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Welcome back to our study of the book of Joshua. This is week four, day four.
We're going to look at Joshua 15 today and learn some more lessons about driving
out the enemy, lessons from the people that Israel decided to leave in the land.

But before we look at the lesson for today, there's a question I have that you
may have been having through this section of the book of Joshua. Joshua's
fighting battle after battle and he's defeating these people. He's destroying
these people who are living in the promised land.

So the question is, why would God allow this? Why would God allow these battles?
Didn't he care about the Canaanites as well?

Is it just that they happen to accidentally be living in the wrong place so
these whole groups of people, whole tribes are destroyed? Why would God allow
all this battle? Let's go back to chapter 11 verse 20 and get another question
before us in this before we answer it.

11 and 20 says, "For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage
war against Israel so that he might destroy them totally, eliminating them
without mercy as the Lord had commanded Moses. " What does that mean? You read a
verse like that and you think, is this a totally different God than the God of
the New Testament?

Does he even love people? Does he even care about people? Why would God harden
their hearts?

Why would he allow this battle? Let me give you a sentence of an answer and then
unpack this a little bit. He hardens the heart of the evil so that he can bring
his purifying judgment.

God hardens the heart of the evil so that he can bring his purifying judgment.
You see, these people that were living in this land, they were not an innocent
people. They were an evil people who had been perverse for hundreds of years,
for generation after generation.

There's a clue in Scripture about what's happening here. God doesn't always
provide us an answer to all of his ways and what he does, but there's a clue in
Scripture to what's happening here. If you go all the way back to the book of
Genesis, chapter 15 verse 16, God's talking to Abraham and he's telling Abraham
the future.

He's saying, "You're going to go out of this land, your people, they're going to
live in another land for many generations. " In Genesis 15 and 16, he says, "In
the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the
Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. " The Amorites were the people
living in the promised land.

And God is saying, "There's going to come a day when their sin is so bad, I'm
going to bring my judgment against them, but it's four generations away. " You
see, I don't know what was happening in the history of this, but the sense I
have as I read Scripture is that these had become nations where no one would
ever turn to God. I do know from history that these were nations where children
were abused as part of their worship.

And so God stopped it. God stopped it. Now, I can't pretend to understand
exactly why and how and when God did this.

I can't pretend to know the mind of God, but I do trust the heart of God. I do
know that God loves and loved the Canaanites more than I ever possibly could. So
for him to allow this to happen, I wonder what kind of sin must have been
happening?

What kind of hopelessness must have been amidst these people? Why would God
allow nations to go on just so that more people could be born who would be
doomed to eternities separated from God? Why would he allow that to happen?

Now, again, I can't know the mind of God. I can't know exactly what was
happening here. But in my trust for the heart of God, I do know that even this
action of destroying these nations was an action of love and not hate.

Now, with that in mind, that big thought, the things that we can't understand
are always covered by what we do understand, the trust that we have in the love
of God. With that in mind and that answer in mind, let's turn back to this
principle in our daily lives of how do you and I drive out the enemies? We
talked yesterday about some of the enemies that they had left in the land and
the later influences.

I've saved one for today, a group by the name of the Jebusites. In chapter 15
verse 63, that verse begins by saying Judah, the tribe of Judah, could not
dislodge the Jebusites. They couldn't get them out of where they were.

And if you look at the history, the geography of the land, you could say, well,
they were an insignificant people in an insignificant place in an insignificant
city. It could have been easily stated by the people of Judah, they're such a
small tribe, they have no influence, we hardly even see them. They could have
said, Lord, we wouldn't even use the land that they're on.

Their city's built on rocks, it's way up in the highlands, we've got so much to
do, we'll just let them have this insignificant corner of the promised land.
Now, let me read for you all of Joshua 15, 63. Judah could not dislodge the
Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem.

To this day, the Jebusites lived there with the people of Judah. They were
living in Jerusalem, that place which would become the holy city, the future
center of Israel's life and worship, the place where the temple would be built.
You see, that which looked insignificant to the people of Judah became the place
where God would do his most wonderful, his most enduring work.

Now there came a day when David finally had to defeat the Jebusites that Judah
had not defeated so that this holy city could be the Lord's. So in 1 Chronicles
11, 4 and 5, the Bible says David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem,
that is Jebus, the Jebusites who lived there said to David, you will not get in
here. Nevertheless, David captured the fortress city of Zion, the city of David.

Here's this powerful picture of the people of Judah allowing this tribe that
should not have been there to live in a place that would become God's city. And
the question for my personal life today, for our personal lives today is, where
are you allowing the Jebusites to dwell? What do you think of as an
insignificant corner of your life?

It's okay. You know, it doesn't really matter what I do in that corner. I'm
really faithful to God here in the main places because the truth is what you
think of as an insignificant corner of your life may be the place where God
wants to do his most wonderful and enduring work in your life.

In fact, if you think of the schemes of Satan, wouldn't you expect him to attack
you at that place where God wants to do his most enduring work, to lie to you
and say it's an insignificant place? Of course that's what he would do. And so
you say in your mind, well, small lies don't matter, but God wants to utilize
your integrity to change this world.

That's where you're allowing the Jebusites to dwell in your life. Or you may say
it's just a private lust, but God wants to utilize your thinking, your mind,
your thoughts, and you're filling it with unholy things rather than the things
of God. Or you might say to yourself, oh, so I lash out with angry words maybe
more often than I should.

And God wants to use your words, your speech to make a difference in the lives
of everybody who's around you. When it comes to this issue of the Jebusites,
this seemingly insignificant part of our lives, it's so much more significant
than we realize. There are a couple of truths that you and I have to grow to
understand the rest of our lives as believers.

Truth number one is allowing sin in one small area may be the very place where
God wants to do his greatest work. Allowing sin in one small area of your life
may be the very place where God wants to do his greatest work in your life. So
don't excuse any sin as insignificant.

And the second truth is, like King David, it's never too late to move the
Jebusites out of Jerusalem. You see, as we're talking about sin, we all struggle
with it. And you may be thinking, I've been doing this.

I've been allowing this sin area in my life. And not only am I no longer
concerned about it, I have come to the place where actually I've made friends
with it, with that sin. It's become my comfort sometimes, even above the Lord.

What do you do when that happens in your life? Do you just look back in guilt
and say, I'm a failure, I'm never going to make it, God could never love me? Of
course not.

There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God's not out to
condemn you. He's out to grow you in your faith.

And like King David, it's not too late. There are these areas of our lives where
we come up against him, and just like the Jebusites said to David, we come up
against them and Satan says, you will not get in here. You're never going to
have victory in this area.

Well, that's a lie. And David knew it was a lie, and he came up against that
fortress and he captured it. How about your life?

These areas where we struggle, these areas of sin in our lives, they usually
have to do with things like our sexuality or our identity or our communication.
They have to do with the deep-seated things that are in our hearts. How about
you?

Where are you allowing the Jebusites to dwell? And how today could you begin to
look forward to a new kind of victory in your life? Jesus, we come to you and we
thank you for what you did on the cross.

Thank you that at the cross you did away with the penalty of sin once and for
all. Thank you that we are forgiven in you because of the cross. Thank you for
the new life you've given us in your cross and resurrection.

And we come to you today and pray we could grow in that grace. We don't want to
just know your grace, we want to grow in your grace. So Lord, in these places
where Satan has tempted us to think that some sin is our comfort or some sin is
okay, Lord, even today speak to our hearts.

And just day by day, moment by moment, help us to begin to see that you want to
achieve, you want to work toward a new kind of victory in our lives. You want to
take that place where Satan says we could never have victory and make it your
place of greatest victory. We pray this would happen, not based on our strength,
but based on what you have done for us and what you want to do in us, Jesus.

And we pray this in your name. Amen. Tomorrow, tomorrow we get to learn the
lesson of the Canaanites.

Amen.