55. He cast out the heathen also before them, or, “he drove out the nations.” Not
only were armies routed, but whole peoples displaced. The vices of the
Canaanites made them rot above ground; therefore the sword of the tribes
completed the execution to which the justice of heaven had appointed them. The
Lord was the true conqueror of Canaan. And divided them an inheritance by line. Among the condemned nations were not only giants in stature, but also
giants in crime; they had too long defiled the earth, and were doomed to
forfeit life and lands by the hands of the tribes of Israel. The distribution
of the forfeited country was made by divine appointment; it was no scramble,
but a judicial appointment of lands which had fallen to the crown. And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. The favored people entered
upon a furnished house: they found the larder supplied, for they fed upon the
old corn of the land, and the dwellings were already built in which they could
dwell. Thus does another race often enter into the lot of a former people, and
it is sad indeed when the change which judgment decrees does not turn out to be
much for the better, because the incomers inherit the evils as well as the
goods of the ejected. Such a case of judicial visitation ought to have had a
salutary influence upon the tribes; but alas, they were incorrigible, and would
not learn even from examples so near at home and so terribly suggestive.
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