1)
Deuteronomy 20:16 says
16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.
Yes, it does. But you seem to be clueless as to why. Please see the verse in context:
Deuteronomy 20:10-18
20:10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then
proclaim peace unto it.
20:11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, [that] all the people [that is] found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
20:12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:
20:13 And when the "I AM" thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:
20:14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, [even] all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the "I AM" thy God hath given thee.
20:15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities [which are] very far off from thee, which [are]
NOT of the cities of these nations.
20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the "I AM" thy God doth give thee [for] an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; [namely], the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the "I AM" thy God hath
COMMANDED thee:
20:18
That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the "I AM" your God.
The reason for this
COMMAND is very simple, logical, loving and merciful for
all involved, and it is explained in verse 20:18.
God created all of the people of the Earth, but He specifically chose the people Israel to be set apart from the rest of the world, and to be a peculiar people unto Him.
Deuteronomy 14:2 For thou [art] an holy people unto the "I AM" thy God, and the "I AM" hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that [are] upon the earth.
What was to make Israel peculiar was their willingness to
SERVE and obey God and His Law/Commands, trusting that God is The Best Planner, and
ALWAYS does what is best for
ALL concerned. In a word: people with
FAITH (trust in God).
The Israelites were
NEVER meant to be a "master race"; they were only meant to be a demonstration people to the rest of the world.
Through learning obedience to God, the persistent doing of His Will, and teaching their children, and their grandchildren and their descendants to do the same, the nation of Israel would become a shining example to the rest of the world of how wonderful and blessed it really is to live by God’s
Perfect Law of Liberty (
Deut. 28:1-14).
Of course the surrounding nations would see the blessings God would bestow on Israel as promised and, out of jealousy, attack Israel but, also as God promised, He would defend the people/nation of Israel, fighting their enemies for them. And once defeated, their neighboring enemies would ask Israel what they could do to share in the blessings, and would be invited to join the nation of Israel under one condition: that they too keep God’s Law.
This was to be the grafting in of the Gentile nations INTO Israel.
Thus the borders of Israel would then be expanded, and the process would repeat itself, until the entire world would become Israelites, keeping God’s Law and enjoying the
BLESSINGS, FREEDOM, PEACE and
SAFETY that only God can provide.
But that didn’t happen because Israel, like you, questioned God’s Perfect Plan, believing in their arrogance/ignorance that they knew better than God, and wanted to be like the nations ‘round about them, with a human leader/king, instead of with God as their King (
1 Sam. 8). And the entire world has been suffering under injustice and oppression ever since then,
because of Israel's disobedience.
God’s
PERFECT Plan depends upon people following it of their own free-will, and it
begins on the firm foundation of The Law/Word of God (in every form). What humans will
NEVER understand (
John 3:3-7) is that all of this training is for the
SOULS (Jinns/spiritual-Beings) that are temporarily “locked” (incarnated) inside of the human they see in the mirror.
EVERY SOUL MUST NOT ONLY LEARN TO TRUST AND OBEY GOD, BUT TO GET TO KNOW GOD PERSONALLY AS THE LOVING, ALL-POWERFUL FATHER/CREATOR THAT HE REALLY IS.
The Soul that continues to be a prisoner to sin (i.e. an unrepentant criminal) shall
SURELY die in The Fire on Judgment Day (
Ezek. 18;
Rev. 20:12-15;
Sura14:48-52;
Sura 18:53).
Sura 7:40-41
7:40. To those who reject Our Signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter The Garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle:
such is Our reward for those in sin (and riches -
Matthew 19:23-24).
7:41.
For them there is Hell-Fire, as a couch (below) and folds and folds of covering above: such is Our requital of those who do wrong.
Had the Israelites under Joshua done as they were
COMMANDED, and purged the Promised Land of
ALL of its people,
ALL of whom were
SOULS that had committed horrific crimes in their current and/or previous human lives, those
SOULS (Jinns/spiritual-Beings) could have been sent back into human families descended from the sons of Jacob/Israel, being taught each generation to keep God’s Law, instead of being taught all of the satanic rules, traditions and ridiculous religious superstitions that have plagued the world since Lucifer/Satan/Iblis invented these lies.
This has been a repeating theme throughout human history, with God giving each and every
SOUL on this planet the best possible opportunity to be rehabilitated, i.e. to learn to be able to differentiate between good and evil and to choose to be good of their own free-will. All God has ever wanted is for us to stop being so stupid, selfish and evil, and instead learn to play nicely with one another, so that we can eventually be released from this prison planet.
This is exactly what the flood was about. Noah and his family were spared, while every other human on Earth drowned. This released the spiritual-Beings/Souls/Jinns inside of those selfish, evil human bodies, so they could be sent back inside bodies descended from the sons of Noah, and learn how to be good, i.e. learn how to stop sinning/breaking God’s Law, which fills this world with violence, hatred, injustice and oppression.
We have all been given
many human lifetimes to come to our senses and turn back to God, so that He can teach us how to be good. Instead, we have chosen to learn the satanic ways of this world, which teaches greed and selfishness, and that we are “only humans” which is nothing more than a ready-made excuse to continue doing evil to one another. And then we wonder why we are on the brink of the final world war and total annihilation.
These end-times we are currently experiencing will be just like the times of Noah (
Matt. 24:37-39), only this time, instead of water – which only drowns the human bodies and thus gives the
SOULS another opportunity to repent and turn back to God – it will be
The Fire, which destroys both soul and body.
Matthew 10:28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell-fire.
The world will then begin again after The Fire with the 144,000
SOULS who are genuinely determined to keep God’s Law and love one another.
No one else, regardless of how smart or religious they believe themselves to be, will survive.