Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places; you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess…But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover, it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them.’ Numbers 33:51-53, 55-56
Near the end of the forty-year wilderness wanderings, Moses began preparing the new generation of Israelites to take the promised land of Canaan. Essential to their gaining and retaining the promised land and its numerous blessings was their striving to be the sort of people God had separated them to be. In Exodus 19:5-6, we see an abbreviated description as God called them to be a “…kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” Their continuing as His special treasure was dependent upon their pursuit of His holiness (Deuteronomy 8:1-20, et.al).
A critical element in their success was that they had to remove all the Canaanite people from the land, stamping out their moral and religious practices. The passage from Numbers 33 above is a clear warning about the danger of keeping company with those who practice such godless deeds as did the Canaanites. The history of these people demonstrates the depths of their depravity. The Bible is clear that God did not have Israel drive them out because He had some grudge against people of Canaanite descent, but He did so because of their depravity (Genesis 15:16-19; Deuteronomy 9:5; 1 Kings 21:26; et. al.). Israel had to drive them out completely or else they would eventually follow the ways of the Canaanites.
These warnings were repeated over and over, including during the time of the conquest (Joshua 23:6-13; Judges 2:1-3). Unfortunately, the children of Israel failed to complete the directive, and they allowed portions of the Canaanites to remain in the land, opting to put them to forced labor rather than destroying them (Judges 1:27-2:5). The results were predictable as they indeed became “…snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.” (Joshua 23:13). The period of the Judges demonstrates this harsh reality vividly. Solomon’s choice to marry various pagan wives led to the division of the kingdom (1 Kings 11), and Jeroboam’s persistence in pagan customs, along with his successors, brought the nation to deportation and destruction (1 Kings 13; 2 Kings 18, 25).
Though we do not individually hold the fate of our nation in our hands, we too must drive out our own personal “Canaanites” if we are to remain faithful to the Lord and avoid spiritual destruction. John and Jesus came saying “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand “ (Matthew 3:1-2; Mark 1:14-15). Peter’s first divine directive on the day the kingdom was established was to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38). Paul and all the rest reiterate the absolute necessity of repentance for faithful living and eternal life (cf. Acts 17:30-31; Hebrews 12:1; James 1:21). Properly understood, the prerequisite of repentance for entry to the kingdom of heaven and the saving of the soul means we must strive to drive out our sinful ways completely. As Paul said later concerning the man living in adultery, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). And again, “Therefore, ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.’” (2 Corinthians 6:17). These passages are all crystal clear that we must be vigilant in driving our sins out completely, so that they do not become snares to our souls.