“DID Not...” – FBC Morning Light (3/21/2024)

Well a good Thursday morning to you. Today we begin reading in the book of Judges in earnest. We have popped in here I think once or twice in the past but today we're we're looking at this passage, this book in earnest for the next few days.

And today we're in chapters 1 2 and into chapter 3 as well. And I want to focus at first in chapter 3. Remember a couple days ago I mentioned that when the land was divided up among the different tribes and the tribes took possession of their territory, they didn't automatically and totally get every city eradicated from the Canaanites that lived there.

So this was going to be, even after gaining the territory, this is going to be a gradual process of possession. And that by the way is a good picture of sanctification, but that's another story. Anyway, chapter 3, in chapter 3 verses 1 4, we get some insight into why when Israel defeated Canaanites enough to divide up the land and take possession of these different territories, why didn't all of the Canaanites get eradicated all at once?

And the answer to that is in chapter 3 in verse 1. It says, "...these are the nations which the Lord left, that he might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan.".

And verse 4 says, "...and they were left that he might test Israel by them to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.". Well, how did they do?

See, that's the question. Did they obey? Were they going to obey? So the initial warriors that battled in the land of Canaan, they conquered the territory, every battle that they fought in, they won, and they took possession of that territory, that land, and then the whole land was divided up among the twelve tribes, each of them was allocated a territory, and then they were to go live in their territory, and as they lived in that territory, they were eventually to gradually dispossess all of the Canaanites from their territory.

How'd they do? Well, the first couple of chapters of Judges give us some insight. It's sort of an ominous foreshadowing when we read in chapter 1 verse 19 that the Lord was with Judah, and they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland, because they had chariots of iron.

And you have to ask yourself the question, why couldn't they drive them out? Was the Lord not with them? What was the problem there? I think as you continue, you get a little more insight. Verse 21 says, it moves from could not to did not, verse 21 says, the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites, and instead of driving them out, it says at the end of verse 21, the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day, the time of the writing.

In verse 27, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean, and so forth. Verse 29, Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites. Verse 30, nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants. And notice that they did not, nor did Asher drive out, in verse 31, verse 33, nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants.

And it's not a problem of weakness, it's not that they didn't have the strength to do so, how do we know? Because it says, for example, in verse 28, that it came to pass when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out.

They put them under tribute, they made them, they put them in subjection. Well, if they could put them under tribute and into subjection, they had the power, they had the strength to drive them out. The problem is that they became tolerant of having Canaanites dwell among them, and with that disobedience, that disobedience, it's going to bring eventual spiritual destruction.

You see this in chapter 2, verses 11 and 12. Here's what it says,. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals. Where did they learn about worshiping the Baals?

From the Canaanites, that they left to stay in the land. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land, and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them.

And they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. In other words, they had completely failed the test. The Lord left some of these Canaanites in the land for future opportunities to drive out those Canaanites, to test his people.

Would you be faithful, will you be obedient, to follow through with your responsible possession of the land, or will you allow them, tolerate them, to coexist with you, and allow their worshiping of the false gods to coexist with yours, your worship?

Will you pass the test? They didn't. They didn't. And the result was spiritually devastating. And I think here's the lesson for us. The Lord has not taken us out of the world, he has left us in the world.

And there is the constant danger, there's the constant danger of allowing the world to overtake us, to be accommodating to the idols and the idolatry of the world around us, and to even end up bowing down to those false idols instead of driving them out of our lives and out of our hearts.

We need to drive them out, not accommodate them, not disobey and worship in a false way. God, help us to be faithful to you, help us to be earnest in our spiritual growth, growing in our sanctification, driving out the idols of the land, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, listen, have a good rest of your Thursday. May the Lord bless you, and good day.