So Joshua smote all the land, the hill country, the South, the lowland, and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded. – Joshua 10:40, Amplified Bible (AMP)

For many, many years I’ve heard the mantra that what politicians do in their private lives has no bearing on their ability to perform admirably on the job. If such people want to be scoundrels privately, it’s none of our business (many would argue) just so long as they aren’t scoundrels publicly. The problem with this line of thinking is that people take their ethics with them into every arena of life. If individuals are willing to lie, cheat, and steal from the people who are closest to them, they absolutely will do the same to people they hardly know – or don’t know at all. In short, people either have integrity – consistency in honesty and fairness – or they don’t.

A nation, like a person, is either a nation of integrity, or it is not. When it isn’t, God will eventually deal harshly with it, perhaps even to the point of extinguishing it. Charles Ellicott, in his book A Bible Commentary, addresses this concept in the following statement regarding Joshua 10:40:

As the presence of “the Prince of the Lord’s host” (Josh. 5:13-15) indicates, the Lord will take part in this conflict not as an ally or an adversary but as Commander In Chief. It is not Israel’s quarrel, in which they are to ask divine assistance. It is the Lord’s own quarrel, and Israel and Joshua are but a division in His host. The wars of Israel in Canaan are always presented by the Old Testament as “the wars of the Lord.” The conquest of Canaan is too often treated as an enterprise of the Israelites, carried out with great cruelties, for which they claimed divine sanction. The Old Testament presents the matter in an entirely different light. The Lord fights for His own right hand, and Israel is but a fragment of His army. “The sun stood still”(Josh. 10:13), the stars in their courses fought against His foes (Judg. 5:20).

As God told Israel in Deuteronomy 9:4 (AMP), “it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.” This verse, which shows that God Himself is fighting the Canaanites in punishment of their wickedness, adds more evidence to Ellicott’s point. Unable to demonstrate the integrity necessary to please The Lord, the Canaanite nations were found wanting in righteousness, so God wiped them out.

If you are like me, you do a horrible job of praying for the soul of your country. Yet praying for the soul of a country is just as needful as praying for the soul of a person. A nation’s character is the reflection of the character of its people, and should God choose to extinguish a nation for its sinful character, He is choosing to extinguish the eternal souls of some – and in the case of the Canaanites, all – of its inhabitants.

God is indeed a merciful God, but He is also a righteous judge. We’d better not rely so much on His mercy that we ignore the reality of His judgment. Pray for your country. In particular, pray that God will send revival in a miraculous and mighty way. You never know; the very future of your land may depend on it.

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