I don't know about you, but I always thought that the Israelites had 100% conquered the Promised Land, in the days of Joshua and Caleb. You know ... that they just sort of went in there with a hammer and smacked everybody down, annihilating all their enemies. Not so!
This morning's text is Joshua 15:63 - - -
But the descendants of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites live in Jerusalem among the descendants of Judah to this day.
Who were these Jebusites? Why weren't they wiped out, as were the other pagan (Canaanite) people groups of the Promised Land?
In Genesis 10, we find an extensive genealogy called by some "The Table of Nations". In this biblical source, the Jebusites are listed as descendants of Noah's son, Ham - - - the one that "saw his father's nakedness" and was cursed (Genesis 9:22). Indeed, Ham's son's name was....Canaan! So, there you go.
At any rate, these Jebusites were part of the Amorite kingdom, which God appointed for extermination in Genesis 15:16 for their extreme wickedness. And, surely, the Israelites did wipe out many of the Amorite tribes/kingdoms --- the Adoni-zedek coalition (Joshua 10:5) and the king of Hazor's alliance (Joshua 11:3).
Why were the Jebusites able to avoid extinction for so long and to hold on to Jerusalem, (which they called Jebus -- shocker!!), co-existing right alongside the Israelites there? It is hard to say. Perhaps it was because, like the Gibeonites, they found slavery/servitude preferable to death, and were willing to do whatever it took in order to survive. The Bible does not say.
However, we do find references to the Jebusites later on in the Old Testament.
In Judges 3:5, we see that the Israelites had become so comfortable around the Jebusites that they began to intermarry with them. This brought down God's judgment upon the Hebrew nation because such intermarriage was in direct disobedience to God's command about such things. Over and over again God had commanded His chosen people not to intermarry with pagans. As the Bible so correctly says: "A little leaven leavens the whole lump" (Galatians 5:9). This is in reference to active yeast, which makes bread dough rise. It only takes a pinch to do the job. That small bit works its way through the whole batch of dough. The Israelites had become so comfortable around the Jebusites that they began to "mix" with them in marriage.
Then, we run into them again when David conquered Jebus and renamed it Jerusalem, the City of David. Jerusalem began to be the capitol city of David's kingdom. Solomon later built the Temple there, and so forth. It would be natural to assume, then, that in David's day the Jebusites were "run out of town". Well, no...inexplicably that did not happen! (This must have been a wily bunch!) We find in 2 Samuel 24:18-25 that David arranged to buy the land on which the Temple would be built, and that he bought it from a prominent Jebusite!
The last we hear from these people is in Ezra 9, hundreds of years later. The priest, Ezra, was leading a revival among the people who had returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity. Part of that repentance and cleansing necessary for revival was for the men of Israel to "put away their pagan wives", some of whom were Jebusites. While this sounds overly harsh, to some, this was commanded because the pagan wives worshipped false gods; this certainly influenced their husbands/families in a very negative way.
Oh, young people (and old!) - - - don't date or marry outside your faith. Just don't do it.
Well, after Ezra 9, we don't read any more about the Jebusites in Biblical history. It can be assumed that they began to be absorbed into the melee of pagan peoples in the middle east, losing their distinct nationality.
One of today's modern "virtues" is "tolerance". This so-called "virtue" has been perverted to mean that unless you condone and approve of any type of behavior, whether civil or not, you are "intolerant", a scathing rebuke. Here we see, in Joshua 15:63, that the Israelites' "tolerance" of the Jebusites in Jebus/Jerusalem caused them problems in the future of their nation.
Obviously, I'm not advocating exterminating anyone who does not agree with the Bible's revelation of God to man. However, in our showing love and respect to those who differ with our Biblical views, we must also take care to not allow those anti-Christian attitudes to corrupt our hearts. God is very intolerant of sin, while simultaneously loving people. I read a great quote on Twitter yesterday. It said - - - "God hates sin, not because it hurts Him, but because it hurts us." Similarly, we are not to "hate our brother", but instead to hate any philosophy, attitude or cultural practice which is rooted in sin or stands in opposition to Biblical principles of godliness. Such is not intolerance; it is, rather, wisdom and spiritual discernment.
Guard your heart against leaven!
Father, thank you for all that You teach me through Your holy Word. The Bible is a treasure which cannot fully be mined over a human lifetime. It is so exciting to learn new truths from Your written revelation. Please sensitize us, Your children, to recognize "leaven" when we encounter it in our corrupt, fallen world, and to guard ourselves against that leaven's corrupting influences. In Jesus' name, amen.
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