What Are We Fighting For?

But the tribe of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, who lived in the city of Jerusalem, so the Jebusites live there among the people of Judah to this day. [Joshua 15.63]

Judah could not remove the Jebusites and Joseph's descendants could not remove the Canaanites.

So what happened? Why did Israel become so weak and powerless? What changed from the unstoppable, unbeatable people they once were to being unable to displace the local residents?

It could be that Israel just got too absorbed in acquiring land... I mean the lists of names of towns is dizzying. I suppose the people could choose which town within their allotted towns they could live in.

Perhaps Israel lost sight of their mandate to annihilate the residents of the land. That IS what they were instructed to do, but for some reason they did not. 

I don't know that they really 'could' not drive out the occupants of some of the lands, but they certainly 'did' not. The text of the NLT indicates the use of the words "could not" but was that because they actually could not or because they did not? 

I often think of a mother asking a kid, "Did you make your bed?" "I couldn't do it!" replies the kid. But Mom's experience compels her to ask, "Did you try?"

So, I wonder if Israel actually really tried to expel all the residents. Like Manasseh claimed in 17.16, they cited the fact that the Canaanites had iron chariots as reason why they could not expel them. Really? God can't deal with iron chariots? Or Manasseh couldn't deal with iron chariots? See the difference?

Israel came into the Promised Land with great momentum. But once they started dividing the land to settle down, we start seeing instances of their failure to displace residents. Is there a correlation? Well, obviously so!

The lesson for us to glean from this is that our busyness with domestic side of life, houses, lands, cars, bills, etc... can distract us from our 'conquest' side. For us today, we are not in conquest for lands, but we are very much supposed to be in conquest for spiritual dominion - we are to be focused on nothing but the Kingdom of God! Hmm, that reminds me of a scripture somewhere in Jesus' time:

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. [Matthew 6.33]

What are we fighting for?

Father, help me to re-focus every day on Your Kingdom and righteousness. And, as I do, may I see the power of Your hand at work all around me providing everything I need!