King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 5 notes
1Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
So the promise of them taking the land continued even after Joshua. God's words indeed are sure.
And come to think of it, how could the words of the Lord end with Joshua?
Words that started centuries before Joshua could in no wise die with him, though he was a great leader.
Indeed the words of the Lord never failed, and even millennia down the line the word continues to hold 👫.
And the generations that serve him wholeheartedly, he deals 🤝 truly with them, and they lay claim of their inheritance, but the next generation, or whichever generation is shrewd and unfaithful, he abandons, so they know that it is not by might, neither by power, but by his Spirit and Spirit alone.
Indeed the timelines can even be shorter.
In a lifetime, when a generation or individual serves the Lord, all goes well, but in that same lifetime things can go horribly off if one turns away from the Lord.
When we turn away he turns away, but when we are faithless he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:12-13 KJV
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: [13] If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
2And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.
3And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.
4And Judah went up; and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.
5And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
6But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
7And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
8Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
9And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley.
10And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron: ( now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba:) and they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.
11And from thence he went against the inhabitants of Debir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher:
12And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.
13And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife.
14And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou?
15And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
16And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.
17And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah.
18Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.
Gaza was of Israel in times past.
19And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
20And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak.
21And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.
22And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Beth-el: and the LORD was with them.
23And the house of Joseph sent to descry Beth-el. ( Now the name of the city before was Luz.)
24And the spies saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said unto him, Shew us, we pray thee, the entrance into the city, and we will shew thee mercy.
25And when he shewed them the entrance into the city, they smote the city with the edge of the sword; but they let go the man and all his family.
26And the man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz: which is the name thereof unto this day.
😢... He carried the memory of his beloved lost city 🏙 with him.
It's almost like me losing Accra and being the only survivor and resettling in, say, Kumasi.
And renaming my settlement Accra. I might live in a state of perpetual sadness and retell my children stories of Accra.
Oh, I can imagine the man's great loss... His friends, favorite spots etc.
It is well.
27Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.
28And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.
29Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
30Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries.
31Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob:
32But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out.
33Neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-anath; but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became tributaries unto them.
34And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley:
This was the failure of the tribes; they should have had a long-term plan to completely drive the people out, such that if they could not do it in a particular period, they ought to have a plan to continue.
But alas, they did not obey the Lord fully.
Though somewhere it says the Lord did not completely drive the people out in order to test them.
OK, I've found the verse.
Judges 2:2-3 KJV
And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? [3] Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
So the reason God did not drive the people out was because Israel themselves failed to obey the voice of the Lord.
So he let them reap the natural consequences of their actions.
35But the Amorites would dwell in mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became tributaries.
After the death of Joshua, things began to go south. I wonder why Joshua did not have a protégé whom he was to hand over to. Maybe the dynamics this time were different.
Now they were each settled according to their tribe in their respective inheritance, so to raise one person from a tribe over the others was a challenge. Or MAYBE not, because they have always dwelt in tribes, even when Moses was their head. Though that was in the wilderness.
We see a similar thing in the times of the kings: under Saul and David and Solomon there was unity, and the hand of God selected people, but after a whiles it also failed.
It seems God is not interested in permanently setting up systems and rulers for his people, even though that works best when he is in charge. But he sets up systems and expects his people to take over and continue with the system he has set up.
But man, in our flaws, messes things up.
But God is good.
36And the coast of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.