“Then in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” ( Genesis 15:16 16 And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. )

The return of Israel to the Promised Land from Egypt would correspond with the “completion” of the iniquity of the Amorites. This is the meaning of the slaughter of the peoples of Canaan. God timed the arrival of his judgment with the fullness of the sin to be judged. Not before.

The appointed instrument of God’s judgment was the army of Israel. But God sees himself as the effective warrior behind the defeat of the Amorites. He says to Joshua, “I brought you into the land of the Amorites . . . and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land when I destroyed them before you” ( Joshua 24:8 8 And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that dwelt beyond the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and ye possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you. ).

God did the destroying. It was by the hand of Israel, but it was the judgment of God.

In fact, God warned the people against pitiless pride in Deuteronomy 9:4-5 4 Speak not thou in thy heart, after that Jehovah thy God hath thrust them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me in to possess this land; whereas for the wickedness of these nations Jehovah doth drive them out from before thee. 5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart, dost thou go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Jehovah thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may establish the word which Jehovah sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. : “Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.”

In other words, this carnage is not about human injustice, but divine judgment.

One implication of this for us is that, as the church of Jesus Christ, we may not imitate Israel. The church is not God’s instrument of judgment in the world; it is his instrument of evangelization and reformation. We have no ethnic or geographic or political identity. We are “aliens and exiles.”

God’s dealing with Israel was unique in redemptive history. He chose them and ruled them as a demonstration of his holiness and justice and electing grace among the nations. But to the church he says, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, my servants would fight” ( John 18:36 36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. ).