Psalm 135:8-12. The Lord is great, above all other gods. It was he who smote the firstborn of Egypt and sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all of Egypt in order to free his people. It was he who slew mighty kings in the nations of the Promised Land and gave their land to his people as an inheritance.

I have been thinking a lot about creation; about how there was nothing and then, at the micro moment of the Big Bang, there was suddenly everything! Every bit of a mass that ever was or will ever exist came into being at that time. It is truly astounding! This means that God created the mass to make everything and everyone that he ever intended to create in that one moment. He knew what he needed and he made it. He does not go on to create more mass when things aren't working out - things are always working out according to his plan and he is "rearranging" the mass accordingly.

So how does this relate to my reading for today? The giving of the Canaanite kingdoms in the Promised Land to the people of Israel made me think of it. God did not create "new land" for his newly freed people. Instead he brought them to the land that he always intended for them to have. To us, the Old Testament often seems somewhat unfair, especially as nations are "kicked out" of their land to make room for the Israelites. But that is because we do not think the way God does - we don't know the end of the story.

Eventually, salvation will come for all people from this nation of freed slaves. In order for that to happen, they need to live through the experiences of being a nation in the land that God intended for them. The suffering of the Canaanites, while I'm sure harsh and seemiingly unfair for many of them, was necessary to bring salvation to the world. And the salvation that Jesus brought to us reaches backward and forward in time, so I believe the Canaanites were given the opportunity to be saved by Jesus' death and Resurrection as well.

How that works, I do not know, but God does. He would not have created the Canaanites if he didn't love them and want them to be saved (their mass was part of the Big Bang, too, after all!).