Before we begin, let us go to God in prayer.

“Our dear Father in heaven, as we open up Your Word and as we study it, we pray for much wisdom. We pray for obedience on our part, for he who hears Your Word and does them is like a wise man. But those who do not do it, who do not obey is like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. We pray this day that You will help us be wise, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Now there is a book called “Respectable Sins”; the writer is Jerry Bridges. And in one of the chapters in this book, Jerry Bridges tells this story. He says there is a very dreadful word that we seldom want to talk about, a very terrible disease called cancer. And for Jerry Bridges, this disease (cancer) is only something that happens to other people but not to me or my family. But that all changed in 1987. His wife was infected with the disease. And although she was successfully treated, one line in that story changed the entire tone of his story: “It had spread to other parts of the body”. And that was the end. That was the end of her life. Jerry Bridges lost his wife to cancer. And in this particular chapter, it is called “the malignancy of sin”. The word ‘malignancy’ is used to describe cancer. Why?

Now the definition of malignancy or the word ‘malignant’ is that it seeks to do you harm. It seeks to hurt you, and it is resistant to treatment. What a terrible thing. What a terrible word. Now this terrible disease is so often a very accurate picture of sin (if you realise). Just like this terrible disease, it is often unnoticed, undetected when it creeps into our life. By the time you realise it, it is too late. It infects all areas of your life. A person doesn’t say oh, I have some cancer cells in my hand, and so I’m going to lose my hand. Or perhaps in my feet and I’m going to have to lose a leg. No, you will lose your life.

Now just like sin, what a terrible thing it is. The way we deal with cancer, we deal with it very violently, very drastically. Some people chop off the hand just to try and save themselves. Some people lose their whole limb. Is that the way we deal with sin? No wonder when God gave instructions to His people when His people entered the Promised Land God gave them this instruction. When you get to this land, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive. Drastic, a clear command how you ought to treat these wicked people- kill them all. Now sadly as today we shall see, that is not what Israel did.

Today we just want to answer three questions- what did Israel do wrong, why is it wrong, and what happened when they did wrong. I summarised our three headings under these three words- disobedience, tolerance, and consequence. Now allow me to quickly bring you up to speed if you’re the first time joining us and following us in this story. We are in the next phase of our story in this book of Joshua. The book of Joshua is about God leading His people (the Israelites). He promised to them a land and they had to fight their way just to get this land. And of course, we saw the wars that went on, miraculous winnings. God was on their side and He helped them win. And that was the first half of the book about wars, about fighting.

But now that they had victory, now is supposed to be about enjoyment. And so, in the second half of the book is about distributing the land. It’s about blessing. It’s about who gets what, distributing the rewards. It’s supposed to be happy, second half of the book. It’s supposed to be celebration. And yet as we consider the tribes receiving their inheritance, we will see one line that changes the tone of the entire story. Now the reason why we are looking at such a big chunk today from chapter 13 to 19 is because when we see as a unit, we get the sense or something the author is trying to drive at as we look at this big chunk.

And so, from chapter 13 all the way to chapter 19 is the distribution of the land. This tribe get this and this tribe get that and we are distributing the land. And we see a certain structure over here that the author repeats as he describes this division. And so, as we heard chapter 16 just now, this is if you like a format that the author is using to describe to us. And so, it usually starts like this. This lot fell to this tribe and this is the area yeah, from here to here, from this sea to this ocean. These are the lines, the boundaries of what they are getting, and then ending with this was their inheritance.

And so, you can trace in general this is a format that is used from chapter 13 all the way to 19. Distributing the land. This tribe get this lot and this is their inheritance. But there is one line that changes the tone and the mood of the entire story. And let us see what that is. Joshua chapter 13, look at verse 13. Now this is describing two and a half tribes. These are the ones who got their inheritance before crossing the Jordan as a part of an agreement with Moses. And so, for these two and a half tribes, verse 13 says: “Nevertheless the children of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maachathites, but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day.”.

Pay attention to this one line that changes the story entirely. Now let us go to chapter 15 and let us take a look at verse 63. The tribe of Judah, this is Caleb’s tribe. And we saw the last time Caleb did well. But verse 63 says what? “As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.”. Chapter 16 as we heard just now, verse 10: “And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced labourers.”.

Chapter 17. That was the tribe of Ephraim; how about Manasseh? How did they do? Chapter 17 verse 12: “Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. And it happened, when the children of Israel grew strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labour, but did not utterly drive them out.”. And so here we have two and a half plus another half here, Manasseh. We have three tribes. We have Judah, four tribes. We have Ephraim, five tribes. Five tribes, the author says they could not drive out the Canaanites. We have seven tribes to go.

Now as we look at the other seven tribes, the author sort of goes along with a faster pace here. He is almost like speeding up. The first lot went to this tribe, the second lot went to this tribe, the third lot went to this tribe. He is almost picking up the pace. And you may find that eh, how come that line no more there already? Is it because these five tribes failed but these seven tribes did okay? Now this is my guess. I suspect that as the author is going on to describe the other seven tribes, it is as if he wants to tell us you know the thing. Yeah, it goes without saying. I already say one time, two times, three times, four times, five times. You know the rest of the story. They all did not drive them out.

Now we can confirm this by just flipping one book later to Judges chapter 1. Judges chapter 1 confirms this. The other seven tribes equally failed. Judges chapter 1, and he mentions in just one quick sweep. Verse 29: “Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; Nor did Zebulun”. And after that, verse 31: “Nor did Asher”. Verse 33: “Nor did Naphtali”. And after that: “Nor did Dan”. The rest of them, they all failed. It is not five tribe who failed; all of them failed. All of them failed to drive the enemies out. We know the command that was given to them, it was clear. It is very clear in Deuteronomy chapter 20 the exact command. Deuteronomy 20:16- “But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive”.

It is very clear. It is not even up for debate what the Lord is trying to tell us to do or tell them to do. God gave a very clear command. And as we read through just now line after line, we see that line repeated over and over for all the tribes that they did not drive them out. God said you let nothing that breathe remain. It’s impossible to argue your way around it and say oh, there’s one way I could, there’s a loophole in this command or there’s some exception that can be made. No, what we find here is blatant. Blatant disobedience by the Israelites. It may be surprising as a first-time reader.

As you have been following the story of Joshua and these people, you might be scratching your head: What? How is it possible that this mighty nation who managed to defeat enemies that were stronger than them, enemies that were more bigger in number, more numerous than them, they went up against impossible opposition and yet they won and won and won? It is not a matter of who is stronger here. Although we see the words, some of them, some of the lines we read just now, they did not; some of them is they could not. So, which is it? They did not drive them out or they could not drive out? Were they too weak that they could not drive them out?

Not possible. It is not possible that they were too weak as Caleb showed us the last time. It’s not possible. It’s not a matter of strength. Not strong enough to drive them out? No. Whether the author mentions they did not drive them out or they could not drive them up, at the end of the day they would not drive them out. They are choosing. They are choosing to let them live. That is disobedience. God said kill them all; Israel now decides we are going to let them live. Blatant disobedience. This is what Israel did wrong. Let us consider why. Why is it so wrong? What’s so wrong about this? From disobedience we move on to our second word ‘tolerance’.

Now as we consider this particular thing that we say they did wrong, some of us might be wondering: Is this really very wrong? I mean they are inhabiting the land now and they find that oh, there’s some remnants over there yeah, little pockets of small, small people. Maybe some women, maybe some children. And they just say oh, let’s have mercy on them. Let’s let them live. Nothing wrong with that? Sowing mercy, having some compassion. Why is that so wrong? Well, of course the immediate answer to that is disobedience. That itself is wrong because God said so. But why is this particular thing of having tolerance of these people so wrong?

Now it is here when we need to understand something. These Israelites fail to understand something- the holiness of God. Their God that gave them this land is a holy God, and He called these people to be holy. Do we understand this word? If we fail to understand this word, then we can use words like tolerance. Then we will say things like well, it is okay to let them live. But if you understand the holiness of God, then we won’t be wondering whether this is wrong or right. What is the meaning of the word ‘holy’? We might first think about moral purity. Well, that is holy.

But first and foremost, the word ‘holy’ means entirely separate or set apart. And that is how we are to understand the holiness of God. He is totally separate, set apart. There is no mixing here. There is no tolerance here when it comes to sin, it comes to evil in this evil nation. And His people are supposed to be that. A holy God calling a holy people. These people are also to be set apart, entirely separate from this wicked nation. We can understand this word ‘holy’ in the Old Testament. How is it used? They had utensils that were holy. Why should utensils be holy? And we wouldn’t say that utensils are morally good. No, holy utensil simply means those utensils are used for some special purpose. And it’s not too difficult to understand.

I mean today if you were to; let’s just say somebody is fixing the toilet and he’s maybe finding some problem with the toilet bowl, he doesn’t say: Hey, can you please pass me a spoon? There’s something I need to dig out. Or pass me a fork, there’s something I need to clean, some stain there. No, we understand that certain things have certain purpose. And so you don’t take those things, those utensils and defile them. What Israel needed to understand here is the holiness of God, that their God is a wise God. He knows. He knows what will happen if you were to let them live. They should have trusted God that His command is good. It’s supposed to be good for them. They shouldn’t have questioned His command or disobeyed. They should have trusted God and obeyed this command.

But instead, they chose to use their human reasoning, their human logic. What were they thinking? Imagine these Israelites. What were they thinking as they saw this Canaanites still living there and choosing to have mercy on them? They might be thinking: Oh, what a waste. What a pity. Hey, some laborers are over there. If I kill them, I may have to clean up. But if I make them my servant, they will help me clean up. They’re starting to think about profit maybe, thinking about being clever. And they made them forced labourers over here.

You see, they were strong enough to destroy them. If you are strong enough to make them force labourers means you are strong enough to destroy them, of course. They are choosing not to. Instead of obeying God and destroying their enemies, they’re choosing to use their own human reasoning and they decided: Let us let them live. You see, the word ‘tolerance’ is not a word that we want to use when we are dealing with sin. Just as we understand how the word ‘cancer’ is an accurate picture of sin. If someone is fighting, if someone is at war, you don’t hear words like ‘tolerance’ or ‘compassion’ or ‘mercy’. You hear words like ‘kill’, ‘destroy’, ‘pull it out’, ‘pluck it out’.

Dr. Dale Ralph Davis uses this phrase. He says: “Spiritual urgency requires violent holiness”. That is what we are supposed to have in the back of our minds as we deal with this. If you are dealing with a nation that is wicked, we must destroy them utterly. God is wise. God knows what happens if they do not destroy them. Remember the command that was given in Deuteronomy 20? God has a reason for that command. Just now we saw verse 16. Look at verse 18. God ask them to destroy them all “lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the LORD your God.”.

These are the wicked people worshipping the God of Molech and Baal, performing child sacrifices, sexual immorality. This is a wicked people, and God said you destroy them because if you do not destroy them, they are going to teach you. Don’t be foolish. Don’t say I’m going to control them. No worries you know, I’m going to make them my slave. I’m going to control them fully. I have everything under control. No, God says they are going to teach you. That is what is going to happen if you let them live. Israel should have obeyed this command. They should not have tolerated it.

Now think about ourselves. Do we fight? Do we deal with sin drastically, violently as how soldiers should in a time of war? Do you realise that we are still at war? And do we see sin as some kind of deadly disease like cancer? It is subtle. It is not easily detected. It is not obvious. But by the time you realise it, it is full-blown. It leads to death. It doesn’t affect just one of you, it affects a whole kingdom sometimes. Consider the people who tolerated sin, who underestimated sin. Consider examples from the Bible.

Remember King David. An entire kingdom was split. Why? Because of one man’s sin. Because he thought that walking around the roof is okay. Looking around at my kingdom is okay. Looking at a woman is okay. Having some lustful thoughts in the mind is okay. He underestimated sin. Look at the destruction that followed after that. Consider Abraham’s nephew, Lot, underestimating sin when choosing where to live. I see Sodom, a place of evil. I’m not going to Sodom, but I’m going to live near Sodom. I’m going to go near it. One chapter later, he was in Sodom. Underestimating sin.

Think about this. How often we hear of huge news of terrible things being done- scandals at the workplace or sometimes even in the church? How would it even happen? How did it escalate there? It doesn’t happen suddenly. It always starts with people tolerating sin saying this is okay. One little look is okay. Small, small little things are okay. These are not big sins. Small, little things, they are okay. Just like Israel. Small, little remnant, we have it under control. It is okay. It is okay to let them live. It is okay not to drive them out. God said kill them all, but we say it’s okay.

Consider these good examples from the Bible of how people deal with sin drastically. If there are certain things in our life, think about it. Certain things in our life that may be good. But if it leads to sin, kill it. Lose it. Joseph. Remember, Joseph entering in a moment of temptation with Potiphar’s wife. And when he tried to run away, grabbed hold of his robe. What did he do? I lose the robe. I’d rather lose the robe then enter into this situation where I can sin. Are we ready to lose things? Are we ready to deal drastically, cut things off, kill sin before it kills us?

Think about this very carefully. Are there certain things that we’ve been doing? Perhaps it is not sin yet, but it’s going to lead to it. Little by little they are influencing you. They are teaching you instead of you being in control. Perhaps for some of us we have to be like Joseph. I’d rather lose the robe than the whole person sins. Perhaps some of us it is certain hobbies, certain activity that we enjoy doing. Perhaps for some of us, it is favourite food that we have or perhaps technology. Perhaps it is a certain video that we love watching or maybe a certain talk show host or the speaker that we enjoy listening to.

Think about it. It seems harmless at the start, but little by little these things are slowly influencing us. Just like God said here when you don’t destroy them, next thing is going to happen, they are going to start teaching you. Will we deal drastically with things that may lead us to sin? I believe we will if we understand and not underestimate sin. Just like that disease, that terrible disease that is malignant, we would do anything to kill it.

There is this one famous interview by this politician, this Singapore leader. I think his name is Lee Kuan Yew. And in one interview which caught my attention (although I’m not very interested in this guy), one interview caught my attention. He was talking about the death penalty for drug traffickers. The interviewer was asking him: Is it too serious or not? Why Singapore kills people who bring drugs in? And Lee Kuan Yew said this: “Drugs destroy hundreds of thousands of families. One death is far too kind.”. One death is far too kind. That is what he said. That is how drastic they deal with something that they understand to be so destructive. Drugs can lead to people becoming addicted. And families, hundreds and thousands of families can be destroyed.

Make sure you don’t bring it into Singapore. If you do, you are dead. And that is kind, Lee Kuan Yew says. One death is far too kind when dealing with such a destructive thing. Will we deal drastically with destructive things, or will we tolerate them like how Israel is tolerating? We’ve seen their disobedience; we see their tolerance. Finally, consider the consequence. Maybe we look back at our main text of chapter 16, and just look at the description over there. Ephraimites. Verse 10: “And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced labourers.”.

At first reading seems nothing wrong, seems harmless, isn’t it? But something has to sound wrong with this sentence. Canaanites dwelling among the Ephraimites? Can we really dwell together in harmony? Give it a few years and you visit this place and you see a temple for God and a temple for Baal. Perhaps you may even say: Oh, look at those Baal worshippers, those idol worshippers, those Canaanites. But then when you look closely, Ephraimites also! Why? Because they are teaching you. God said they will teach you. Don’t be proud. Don’t say I have it under control. No, you don’t kill sin, the other alternative is sin will kill you.

They chose to dwell together with them. In a few years’ time, look at the consequences- idol worship being added to them already. It is already unrecognisable. Ephraimites or Canaanite mixed together already, I don’t even know who is who now. Christians, we’re supposed to be different. But so often little by little the world will teach us and teach us and teach us until we become no different from them. In the Lord Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described what a Christian is like. Kingdom people, what are they like? They are so different. They are so different. They are people who are poor in spirit, meek, have such a low view of themselves. People who mourn when there is sin. People who hunger and thirst for righteousness as Jesus describes in the Beatitudes.

We will read that and we will see that the Christian is so radically different. It’s not possible that somebody can be born and become like this. No, it’s only because of the Holy Spirit’s work that somebody can be so drastically changed, radically different from the world. But what does Jesus say after the Beatitudes? He says salt. If salt loses its flavour, what happen? Now just this week as I was studying this. I just realised that salt is named salt. I’m guessing salt is named salt because it’s salty. If one day salt is not salty, we call it what? Bland. If the name also not there already, what is unsalty salt? Jesus says if salt loses its flavour, I’m gonna take it, I’m gonna put it on the ground, I’m gonna step on it.

That’s useless. Why you give me unsalty salt? Salt has one purpose. Not salty, useless. And Jesus’ point is like that. Christians, you are to be so different from the world that Martin Lloyd-Jones said this: “If a Christian were to even just live and dwell with a non-Christian or somebody of the world, in two weeks they will realise there is something wrong or something different about this person.”. In two weeks, he will know that there is something different because he’s so radically different. Something about that guy. Just only started work and two weeks later that guy very different. His speech is also a bit different. I just don’t know why is it so different, but it just gives me a feeling that this guy is different.

When we are gossiping, this guy leaves the room. When we are telling dirty jokes and this guy doesn’t participate. There’s something different about this guy, I just don’t know what it is. But that is a Christian influencing others because they are so radically different. But Jesus said if you’re not different, you’re useless. Like how salt that is not salty, it’s useless. Israel has become useless here because they chose to disobey God. They chose to tolerate sin. And towards the end, there is no difference anymore. They’re supposed to be set apart. They’re supposed to be holy. They’re supposed to be different. But this is the consequence. When you underestimate sin, when you don’t kill sin, this is the consequence.

Judges chapter 2. Judges chapter 2, this is the end. How did it get so bad? From a holy people enjoying the Promised Land, how did it get so bad? Judges 2:11- “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.”. They say they wouldn’t happen. They underestimated sin. God said they’re gonna teach you to do what they do. But they chose never mind, we have it under control.

Look at Judges. They’re unrecognisable. We don’t even know who God’s people are anymore. They do their practices just like the Canaanites. Tragedy, following complacency. That is what we find in these few chapters of Joshua when the people of Israel chose not to drive their enemies out. This is the outcome. It is a very, very sad story. We’re supposed to be having a happy story, a happy ending. But, not really. This one line, this repeated line: “They did not drive them out”. They did not drive them out; it led to disaster, led to their failure. Now we must conclude here.

Ask ourselves this day: Is there anything in your life that you are unwilling to drive out? Is there certain sins that you call small sins, that you say it is okay, I’m not breaking the Ten Commandments. I mean there’s tiny, little things that I make mistakes every now and then. They are respectable sins. Just like the title of that book “Respectable Sins”, these are okay. Let me just read to you the title of a few chapters in this book. Chapter after chapter Jerry Bridges deals with these sins that we so called respectable sins. Discontentment. Being unthankful. Doesn’t seem so bad. Selfish. Is selfish really a sin? Is it really breaking the Ten Commandments, being selfish? Lack self-control, impatience, judgmentalism.

These are sins that to us may seem very little. This doesn’t seem to be the big sins like adultery or murder. Small, little things that we say it’s okay and we tolerate them until eventually we become unrecognisable. We become just like the world. Now today let us consider this very stern warning, driving these things out. Let us remember that we are called to be a holy people separate from the world. Now as we conclude here the message of the gospel at the end of the day is not asking us to be holy because if that is what you take away today, the speakers say we must be holy, then we will be saved.

But that is a despairing message. That is a message that will drive you to despair. If you try to pursue holiness in and try to obey the laws of God, you will try and you will fail, and your story will be just like the story of the Old Testament where we see people given chance after chance and yet they fail and fail. Recall during Noah’s time the world was so evil that God destroyed the whole world and just leave one family, Noah. And in a sense humanity was given a second chance. And so, try to be holy. Try to not turn to sin again and not turn to idols again. And yet we see it went back to square one. And then they are given a fresh start.

And even in this generation, this was a good generation under the leadership of Joshua. You thought that this will finally do well. And then they fall again, and then they fail again. And you see this cycle repeating itself- God showing grace to His people. And then they fall, and then God judge the people, and then they plead for help. And God show grace to them again, but then they fall again and they disobey again and they get judged again. And this cycle goes on and on. And if we think that the gospel is trying to ask us to be holy, then we will repeat this cycle of failure and failure and failure. That is not the gospel.

So let me point you to the gospel here. In our story, in the book of Joshua, although we see this terrible line, this ominous line that says “they did not drive them out”, what we don’t see here is the consequences immediately felt. We did not see this line and right after that okay, just like Achan, sinned against God, and God destroyed him and his entire family being burned. We don’t see any punishment here. We see blatant disobedience but no punishment here. Now God was being kind. Even until the end of the book of Joshua, towards the end of Joshua’s life, God was being kind to them.

So yes, they failed, but God chose not to destroy them immediately. Only after Joshua died, they felt the full force of God’s wrath. And that is the message of the gospel. We are not saved by trying to be holy or be good. If God were to show you favour just like how God shows them patience and shows them favour in the book of Joshua, it was not because they deserved it. God chose to show favour to these people, these wicked people, these disobedient people. But God did not destroy them, did not punish them for the sake of Joshua. As long as Joshua lived, God was still kind to this generation.

And that is the same for us. If God were to show you kindness, if He’s gonna show you favour, it’s not because you deserve it. He’s going to show you favour because of the works of someone else. Their Joshua is our Jesus, and that is the One whom we point you to this day. If you do not know God or if you are not a Christian, this day the message from us is not be holy, obey the laws of God and you’ll be saved. No, our message this day is that if you try, you’re gonna fail and fail and fail. As we see from the Old Testament over and over, they keep failing. But we look to Jesus, His work. It is because of His work on the cross that God is going to show us favour. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, as we consider these texts, as we see the failure of the Israelites in driving out their enemies, we must confess that this is our failure as well. We have failed. We know what we are supposed to do and yet we do not do it. We have disobeyed You. Have mercy upon us and help us look to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only One who can save us. We cannot save ourselves. And so, we thank You for the Saviour that You have sent for our sake. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.