Assertion: God of Israel changed his mind about Israel
needing to drive out the nations in the Promised Land - ref. Judges
2 & 3
Some Bible believers interpret
God (of Israel) saying, "I will not [anymore] drive them out before you,"
to mean that Israel didn't anymore need to drive out the nations living
in the land promised to them.
Judges 2:1 The angel of the LORD
went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and
led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, `I
will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall not make a covenant
with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet
you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? 3 Now therefore I tell you
that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your
sides and their gods will be a snare to you." 4 When the angel of the
LORD had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud,
5 and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the
LORD. 6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession
of the land, each to his own inheritance. |
This assertion [that God
had changed his mind about Israel having to drive out the nations] is of
course part of the arsenel of arguments used in attempts to justify giving
the Arabs part of the Promised Land. When I first heard this argument, I
immediately related it to Jesus' answer to Pharisees' (trick) question,
“Why did Moses say that a man could write out divorce papers and
send his wife away?” Obviously, Yeshua's answer reflected the fact
that God doesn't change, that the problem lies with the wickedness of
mankind:
| Jesus replied, “You are
so heartless! That’s why Moses allowed you to divorce your wife. (Matthew
19:7-8) |
Similarly, with "not
[anymore] drive them out before you," God didn't change his mind, or
the rules for controlling the playing field** (Promised Land). Actually,
he added a handicap:
The Lord was angry with Israel and said:
Judges 2:20 The Israelites have
broken the agreement I made with their ancestors. They won’t obey me,
21 so I’ll stop helping them defeat their enemies. Israel still had
a lot of enemies when Joshua died, 22 and I’m going to let those enemies
stay. I’ll use them to test Israel, because then I can find out if Israel
will worship and obey me as their ancestors did. 23 That’s why the Lord
had not let Joshua get rid of all those enemy nations right away.
And the Lord had another reason for letting
these enemies stay: Judges
3:1-2 The Israelites needed to learn how to fight in war, just as their ancestors
had done. Each new generation would have to learn by fighting 3 the Philistines
and their five rulers, as well as the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the
Hivites that lived in the Lebanon Mountains from Mount Baal-Hermon to Hamath
Pass. 4 Moses had told the Israelites what the Lord had commanded them to
do, and now the Lord was using these nations to find out if Israel would
obey. |
**The playing field (the
Promised Land) was still their's, but they were just going to need to share
it at their detriment; unless of course, they trusted God to help them to
rid themselves of the "thorns in their side" (KJV). And thorns they were
as we see in the historical records in the Bible. But the Bible does not
just deal with the past, it also deals with the present, today, in the form
of Arabs trying to be a nation in the land promised to the Jews, and the
future when the nations will be judged for trying to divide their land.
The reason for Jehovah's
ruling to remove other nations from the land where the Jews were to live,
was that these nations serve foreign gods that don't offer true redemption
from sin. Obviously Jehovah would prefer his people not to be distracted
from pursuing his, the only plan of salvation, by other god's false promises
- like 72 virgins for martyrs, etc. It is as if Jehovah invented a game,
called REDEMPTION, developed rules for this game, and players, the Jews,
to test the rules on before the game was introduced to the nations. Israel
was to be the hometeam, with their own home stadium, the Promised Land, that
is to be theirs permanently since Jehovah's Messiah will rule from there.
He is central in the plan of redemption and took up the identity of the home
team, the Jews for his earthly identity. For that reason, his twelve disciples
also came from that team and their names will be written on the twelve foundation
stones of the New Jerusalem's wall, while the names of twelve tribes will
be written on the twelve gates of the city. Revelation 21:13-14.
Other nations of the
world come and go since only Israel was given a guarantee of permanent existence
and a permanent domain, due to Messiah chosing to take up a Jewish identity
on earth and eventually rule the nations from their domain when he returns.
From the heart of Jerusalem the
Lord roars like a lion, shaking the earth and sky.
But the Lord is a fortress, a place of safety for his people Israel.
God Will Bless His People. I am the Lord your God. And you will know I live
on Zion,
my sacred hill, because Jerusalem will be sacred, untouched by foreign
troops.
Joel 3:16-17 |
| The Contemporary English
electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1995
by the American Bible Society. |
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