Wow…
tons of great questions in this thread! Let’s see if I can’t do justice to answers to some of them…
Thorns, your questions could be interpreted as asking, “why didn’t God
force all nations to be pure at the same time?”… but I don’t think that’s what you’re asking. (After all, if God
forced us, then He would be taking back the gift of free will that He gave us. So… if that’s what you were thinking, there’s your answer right there: God never
forces actions upon us.) But, what I think you’re really asking is, “if God was willing to let the Israelites have the opportunity to come to Him, then why didn’t He extend that opportunity to
everyone, all at once?”
That answer is pretty straightforward: have you read the Old Testament and seen how absolutely pitifully the Israelites responded to God’s invitation? Time and again, they sinned, and disobeyed God, and failed to live up to the promises that they made to Him. So, I ask you: if God’s own chosen people were so unable to fulfill God’s will… then how do you think that the whole world – who had no relationship with God anything like the relationship that the Israelites had with Him! – would have fared? With that in mind, I don’t think it’s a great stretch to suggest that God’s plan was, in fact, the best possible approach to bringing humanity back to God.
If you read the Scriptures carefully, you’ll see that God places these peoples “under the ban;” sometimes, you’ll see it translated as “doom.” The word that’s being used here is the word that has come down into English as ‘harem’. (You know – 1001 Arabian Nights, sultans, eunuchs: ‘harem’!) The word itself carries a meaning of ‘something forbidden’ – the ladies in the sultan’s harem were forbidden to anyone but the sultan himself, and the resources placed under the ‘doom’ were forbidden to anyone but God.
In those days, kings went to war when the weather cleared up each year. And, each year, kings would go out on campaign, in an attempt to capture land and resources. By ‘resources’, I mean precious items (gold, silver, etc), food, animals, and sadly, even people (for use as slaves and wives). By placing these people under the ban, God was telling the Israelites, “go fight these people over
there. But, this isn’t a normal war, in which you enrich yourselves from the spoils of war; this is combat that I command, and from which I – and only I – will benefit: with these people gone from the equation, they will not tempt you to abandon Me.”
So… why animals? What’s the message here? Animals were resources – God wasn’t trying to make His people
rich, but only
faithful. He didn’t want them to be
boastful at their victories, but properly dependent on God’s mercy. The message is, “trust in Me alone, and I will provide for you.”
(Just to give credit where it’s due: I first encountered this interpretation in a “Great Adventure Timeline” Bible Study (the one that Jeff Cavins created). Good stuff… if you ever have a chance to attend one at a parish near you, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!)
