Scripture Daily

Context No. 1640 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 16:1-10: in context

1The lot came out for the children of Joseph from the Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, even the wilderness, going up from Jericho through the hill country to Bethel. 2It went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth; 3and it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Beth Horon the lower, and on to Gezer; and ended at the sea. 4The children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance. 5This was the border of the children of Ephraim according to their families. The border of their inheritance eastward was Ataroth Addar, to Beth Horon the upper. 6The border went out westward at Michmethath on the north. The border turned about eastward to Taanath Shiloh, and passed along it on the east of Janoah. 7It went down from Janoah to Ataroth, to Naarah, reached to Jericho, and went out at the Jordan. 8From Tappuah the border went along westward to the brook of Kanah; and ended at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families; 9together with the cities which were set apart for the children of Ephraim in the middle of the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages. 10They didn’t drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell in the territory of Ephraim to this day, and have become servants to do forced labor.

This passage records the inheritance given to the tribe of Ephraim, the descendants of Joseph, marking out its borders through the hill country. And it ends with a telling admission: they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; instead the Canaanites remained in Ephraim's territory to this day, put to forced labor. Where God had commanded the land to be cleared, Ephraim settled for a compromise, leaving the Canaanites in place as laborers rather than removing them.

The little note at the end is a quiet failure with long consequences: they did not drive out the Canaanites. God had commanded Israel to clear the land, but Ephraim stopped short; rather than remove the Canaanites, they made a compromise, subjecting them to forced labor and letting them stay. It seemed easier, and perhaps even profitable, to keep the Canaanites as laborers than to do the hard work of removing them; and so they remained, to this day, the text says, embedded in Ephraim's land. The trouble is that what Israel tolerated rather than removed would, again and again through their history, become a snare, drawing them into the very idolatry God had warned against. The compromise that seemed convenient became a lasting problem. There is a searching lesson in this about incomplete obedience and the sins we tolerate rather than deal with. It is often easier to make a compromise with the thing we should remove, to leave it in place under some manageable arrangement, than to do the hard work of clearing it out. But what we tolerate rather than remove tends to stay, and to trouble us later; the Canaanites Ephraim left became a lasting snare. The sin, the compromise, the wrong thing we settle for keeping under control rather than removing, does not usually stay controlled; it remains, and troubles us to this day. Complete obedience, doing the hard work of removing what God says to remove rather than compromising with it, spares us the lasting snare that partial obedience leaves behind.

Is there something I have tolerated rather than removed, a sin or compromise I have settled for keeping under some manageable arrangement rather than doing the hard work of clearing it out, and do I see that what we tolerate tends to stay and trouble us, as the Canaanites Ephraim left became a lasting snare?

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