EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

Deuteronomy 20:1-20

Deuteronomy: God’s Law of Love

Love and Obey the *LORD your God

Deuteronomy

Philip Smith

Chapter 20

v1 ‘Do not be afraid when you go to fight against your enemies. You may see horses and carts that men use in war. You may see an army that is bigger than your army. The *LORD your God, who rescued you from Egypt, is with you. v2 Just before you go into battle, a priest will speak to the army. v3 He will say this. “*Israelite men, listen. Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not lose courage. Do not be afraid. Do not tremble. Do not feel terror because of your enemies. v4 The *LORD your God is going with you. He will fight for you against your enemies and you will win.”

v5 Then the officers will say this to the army. “Has anyone built a new house but he has not begun to live in it yet? If so, he can go home. Because, if he dies in battle, someone else will live in his house. v6 Has anyone just planted a field of *grapes but he has not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him go home. He might die in the battle and someone else will enjoy its fruit. v7 Has someone just agreed to marry a woman but not yet married her? If so, he can go home. He might die in the battle and someone else will marry the woman.” v8 Then the officers will say this to the *Israelites. “Is anyone afraid? Has anyone lost courage? Let him go home. He might make the rest of the army lose courage also.” v9 When the officers have finished these orders to the army, they shall appoint officers to lead it.’

The *Israelites would be afraid of chariots (carts with two wheels that men use in war) and horses. They did not have any chariots until Solomon was king. The priest would speak to the army and he would encourage the men. The priest would remind the army that God was with them. They should not be afraid. The law in Deuteronomy was very kind to *Israelites. Men with a new house, a new field of *grapes or a new wife did not have to fight. When people agreed to marry, it was a serious promise for them. This decision was as definite as the actual marriage. Usually the man had paid the bride’s father some money before the wedding. Before people began to live in a new house, they would say a special prayer to God.

Men who were afraid might cause other men to be afraid. Men who were afraid might not think about things carefully. Instead, they might make bad decisions in the battle because of their fear. Those who were afraid did not have *faith. People who fight God’s wars must trust God’s power. Notice what Gideon did in Judges chapter 7. He sent home those men who were afraid. Timothy became afraid easily. So in 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul encouraged him to ‘fight the good fight of *faith’. In 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul gave this advice to Timothy. ‘Do not continue to drink only water, but drink a little wine. Do that to make your stomach well, because you are ill so often.’ Deuteronomy reminds us about the Christian’s responsibility toward other people. And we see that in the *New Testament too.

v10 ‘When you go to attack a city, offer peace to the people there. v11 They might give in and they might open the gates of their city. If so, they will become your slaves. You will force them to work for you. v12 Some people may refuse to give in. They may choose to fight. If they do, then surround the city with your army. v13 When the *LORD your God gives it to you, kill all the men with your swords. v14 Take for yourselves the women, the children, the *cattle and everything else that is in the city. You can use everything that the *LORD your God has given to you from your enemies. v15 You must do that with those cities that are far away from you. They do not belong to the nations that are near you.

v16 You will possess cities in the country that the *LORD your God is giving to you. Then you must kill everyone. v17 The *LORD your God has ordered you to *destroy completely all the people there. You must kill the people in the nations called the Hittites, the *Amorites, the *Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. v18 That is because they will teach you to do terrible things. They do those things to give honour to their false gods. Then you will *sin against the *LORD your God.

v19 When you are trying to possess a city, do not cut down its trees. Do not do that, even if you have to surround the city for a long time. Eat the fruit, but do not cut down the trees. They are not your enemies. v20 However, you can cut down other trees that do not produce fruit. You can make things from them that help you to attack the city. You can do that until you possess the city.’

The *Israelites could offer an agreement for peace to people who lived in cities a long distance away. The people might agree to that. Then they would become slaves of the *Israelites. (That happened to the people from Gibeon. They pretended that they had come from a long distance away. See Joshua 9:1-27.) If the city refused this agreement for peace, the *Israelites killed all the men. The *Israelites could keep the women, the children and the animals for themselves. If the cities were near to their country, the *Israelites must *destroy everyone and everything. This seems severe to us. But the people who lived in Canaan were very evil. If the *Israelites had not attacked them, those enemies might have *destroyed the *Israelites. Also, the *Israelites might have *worshipped the false gods of their enemies. Their enemies *worshipped false gods. That involved many wicked practices that God hated. Therefore, the commands are not about a nation who must fight another nation. Rather, the commands are about God’s people. They must be against those nations that hate God. *Israelites accepted people from other nations who wanted to *worship *Israel’s God.

Jesus taught Christians to love their enemies. But Jesus taught that Christians should be against evil things. In Matthew 5:29-30, he says this. A person’s eye or hand might make him do something that is wrong. So the person should take out his eye or cut off his hand. Here, the eye refers to thoughts and the hand refers to actions. So a person should remove whatever makes him do wrong things. Paul explains to the Christians at Corinth what that means. (See 2 Corinthians 10:5.) ‘We control our thoughts like prisoners.’ Revelation 21:27 says this. ‘Anything that is not *clean will certainly never enter the city.’ (‘The city’ means the place where God is.)

Moses warns the *Israelites not to cut down fruit trees when they attack a city. If they did that, they would damage the soil and the supply of food. However, they could use other trees.

Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the word ‘Adonai’ in the Hebrew language, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.

LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It is the Covenant name for God. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has always been here.

covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.