God brought the Israelites into Canaan to drive out the inhabitants of the land (Numbers 33:52). In Deuteronomy 7:1-11, we learn that the Jews were God’s chosen people, and they were not to mix with the inhabitants lest they stray from God.
There is nothing special about the people of Jericho being destroyed more than all the other Canaanites. God repeatedly told Joshua, who led the people against the Canaanite cities, to thoroughly kill all who were alive, to completely eradicate the cultures there (Joshua 10:39). Archaeological digs in Israel for the Canaanite period has reveal extremely repulsive practices by the inhabitants, and many carved idols everywhere. They were to be destroyed lest the inhabitants turn the Jews to their practices and turn them away from God.
Our own culture has been doing this to God’s people, hasn’t it?
We learn in Hebrews 3 and 4 that this conquest, which really happened, was also a figure of the internal fighting that Christians undergo to win their souls for the Lord. The land is a metaphor for our souls. The foe of sin was already defeated at the cross (Romans 6), and its power over us was broken. Now, as we follow the Lord faithfully as Joshua did, He will lead us against the enemies of the soul (areas where we are tempted; strongholds of the flesh) that He may be Lord over that area. Where He is not Lord, there is no rest; we’ll know fear, anxiety, depression, and so on, where the flesh is lord of our lives. Where we defeat the enemy by surrender to the Lord in that area by faith in Him, we win the victory, and rest results. The Word will point out the areas of our lives that remain under control of the flesh (Hebrews 4:8-13), and will point out the way of escape that we may die to it (vv. 14-16).
Do you know this kind of victory? Did you know that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead on the third day to give you freedom from besetting sins? Church does not save us from the power of sin. Trying harder, or doing good deeds or religious practices does not deliver us from the power of sin. Reincarnation, an errant doctrine, doesn’t help us defeat this foe. Only Jesus can. When we surrender to Jesus and live for Him day by day, reading our Bibles to know Him more, then we gain victory over the flesh bit by bit, as we believe Him for the victory. We win the land of our souls for Him. Then we are conformed to His image, which is His goal for us (Romans 8:29). In every area where we believe Jesus instead of the flesh, the enemy of the land is destroyed, and we keep holding onto it by faith.
