Israel’s Settlement in Canaan
Israel’s Settlement in Canaan
Already, before his death, Moses by divine command had appointed Joshua to succeed him and to lead the people into the promised land. Now therefore God’s word came to Joshua:
Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. (Josh. 1:6)
The Israelites were able to cross the River Jordan, as they had crossed the Red Sea, by a supernatural act of God, although this time he seems to have used a landslide instead of a strong wind to stem the waters for them (Josh. 3:15–16). Before them stood the ancient walled city of Jericho; its destruction without a siege was their first victory in the land of promise. After an initial defeat at Ai, owing to the disobedience of Achan in stealing lot, the victorious Israelites turned south. They routed a confederate army led by five Amorite kings, and swept on to conquer the southern hill country up to the borders of Philistia.
Next they turned north, where a coalition commanded by Jabin King of Haor had gathered near Lake Huleh. Although this army was equipped with “very many horses and chariots,” for Israel’s settlement in Canaan coincided approximately with the beginning of the Iron Age, it too was decisively defeated:
The rest of the Book of Joshua contains a description of the territories which were allocated by lot to the Israelite tribes as their inheritance (chapters 13–22). It ends with a stirring speech which Joshua delivered “a long time afterward,” reminiscent of Moses’ charge recorded in Deuteronomy, in which he reminded the people of their history and issued this challenge:
Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. (Josh. 24:14–15)
Although the children of Israel were now settled in the land which God had promised to give them they had not obeyed his command to exterminate its former inhabitants. There is no need for us to be offended by this divine decree. The reason for it can best be described as the need for radical surgery. Canaanite religion was characterized by both idolatry and immorality of the worst kind. The “baals” were fertility gods, supposed to be responsible for rainfall and harvest, and both ritual prostitution and sexual orgies defiled the “worship” of the local sanctuaries. So Moses said:
It is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. (Deut. 9:4)
Indeed so degraded were the practices of the heathen nations inhabiting Canaan, including the abomination of child sacrifice, that their ejection by Israel is sometimes portrayed in Scripture as the land “vomiting out its inhabitants” (Lev. 18:24–30).
Israel’s failure to obey God’s command resulted in the persistence of heathen culture within her territory and its penetration into her beliefs and practices. This is the situation throughout the period—nearly 200 years—described in the Book of Judges. The same cycle of backsliding, oppression and deliverance kept repeating itself. First the backsliding:
Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. (Judg. 2:11–13)
Then came the judgment in form of a foreign oppression:
In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. (Judg. 2:14)
Finally the deliverance:
Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. (Judg. 2:16)
But then it happened all over again:
Yet they would not listen to the judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD’S commands. (Judg. 2:17)
These “judges” combined several functions. First and foremost they were military leaders, raised up to deliver Israel from her oppressors. Thus Ehud rescued Israel from the Moabites, Deborah from the Canaanites, Gideon from the Midianites, Jephthah from the Ammonites and Samson from the Philistines. Next they were spiritual leaders, men of the Spirit, though exhibiting different degrees of devotion to Yahweh. Thirdly, they were judges, as their title indicates, hearing cases referred to them and administering justice in Israel. Nevertheless, there appears to have been but little law and order throughout this period, which is well summed up by the last words of the book: “Everyone did as he saw fit.”
Undoubtedly the greatest of the judges was Samuel. Unlike the others he displayed no military prowess. It was during his term of office that the unthinkable disaster occurred: the Philistines captured the ark of God and transferred it from Shiloh to Ashdod. Samuel relied on spiritual weapons to recover it—prayer and national repentance.
His reputation as a spiritual leader began early. Dedicated to the Lord before his birth, he was brought up at Shiloh under the tutelage of the high priest Eli. When he was still a young man, we are told, “all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD” (1 Sam. 3:20). He acted as a priest as well.
He also judged Israel, going on circuit every year from Ramah, his hometown, to Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah (1 Sam. 7:15–17).
However, when he grew old and appointed his sons as judges, they did not walk in their father’s ways, but “accepted bribes and perverted justice” (1 Sam. 8:1–3). So the elders of Israel came to Samuel at Ramah and demanded that he should appoint a king to govern them. As Samuel prayed about their request, it became clear to him that they had rejected not him but God. For Israel had been a theocracy, a nation ruled by God since its beginning some 250 years before. Therefore Samuel remonstrated with them and warned them that future kings would oppress them. But the people refused to listen:
“No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we shall be like all the other nations.” (1 Sam. 8:19–20)