Have you ever wondered about the way Israel treated the nations who occupied Canaan when they entered the “Promised Land”? Reading through the Biblical story as recorded in the book of Joshua is a bit sobering. We read how much God loves us in John 3:16, we hear preachers tell of a loving and forgiving God, and then we read the book of Joshua. Reading about the way Israel treated the people in the land they were invading makes you wonder about how they could be following the same “loving” God we read about in the New Testament and do all the things they did. How do you reconcile the two? Is it even possible to reconcile them? That is what we are going to investigate.
If you have never read the story here is a brief synopsis of what happened. They started by attacking the city of Jericho. This is how the Bible records what happened, “On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!’ . . . . When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.” (Joshua 6:15-16, 20-21 NIV)
From there they went and attacked Ai. They got all the men of Ai to chase the Israelite army, leaving the city undefended and a part of the army that had been hidden entered the city and set it on fire. When the Israelite army saw the city was on fire they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. “When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai.” (Joshua 8:24-26 NIV)
In fact, Joshua just kept right on going throughout the land, day, after day, after day, after day, after . . . . “That day Joshua took Makkedah. He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors. And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Makkedah to Libnah and attacked it. The Lord also gave that city and its king into Israel’s hand. The city and everyone in it Joshua put to the sword. He left no survivors there. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish; he took up positions against it and attacked it. The Lord gave Lachish into Israel’s hands, and Joshua took it on the second day. The city and everyone in it he put to the sword, just as he had done to Libnah. Meanwhile, Horam king of Gezerhad come up to help Lachish, but Joshua defeated him and his army—until no survivors were left. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Lachish to Eglon; they took up positions against it and attacked it. They captured it that same day and put it to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it, just as they had done to Lachish. Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron and attacked it. They took the city and put it to the sword, together with its king, its villages and everyone in it. They left no survivors. Just as at Eglon, they totally destroyed it and everyone in it. Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned around and attacked Debir. They took the city, its king and its villages, and put them to the sword. Everyone in it they totally destroyed. They left no survivors. They did to Debir and its king as they had done to Libnah and its king and to Hebron. So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded.” (Joshua 10:28-40 NIV)
“When Jabin king of Hazor heard of this, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon, to the kings of Shimron and Akshaph, and to the northern kings who were in the mountains, in the Arabah south of Kinnereth, in the western foothills and in Naphoth Dor on the west; to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah. They came out with all their troops and a large number of horses and chariots—a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. All these kings joined forces and made camp together at the Waters of Merom to fight against Israel. . . . So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel. They defeated them and pursued them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and to the Valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left. . . . At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms.) Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed, and he burned Hazor itself. Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. . . . So Joshua took this entire land: the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and put them to death.” (Joshua 11:1-5, 7-8, 10-12, 16-17 NIV)
But the story of the conquest actually started earlier. Just before they crossed the Jordan River and entered Canaan, Moses reminded Israel of the battles they had already fought, “When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors. But the livestock and the plunder from the towns we had captured we carried off for ourselves. From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge, and from the town in the gorge, even as far as Gilead, not one town was too strong for us. The Lord our God gave us all of them.” (Deuteronomy 2:32-36 NIV) “Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei. The Lord said to me, ‘Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hands, along with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.’ So the Lord our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them—the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan. All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages. We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city—men, women and children.” (Deuteronomy 3:1-6 NIV)
After reminding the Israelites of what they had already gone through, Moses told them, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.” (Deuteronomy 7:1-2 NIV)
Sounds rather harsh doesn’t it? How could a group of people who were supposedly following a “loving” God be so cruel? Moses, at God’s command tells the people, “you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.” I thought God was supposed to be a “merciful” God, isn’t He? That seems to be the response of a lot of people. But it gets worse. Moses just told us that God TOLD them to kill everyone, even the women and children! And in the book of Joshua, this comment was made, “Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.” (Joshua 11:19-20 NIV) Not only did God WANT the people the Israelites attacked to be exterminated, He went so far as to “harden their hearts” so they would fight Israel so Israel COULD kill them all! How cruel and unloving is that?
Before we get too worked up about this, maybe we should check to see it this is all the story. Isn’t it just good investigative procedure to make sure we have the WHOLE story, and not just part of it?
Long before Israel ever got to Canaan, the land they were going to occupy (AKA “The Promised Land”) God had told them, “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. . . . I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.” (Exodus 23:20-23, 27-33 NIV) God told Israel 40 years before they ever got to Canaan that He was going to wipe out the people who lived there!
So the big question is WHY? Why did God want all the people of those nations dead? Why did He insist that the Israelites kill off everyone – even women and children? Why?
Moses explained , “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.” (Deuteronomy 7:9-10 NIV)
Moses also told them, “Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: ‘Who can stand up against the Anakites?’ But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you. After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Deuteronomy 9:1-6 NIV)
He explained further, ” . . . . in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 20:16-18 NIV) And just before he died Moses called the Israelites to assemble before him, “Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: ‘I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has said to me, “You shall not cross the Jordan.” The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the Lord said. And the Lord will do to them what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed along with their land. The Lord will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.'” (Deuteronomy 31:1-6 NIV) Clearly God says these nations were evil, so what had they done that God found so abhorrent?
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord. No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord. Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her. Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father. Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you. Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister. Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative. Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative. Do not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt. Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her. Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother. Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness. Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living. Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period. Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her. Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 18:1-30 NIV) “Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.” (Leviticus 20:22-23 NIV)
God lists all these sexual acts that He abhors and tells Israel that because the existing nations were committing them He was going to judge them and remove them from the land. And He also tells the Israelites that if they do the same thing the land will “vomit them out”.
This wasn’t just a whim, the people of the land hated God. They were very wicked, and would lead the Israelites to turn away from God if they were allowed to remain in the land. But still, isn’t that a bit harsh? Shouldn’t they have gotten a chance to change their minds? Shouldn’t they have been allowed to repent? Couldn’t they change and join Israel?
They could change, but the question is, would they? Did they really need more time to make up their minds? To answer that question we need to go back in time. Way back, back before the Israelites left Egypt. Back before they even entered Egypt. Back before there was a nation of Israel, before Jacob (AKA Israel) was born, before his father Isaac was born, back to when his grandfather Abraham was still Abram and lived in Ur of the Chaldeans. Way back then God told Abram to leave Ur and go to Canaan. “And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.” (Genesis 11:31-32 NKJV) Interestingly, the name of the city where they settled down – Haran – was the name of Terah’s oldest son who had died before they ever left Ur. Did Terah actually found the city and name it after his son? Was that what caused them to delay going to Canaan? Did Terah’s grief over his first born son’s death keep Abram from following God’s command? We are not told what caused the delay, just that there WAS a delay.
How do we know that they left Ur because God told them to? Immediately after telling us when and where Terah died, we are told, “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.” (Genesis 12:1-5 NKJV) Notice “God HAD said to Abram”. He had been told sometime earlier to leave not only where he lived, but to leave even his father’s household. Did he? No, EVERYONE left Ur but all they did was go up river a ways and settled down there. It wasn’t until his father died in Haran, that Abram actually left for Canaan.
When Stephen was on trial before the Sanhedrin, he made a point of this. “Then the high priest said, ‘Are these things so?’ And he said, Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, “Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.” Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.'” (Acts 7:1-4 NKJV)
The Bible doesn’t say how old Abram was when God told him to leave Ur, but it wasn’t until he was 75 years old that he actually got on the road to Canaan. So the occupation of the land of Canaan has already had a delay. I believe Abram was 55 when God told him to leave Ur and go to the land of Canaan. So the time Abram delayed before obeying God was 20 years.
“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. But Abram said, ‘Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.’ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. He also said to him, ‘I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.'” (Genesis 15:1-7 NIV)
God reminds Abram that not only was He giving him the land, but that his descendants would be too numerous to count. But this time God goes on to tell Abram not only when He would give his descendants the land, but WHY He was going to give it to them.
“As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.’ . . . . On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadie of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.'” (Genesis 15:12-16, 18-21 NIV)
Here we learn several things: First, Abram’s descendants would leave Canaan, and go to another country and be enslaved. Second, they would be gone for 400 years. And most importantly, the reason for the delay in their possessing the land was the wickedness of the nations was not bad enough for God to judge them. So God was giving those nations 400 years to either change their ways or get to the point where they were evil enough for Him to judge them and wipe them out.
So, the nations had gotten a delay in judgment because Abram refused to go to Canaan when God told him to, but now God is going to delay His judgment for another 400 years.
But that isn’t all of the story. When Israel finally leaves Egypt and heads back to Canaan we are told, “Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.” (Exodus 12: 40-41 NIV) Hold on, that wasn’t what Abraham was told was it? “God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.'” (Acts 7:6 NIV) God said 400 years, but now we find out it was really 430 years! What happened? Why the extra 30 years?
It turns out that Moss himself was the cause of this delay. “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?’ The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘What I did must have become known.’ When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.” (Exodus 2:11-15 NIV) So what, I can hear some of you say. That doesn’t explain anything. Maybe this will help. Here is how Stephan told the story, “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’ But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.” (Acts 7:23-29 NIV) Moses thought he could free the Israelites, but he was doing it on his own initiative, not at the direction of God. Because of this Moses had to flee for his life. But there was another problem. The Israelites were not ready to be freed, they basically told Moses to leave them alone, they didn’t need or want his help. So he goes to Midian and lives there.
Meanwhile, back in Egypt, “During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” (Exodus 2:23-25 NIV) Now the Israelites are finally ready to be freed. So how long did it take? “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'” (Acts 7:30-34 NIV)
Moses has been in Midian 40 years. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.’ Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.” (Exodus 7:1-7 NIV)
Moses is now 80 years old. He has been hiding out in Midian for 40 years. He was 40 when he thought he could free Israel on his own. “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.” (Acts 7:35-36 NIV)
This time Israel is ready. This time they do get freed. This time they leave Egypt. As we read earlier, it has been 430 years since Jacob and his descendants entered Egypt. God had told Abram they would be there 400 years. So why the extra 30 years? Did you notice how old Moses was when they left Egypt? 80 years old, right? And how old was he when he tried to free Israel on his own? 40 years old. That means the Israelites had only been there 390 years (430 years minus the 40 years Moses was in Midian). Moses jumped the gun by 10 years and as a result, God had to spend 40 years fixing all the problems he created. 40 years to do what He could have done in 10 years.
God had decided to give the people of Canaan 400 years to repent and change their ways. If they decided not to change their ways, God would also give them enough time to become evil enough for Him to judge them. However, Abram delayed going to Canaan for 20 years. Because of this God delayed starting His countdown to His time of judgment of Canaan the 20 years it took Abram to finally go to Canaan. Moses delayed things another 30 years, so now the Canaanites have had 450 years of grace. But it isn’t over for them even now. This time it is the nation of Israel that delays things. Due to their refusal to enter Canaan when God brought them to the border the first time, they got to spend time wondering around in the wilderness. “He [Moses] led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.” (Acts 7:35-36 NIV) “Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: ‘I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has said to me, “You shall not cross the Jordan.”‘” (Deuteronomy 31:1-2 NIV) “Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, ‘This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, “I will give it to your descendants.” I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’ And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.” (Deuteronomy 34:1-7 NIV)
God gave the people of Canaan 400 years of grace. Abram delayed God’s judgment another 20 years, Moses delayed it 30 years, and the Israelites delayed it an additional 40 years. That means that the people really where given time to change their ways. They had already had 490 years to change. They had already had 490 years of grace.
Forgiveness, 490 years of forgiveness. A forgiveness they rejected. “Then Peter came to Him [Jesus] and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.'” (Matthew 18:21-22 NKJV) Jesus says to forgive 490 times! (This is why I believe Abram was 55 years old when God first told him to leave the city of Ur and go to the land of Canaan.) God forgave the Canaanites not just 490 times, but He forgave them for 490 years, but they still refused to accept that forgiveness. They refused the grace of God, so they had to face judgment instead.
“The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Numbers 14:18 NIV) “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9 NIV) “‘For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn and live!'” (Ezekiel 18:32 NKJV) “‘But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?’ says the Lord God, ‘and not that he should turn from his ways and live?'” (Ezekiel 18:21-23 NKJV)
Yes, God is indeed long suffering. However, judgment WILL come if you reject His grace. How will you choose? Will you go your own way and do your own thing or will you bow before God and repent – reverse your direction – and go His way? It is your choice, but choose you must. God will not force you one way or the other. He did not force the nations in Canaan to repent nor did He force them to continue doing things the same way they always had. The choice was theirs. In the same way the choice is now yours, continue as you have always done, or choose to do things God’s way.
After he had finished the conquest of the land of Canaan Joshua called all Israel together and told them, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15 NKJV)
Now it is your turn to decide. How will you choose?
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