DCLM Daily Manna – 17th November 2025 Devotional Message Written By Pastor W.F Kumuyi
Read DCLM Daily Manna – 17th November 2025, Monday Devotional Message.
TOPIC: Is The Bible Cruel?
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KEY VERSE:
“But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.” – (Deuteronomy 20:16).
SCRIPTURE READING: Deuteronomy 20:10-20 (KJV)
10 “When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. 11 And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you. 12 Now if the city will not make peace with you, but war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. 14 But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the Lord your God gives you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.
16 “But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, 17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 lest they teach you to do according to all their [a]abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.
19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; if you can eat of them, do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man’s food. 20 Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it is subdued.
DCLM Daily Manna – 17th November 2025: MESSAGE:
Robert Edward Lee, a Confederate General in the American Civil War, seemed invincible as he won a string of victories in 1862 and 1863. But two years later in 1865, he and his troops were routed and surrendered to Gen. Ulysses Simpson Grant, effectively ending the war. Reflecting later, Lee had this to say about the cruelty of war: “What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbours, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.”
In today’s passage, God told the children of Israel they were to spare nations offering to surrender and make peace with them among those outside the circumference of the Promised Land. But those within the Promised Land zone were to be destroyed, including women, children, and everything that breathed. The reason was to keep away evil influence from the nation of Israel. Economic trees were commanded to be preserved.
Many Bible critics have wondered how a holy God would be associated with the brutal murder of innocent women and children in Canaan. Atheists and scoffers have also raised much dust about it. But they lack understanding that God loves sinners but punishes their sins according to the statutes and judgments contained in His word. The destruction of the nations in the Promised Land was an act of God’s judgment on the most terrible, heinous and detestable depravity you can ever imagine. They sacrificed their children to their abominable gods and practised unprintable acts of immorality. God gave them thousands of years to repent and return to His ways, but they continued in their sins and had to suffer the consequences (Leviticus 18:6-23).
The Bible isn’t cruel—it is honest. Uncontrollable depravity results in judgment and destruction. Sinners face destruction because of the depravity of their wickedness and sins. God has sent a Saviour, Jesus Christ, to the world, and those who repent and return to Him will receive forgiveness and mercy.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Sinners are to blame for their predicaments.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Ezekiel 22-24
About Author – Pastor W.F. Kumuyi
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
