. 1404s

We can just do rash things and say rash words because we're just tired. 1407s

And we're just expressing in patient things. 1413s

That's not God. 1416s

God is immutable. 1420s

God does not change in who he is. 1421s

And so when the time of God's patience had come, this was not some kind of fit of rage. 1424s

This was not some type of divine temper tantrum where God said, 1431s

That's it. 1436s

That's it. 1437s

No. 1438s

Just to see it prophesied where there was no repentance, the time of his patience would end. 1441s

Peter writes, second Peter the third chapter. 1458s

The Lord is not slow about his promise as something of slowness. 1464s

What's the promise there? 1471s

The promise is the second coming of Christ. 1473s

What was the first coming? 1477s

Jesus comes to what? 1478s

Save. 1480s

Second coming, he comes to do what? 1481s

To judge. 1484s

So Peter writes, the Lord is not slow about his promise about his second coming. 1487s

To judge. 1492s

The Lord is not slow about his promise as something of slowness. 1493s

Now, can't you just ask Peter writes, but is patient with you? 1497s

Think back? 1502s

Genesis 1560. 1504s

God's patient with you. 1506s

Not wanting any to perish. 1509s

But all to come to repentance. 1512s

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. 1516s

When the Lord's second coming comes, 1529s

it's not out of a sense of God's anger. 1534s

That particular day God has just had enough of it. 1540s

The Father knows the day, the day. 1545s

Doodharotomy tells us that there was a time when the patience of God came to an end. 1551s

Peter tells us there will be a time when the patience of God's hands. 1566s

God will come to an end. 1574s

We live in the time of the patience of God. 1582s

And what is it that God desires? 1589s

But repentance. 1594s

Charam, God protected the people. 1600s

Secondly, the time for his patience had come to an end. 1603s

And with us beloved as we live in between the first coming and the second coming of Christ, 1608s

we live in the time of patience. 1614s

And what does the Scripture tell us? 1617s

But that the day will come. 1619s

When God's patience will end, 1623s

if the mercy of God is spurned, 1630s

then one is left simply with the justice of God. 1638s

Doodharotomy reminds us of that. 1648s

But here's the thing. 1658s

The Lord Jesus Christ has gone to the cross and bore all of our sin. 1664s

Your sin, my sin. 1669s

He's born at all. 1670s

We have peace with God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1675s

The tomb's empty, the sacrifice is accepted. 1680s

In our baptism, God calls us His own and washes us in His promises. 1687s

The next hour to little ones will be washed in the promises of God. 1694s

And each and every day they will be able to say, 1701s

I know of God's decision for me, 1705s

because in the waters of baptism, God calls us His own, 1709s

giving us the victory of the cross and the empty tomb. 1713s

He says, your mind, it is the last judgment in miniature, 1717s

what happens at the baptism. 1722s

And God and His grace continues to call us together 1726s

to receive the word and the sacrament whereby He sustains the faith 1732s

that He gives to us and He strengthens that faith. 1738s

That's the grace of God. 1744s

You see, here's the thing, right? 1748s

God has prepared us for the day when His patience comes to an end. 1751s

He's prepared us for the day. 1771s

That's why we live not in fear, 1778s

but we cry out, come, Lord Jesus, come. 1785s

In the meantime, go and tell. 1796s

Go and tell. 1803s

Go and tell of Him who prepares for the day. 1807s