After the Exodus from slavery and forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Jews were on the door step of the land flowing with milk and honey, their inheritance.  They were about to enter the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the land they were to inhabit. 

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There of course were quite a few instructions from God to Moses as to how to divide their inheritance among the twelve tribes, along with many other instructions that Moses was to pass on to Joshua, who was going to take over as the leader because this was the end of the journey for Moses.  One of the most important instructions is found in Numbers 33:50-56.  When conquering Canaan they were instructed to exterminate the Canaanites.   God warned them at this time; 55 But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live.

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God was well aware of these people as He states in Gen. 15:16, when He said the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.  The Amorites were the people who had possession of the land when God was dealing with Abraham.  They had not yet filled up the cup of transgression until now, almost 450 years later when the Jews were coming out of slavery into the land God had promised to Abraham.  So the Amorites or Canaanites now, were given a very long rope to hang themselves with. If God said at that time they were not ready for punishment yet but waited for another 450 years, it shows that God is very patient and waits a long time for people to wake up and turn to Him!

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God did not want any Canaanite customs to filter into the Jewish communities.  In Deut. 9:4-5 it states that this land is given to them because of the wickedness of the other nations.  Most other nations that they were eradicating to gain their land were hostile to God’s ways, they all worshiped idols, and committed gross sins. 

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Now God had made these covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that All this land would be theirs, and in Joshua 21:43-45 we see that God has fulfilled His end of the promise, 45 Not a single one of all the good promises the LORD had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.

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How did the Israelites do on their obedience to God’s instructions?  In Judges 1:27-36 we see that it was a very incomplete conquest of the land they were to line in.  It lists seven tribes that did not completely drive out the Canaanites.  So in Judges 2:2-3, the Angel of the Lord says, "I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I swore to give your ancestors, and I said I would never break my covenant with you.  you were not to make any covenants with the people living in this land; instead, you were to destroy their altars. But you disobeyed my command. Why did you do this?

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So God told them I will no longer drive out the people living in your land. They will be thorns in your sides,* and their gods will be a constant temptation to you."  So the Jewish people lived with and among these heathen, sinful nations that they were supposed to get rid of.  God knew that they would fall to the worship of Baal and sacrifice at their false gods alters.  He was leaving them to be an ongoing temptation for His people. 

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In Judges 2 after Joshua dies it says that after that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the LORD or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.  The Israelites did evil in the LORD's sight and served the images of Baal.12They abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. 

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This started the many years of disobedience to God that eventually lead to captivity to Babylon.  The many different Judges and Kings that lead Israel and did evil in the sight of the lord.    You just have to wonder if they would have completely wiped out all of those evil nations with all those pagan religions, would things have been different?

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The sin you don't deal with today, will be back tomorrow.  

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