Throughout the books of Moses, the people of Israel are promised repeatedly that they will be given the Promised Land, the Land of Canaan: “But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you … No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them.” (Deut 7:23-25 NIV)
But an interesting little passage can be found in verse 22, just prior to this promise: “The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.” (Deut 7:22-23 NIV)
And as we read through the book of Joshua, the book of the conquest, we find that this is exactly what happened. Chapters 5-12 speak of the miraculous ways that God initially delivered large portions of the land into their hands. But beginning in Chapter 13 are these words: “When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the Lord said to him, ‘You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over …'” (Josh 13:1 NIV)
In other words, God gave them victory over a large part of the land, and He promised to help them drive out the rest who were left in the land. That was His part. But after the land was divided, it was the responsibility of each individual tribe to drive out those who were left. That was THEIR part!
There was one stipulation however: They had to be willing to go forth.
As we read through the chapters dedicated to the division of the land, we find passages like the following: “Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites …” (Josh 15:63a NIV); “They did not dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer…” (Josh 16:10 NIV); “Yet the Manassites were not able to occupy these towns, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that region …” (Josh 17:12-13 NIV), etc.
In other words, the people didn’t do their part!
Why?
The Bible doesn’t always directly tell us. In some cases we can surmise that it was fear: “The people of Joseph replied, ‘The hill country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who live in the plain have iron chariots, both those in Beth Shan and its settlements and those in the Valley of Jezreel.’ But Joshua said to the house of Joseph-to Ephraim and Manasseh-‘You are numerous and very powerful. You will have not only one allotment but the forested hill country as well. Clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours; though the Canaanites have iron chariots and though they are strong, you can drive them out.'” (Josh 17:16-18:1)
Here we see that God promised Ephraim to help them drive out the Canaanites with iron chariots, but we also see that they were afraid of those Canaanites. It is later recorded in Judges that they didn’t drive them out (See Judg 1:29). Their fear kept them imprisoned in the hill country!
Judges 1, in fact, lists numerous people groups who were not driven out of Canaan. Maybe they were all afraid, or maybe driving out the nations became a low priority for the people. Whatever the reason, their disobedience caused God to withdraw His promise: “‘but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be [thorns] in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.” (Judg 2:1-3)
You may ask why Israel, after seeing the miraculous initial conquest of the land, didn’t just go forward and do what God commanded them to do. I believe it is this: Initially the people were following Joshua, not God. Oh, they were indirectly following God, yes. But they were not experiencing Him on an individual level. God didn’t drive out all of the people of the land initially, because He wanted them to learn to depend upon Him, not upon Joshua or any other leader that He raised up!
So what does this have to do with us?
Just this: Even in our day and age, God does His part, but we are also expected to do our part!
When I accepted Jesus into my heart and was filled by His Spirit, an addiction that I had struggled with since childhood just melted into nothingness. Since that day, 13 years ago, I have not even been tempted to partake in this addiction.
However there was this other addiction. It did NOT fall away, and though God has given me victory over it, there is not a single day that goes by when I am not tempted to fall back into its evil clutches.
Just like God miraculously gave the majority of Canaan to Israel, God gives us victory over many sins and weaknesses when we accept Him into our hearts, and He promises us victory over those that are left. That’s His part. Our part is to learn, through the weaknesses that are left, to totally depend upon God!
And we must be careful to continue to work on these weaknesses, for if we do, God will give us victory. But if we don’t, then we put ourselves at risk of having God withdraw His promise!
Please join us next week, for LESSONS FROM JOSHUA, Part 8: The Problems at Ai, Part A …
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, www.scripturalnuggets.org, with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org.
(To access the entire “Lessons From Joshua” mini-series, please click here.)