“Why the Failure?” – FBC Morning Light (4/13/2023)

The Tribal Allotments and the Failure to Drive Out the Canaanites

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. I hope your week is going well for you thus far, and you're experiencing the Lord's help and strength and blessing, providing for you and meeting your needs through the course of your days.

Well, on this day, we're reading in our scripture reading plan in Joshua 17 and 18, John chapter 6, and the 74th Psalm. And I wanted to point out in chapter 17 of Joshua a statement that we also read in chapter 16, and we're going to read it again when we come to the book of Judges.

It's going to be more frequently spelled out in the book of Judges. And here's what I'm getting at in chapter 17, verses 12 and 13. This is in the dividing up of the land, the different tribes, they have their tribal allotment, their inheritance allotment, and each tribe is to go to his allotment to drive out the Canaanites.

This was the judgment on the Canaanites for their sin. Their sin had become so egregious and so widespread, and they were so entrenched in it all, that their judgment was that they were going to be driven out of the land, and the Israelites were going to inherit the land.

That's the promise. That's the promise God made to Abraham hundreds of years earlier, that he and his family, his descendants, would inherit this land of Canaan. Well, here they are. They've come into the land of Canaan.

They have essentially conquered all the major enemies in the land. There are pockets, there are plenty of Canaanites left in the land, and so forth. We're going to see that in just a minute. But they have become so successful in overcoming the enemy, that the land is now ready to be divided up, and the tribes allotted their portion.

In chapter 16, Ephraim was allotted his portion. In chapter 17, Manasseh. Manasseh, you remember, that tribe was divided in two. Half the tribe got land on the east side of the Jordan River, and the other half gets land on the west side.

Here's the west half of Manasseh, getting their inheritance. They're sent to the area of their inheritance, and then we read this in verse 12. It says, the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.

Wait a minute. If God gave them this land, and God told them, you go in and drive out the Canaanites, I'm judging them through you, then you're going to have a question come in your mind, aren't you right about now?

That question is, well, wait a minute, why couldn't they drive them out? Why couldn't they drive them out? And it becomes an even more complicated question when you read the next verse. Listen to what the next verse says.

It says, it happened when the children of Israel grew strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out. Now, I said this isn't the only time we're going to read this.

In fact, in the previous chapter, in yesterday's reading, in chapter 16, we came across it as well with the inheritance of the Ephraimites, the tribe of Ephraim. It says that they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, and have become forced laborers.

Does that perplex you a little bit? It did me, you know, I mean, I pondered that for a long time. Why couldn't they do that? Why didn't they do that? And especially if they were powerful enough to force the Canaanites into labor, slave labor essentially, then how could they not drive them out?

It doesn't seem to make any sense. Well, it doesn't make any sense, and the reason it doesn't make any sense is because of a problem with the Ephraimites and the Manassites. I'm not going to give the whole answer now, because we're going to come to the book of Judges, and we're going to see this with most of the tribes.

They took over their inheritance, they took over the area of Canaan that was promised to them, given to them, and many of them, we're told, didn't drive out all of the inhabitants. And when the tribe became strong, they put the Canaanite inhabitants to force labor.

And you have to ask yourself, what's going on here? I mean, that's what their mission was, to drive out all the Canaanites. How come? I'll leave this with you at this point, and we'll come back to it when we come to the book of Judges.

The Spiritual Problem Beneath Partial Obedience

Let me just say it this way, it's a spiritual problem. It was not a military problem. It wasn't a power problem. It wasn't that some of the Canaanites had chariots of iron, and the Israelites didn't have anything to go up against the chariots of iron.

It was not a physical military power problem. It was a spiritual problem. And you know what? Same thing's true in our lives with the Canaanites, that we don't drive out the ones that we just use for our advantages.

And I'm speaking figuratively here, of course. It's a spiritual problem. We'll investigate this further in the days ahead. For now, let's leave it at that. So our Father and our God, I pray that you would challenge us about what we tolerate, that we should not tolerate, and the spiritual problem that is at the root of it.

So I pray that you'd challenge us with that today, and we ask it in Jesus' name. All right, listen, have a good Thursday. I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.