LEARNING DAILY

 

Joshua 15:63, As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out;

 

Joshua 16:10, And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer;

 

Joshua 17:12-13, Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in the land. And it happened, when the children of Israel grew strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.

 

A quick note – it was pointed out to me that an error was made in yesterday’s blog. The Church Age ends with the rapture of the Church not the battle of Armageddon.

 

Joshua and Israel were successful in taking the Promised Land. Joshua divided the land taken by the drawing of lots as described in chapters 13-22. However, as you noticed by reading the above verses, the Canaanites were not driven from the land. The question is why not? Were the Israelites unwilling to do so or were they unable to do so? Perhaps God withdrew His help because of their disobedience. For whatever reason the Canaanites remained in the land and were forced to labor for Israel. There are commentators who have written the Canaanite paid tribute to Israel in order to live in the land with Israel. The idea to remember is that God’s command was not entirely followed and because of that trouble is going to continue to happen between the two groups.

 

Failure to be completely obedient to God’s command certainly has applications for you and me. Israel followed God’s commands but not completely. What about you and me? I have walked that walk as I grew in Christ. I followed what His Word said; sometimes in an incomplete way (or partially) or I followed His Word in the way I wanted to. Neither way works! I bet you are considering some things you have done. When we fail to follow the instructions, God has given us to protect us from the influences around us that so easily corrupt us, we get into trouble. Israel is a great example of that! “Where evil is tolerated, it will be accepted and then imitated” (DJSB).

 

God wants you and me to drive out the worldly influences that are all around us. We cannot be lazy or unwilling to do this; we are to walk on the narrow way that leads to eternal life in God’s kingdom. That means we are to say no to everything that would keep us from compromising with anything evil or keep us from trusting God in our walk of faith.  Go back and read Joshua 15:63. The people “could not” drive the Canaanites from the land. I wonder if that was caused because Israel “did not” drive them from the land. I believe that is the same for you and me. I know I did not do all I could to remove sin from my life; I flirted with some things after I got saved. Because of that, I found those things became more difficult to drive out later. Those things are still the same things the enemy tries to tempt me with today.

 

Here is the take away for today. You and I must be diligent about being obedient to God’s Word! Jesus was completely obedient to the Father. When we surrender to Him and make Him Lord in our life, He begins the work of cleansing and purifying our lives to conform to His image. Our part is to do everything we can to walk in obedience to what He is doing. We cannot allow the Canaanites (sinful and evil influences of the world) to be part of our lives causing us to compromise in any way.

 

I am so thankful God never gave up on me! Can anyone say AMEN?!!!!

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB.