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Patriarchs and Prophets
inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out
before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their
gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against
Me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”
Exodus 23:27-33
. These directions were reiterated in the most solemn
manner by Moses before his death, and they were repeated by Joshua.
God had placed His people in Canaan as a mighty breastwork
to stay the tide of moral evil, that it might not flood the world. If
faithful to Him, God intended that Israel should go on conquering and
to conquer. He would give into their hands nations greater and more
powerful than the Canaanites. The promise was: “If ye shall diligently
keep all these commandments which I command you, ... then will the
Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess
greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the
soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and
Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost
sea shall your coast be. There shall no man be able to stand before
you: for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of
you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as He hath said unto
you.”
Deuteronomy 11:22-25
.
But regardless of their high destiny, they chose the course of ease
and self-indulgence; they let slip their opportunities for completing
the conquest of the land; and for many generations they were afflicted
by the remnant of these idolatrous peoples, that were, as the prophet
had foretold, as “pricks” in their eyes, and as “thorns” in their sides.
Numbers 33:55
.
The Israelites were “mingled among the heathen, and learned
their works.”
Psalm 106:35
. They intermarried with the Canaanites,
and idolatry spread like a plague throughout the land. “They served
their idols: which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their
sons and their daughters unto devils: ... and the land was polluted
with blood.... Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against
His people, insomuch that He abhorred His own inheritance.”
Psalm
106:36-40
.
Until the generation that had received instruction from Joshua
became extinct, idolatry made little headway; but the parents had
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prepared the way for the apostasy of their children. The disregard of
the Lord’s restrictions on the part of those who came in possession of