Subjugated to Sin

This passage gives us a brief accounting of the pagan peoples left in the land. They include the Philistines along the Mediterranean coast in the southwest (Judg. 1:18 tells us that Judah took three of their five cities, but the Philistines may have regained them); the Sidonians in the northeast; the Hivites in the north; and “all the Canaanites,” as well as the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, presumably small remnants of people scattered throughout the land. It is noteworthy that we are told that “the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites.” It is as if, Matthew Henry says, “the right had still remained in the Canaanites, and the Israelites had been taken in by their permission and only as tenants at will.”

This passage reaffirms the divine purpose for the Canaanite remnant that we learned of in yesterday’s study: that God might “test” Israel’s obedience in the crucible of temptation it had forged for itself. This test, long planned by God, is designed to enlighten the Israelites, not God. But yet another purpose for the intermingling of the Israelites and the pagans is revealed here. God desires that the post-conquest generation should know war as its predecessors did. Henry speculates that God wills it to be so that Israel might not grow too comfortable in its rich, fruitful land and that it might be prepared to fend off the numerous enemies dwelling in the region and expand its territory as God will make possible. “It was … necessary that they should be well disciplined, that they might defend their coasts when invaded, and might hereafter enlarge their coast as God had promised them …” he writes. “Therefore God left Canaanites among them, that, by the less difficulties and hardships they met with in encountering them, they might be prepared for greater, and, by running with the footmen, might learn to contend with horses (Jer. 12:5).”

But at the close of this passage, there is no sign that Israel will turn back to the obedience that will bring covenant blessing. Rather, the people dwell among the pagans they have been commanded to destroy, begin to intermarry with them, and serve their gods. From serving the Lord (Judg. 2:7), the people now stoop to serve mere idols. Israel soon will be subjugated to a foreign power, but only because it is already subjugated to sin.