FBC Daily Devotional – August 4, 2021

Well a good Wednesday morning, and here is the question of the day class. Let's consider this if the

Lord promised to give all of the land of Canaan to Israel and He said he would be with them with the

Israelites to drive out and destroy all of the Canaanites And he did he did promise him promise them those things then

Why is it that the tribes were unable to drive out some of the people some of the

Canaanites they weren't able to eradicate them even when they Even though even when they were strong enough to make those

Canaanites forced laborers So if you read in Joshua 16 through 18, you're gonna pick up on some of this now the the first Hint of it is at the end of chapter the last verse of chapter 15

Which says this as for the Jebusites those those were the inhabitants of Jerusalem The children of Judah could listen they could not drive them out

But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day

Well, why couldn't they drive them out? God said that he was going to give them this land and that he would

Help them eradicate all the inhabitants. So why couldn't they drive them out in chapter 16 verse 10?

We read that they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Giza but the

Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites one of the tribes of Israel to this day and have become forced laborers.

So The Ephraimites were strong enough to force these inhabitants of Giza To be laborers for them

How is it they weren't strong enough to? Eradicate them from the land and you see the same thing in chapter 17

Verses 12 and 13 it says yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities

But the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land and it happened I get this when the children of Israel grew strong that they put the

Canaanites to forced labor But did not utterly drive them out So why is it that they couldn't drive them out?

well part of the answer is The is the fear that they had that over came their faith in God now fear is a legitimate response to a dangerous situation and we read in chapter 17 verses 16 to 18 that the children of Joseph said

The mountain country is not enough for us and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron and those were

Those are something to fear. I mean, how do you we don't have chariots of iron? How can we we can't defeat the chariots of iron?

We don't have the ability we're afraid of these Canaanites with the chariots of iron and that indicates a fear that has

Overcome their faith in the God who said I will be with you to drive out the inhabitants

Even if they have chariots of iron So part of it is because of their faith forsaking fear but part of it comes out in the book of Judges and in subsequent generations

The generations remember the end of chapter 15. It says that The Jebusites dwell among the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day

So it's talking about when this was written past the time of this conquest of the land

So judges tells us that subsequent generations forsook the

Lord and they served the Canaanite deities they served the Canaanite idols and God was not going to be with them to drive out those

Canaanites when they make league with the Canaanites and begin worshipping their gods in Violation of the very commandments that God gave his people to obey

So we see here that the promises of God Sometimes are absolute and they are unconditional

And that was the case for the promise to Abraham God said to Abraham I'm gonna give you this land

I'm gonna make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and he did that and and the enemy strings attached but when it came to actually

Conquering the land and taking over every city in the land and driving out all the inhabitants of the land

That was conditioned upon the Israelites actually doing the battle and going to war against these pagan very wicked

Canaanite people and they didn't meet the condition They weren't willing to risk it and go do the battle that they needed to do

So consequently they lived in fear of these Canaanites and they were not able to drive them out so let's remember that Even in the the battles for the

Christian in the Christian life the battle for holy living and so forth You know

God promises to be with us and he promises to overcome the wicked one but we have a battle to fight and we

Relinquish our responsibility if we just throw our hands up and say I can't I can't do it. I can't do it

No by God's grace and with God's help and relying upon him and moving forward as we resist the devil

He will flee from us God exalts the humble and he gives grace to those who trust him so father in heaven,

I pray that you would help us to to be faithful in the

Faithful in the fight the good fight the good fight of the faith Help us to move forward

Trusting in your promises and not relinquishing our responsibilities and this we pray in Jesus name.

Amen All right, we'll have a good rest of your Wednesday and your week after today they'll be on the downward slope