Judges 1:27-36 English Standard Version Failure to Complete the Conquest 27 Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. 28 When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely. 29 And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. 30 Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor. 31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Ahlab or of Achzib or of Helbah or of Aphik or of Rehob, 32 so the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. 33 Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, so they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them. 34 The Amorites pressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. 35 The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. 36 And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward. Last time we talked about the tribes that continued the battle to drive out the Canaanites and other Gentile peoples (mostly descendants of Ham) from the Land, however in our last section we saw that Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites and let them continue to live among the tribe of Benjamin in and around Jerusalem. The last passage mostly focuses on the Southern Kingdom (though the kingdom was not divided yet) and today's passage will mostly focus on the Northern Kingdom. Overall, the Northern Kingdom was much less faithful to drive out the Canaanites from among them.
Manasseh for instance chose instead of driving the Canaanites out to subjugate them and make the Canaanites a slave class who would do forced labor. Sound familiar, maybe like exactly what the Egyptians did to the children of Israel in the beginning of the book of Exodus? The Law told the people never to treat others the way that they were treated as slaves in Egypt, but here we are just one generation away from the death of Joshua, and already the people have forgotten one of the guiding principles of their society that was attached to a major part of their history. How could this happen? We'll find out later that they stopped celebrating the Passover as well as the other feasts and festivals, stopped reading and teaching the Law to each other, and stopped telling the history of their people to their children so that no one in the land remembered the LORD or what He had done for them. That is why when we get to the Exile it will be like a new Passover for them all over again because they will have completely forgotten about the first Passover by that point. Ephraim, though it seems they engaged in some battle in last passage, failed to drive out the Canaanites from the city of Gezer and they let them live there among them. Zebulun like Manasseh chose not to drive out the Canaanites, but instead to subjugate them and use them for forced labor. The tribe of Asher did not even try to subjugate the Canaanites. They simply did not drive them out and lived among them (I'm sure you have seen the popular "coexist" bumper stickers from today. It seems like that was the attitude that the tribe of Asher had towards the people that the LORD told them to destroy or drive out of the Land). Naphtali also did not drive out the Canaanites and subjugated them to forced labor. I hope we're seeing a pattern here that most of the northern 10 tribes did what was right in their own eyes and subjugated their enemies into slavery the way their ancestors had been enslaved when they had been given the chance to be in power. This idea of making the pendulum swing the other way is still around today and is the world's view of justice sometimes, but God's justice is that man's punishment is either borne by Him by the Son on the cross, or man bears the guilt of his own sin and the wages of sin is death--both physical and spiritual. Even the tribe of Dan that was all the way on the western edge of the Promised Land was terrorized by the Amorites that were not driven out of the Land and the tribe of Dan was forced to live up in the hills and not come down into the plains which would be good for livestock and farming. Ephraim and West Manasseh helped a bit putting some of these Amorites into subjugation, but they did not destroy them as the LORD had commanded. As we saw in the passage from yesterday, not even the victories of the tribe of Judah and Simeon were complete. Even they had enemies that were too strong for them to fight. So it is that we have the groundwork laid for the book of Judges. The people have mostly given up on fighting and have just decided to let the Canaanites live among them and to coexist with them would mean they have to accept their cultural differences and give them space to worship their idols (for they did not worship the LORD) and continue to let them practice their pagan traditions such as child sacrifice, but they would never let themselves and their children become like that (read that with a heave dose of sarcasm, for within just one or two generations, their children became exactly like the Canaanites that the parents and grandparents tolerated and "coexisted" with). We live in a culture not that different today that wants us to "tolerate" them and have a view of cultural and moral pluralism that encourages us to "coexist" with people that are morally depraved. We should not wonder why our children and grandchildren have seen what we are willing to "tolerate" and have accepted that as part of their own identity and culture and they have become the very thing that we used to stand against. What will happen when the people who are supposed to be the people of God look just like the Canaanites (or sometimes even worse than the Canaanites)? Won't God have to judge them too? Comments are closed.
|
Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
January 2025
Categories
All
|