Which is it? "I will drive your enemies out before you," (Re: Exodus 23:27-29) or "YOU must drive out the inhabitants of the land?" (Re: Numbers 33:55) Is it neither, or is it both?
Multiple understandings of God's purpose run throughout the text. Take Numbers 33:56 for example: "And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them." This sentence implies that the native inhabitants have wronged God and that the Israelis' conquest represents both God's judgment and God's punishment of the native inhabitants. It also implies a stern warning for the Israelis: If they fail to live according to God's plan, then God will summon other nations to deliver judgment and punishment against them, too.
If Joseph's brothers hadn't sold him into slavery (Genesis 37:28), then perhaps the Israelis would have stayed in the land first promised to Abraham. Maybe they would not have become enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. They would have no need to fight their way back into the land--possibly.
Lord, teach me the gravity of the decisions I make today.
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