that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Jehovah to walk therein, as their fathers did keep [it], or not.
Israel had broken God's covenant, so He said the nations Joshua left behind would stay. Here He gives His reason: those neighbours would test whether Israel kept to the way of the Lord.
One writer traces their presence to two things at once — Israel's own weakness, and God's plan:
God foresaw this unfaithfulness, and that was why He left some of the nations among His people to test them. Their presence was itself proof that Israel lacked energy and confidence in the power of God. He would still have kept them from the disasters that followed.
So the same neighbours carried two meanings every single day:
These nations were left among Israel to test them. They lived side by side with Israel day after day. So they were a constant test of the loyalty and obedience of the generations that followed. Would those generations now go on to do the will of God and drive out the enemy that was there? In other words, as long as these men stayed, their presence was always a witness of past failure and an invitation to present recovery.
God's aim in leaving them went past punishment:
In His grace God uses the very unfaithfulness and its consequences to bless the people. In allowing these nations to remain, God did not have only chastisement in view. He also wished "to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did" — in short, would they separate from evil? In the same way, in 2 Timothy God uses the mixture of vessels for honor and dishonor. He uses it to test and bless the hearts of those who are faithful. "If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work." What a blessed description of faithfulness in dangerous times! God would show us a path that glorifies Him as much in the darkest day of ruin as in the brightest days of the church.
The measure in the verse is the way their fathers walked. The same writer names what God wanted that test to produce:
The blessing God had in view was to bring Israel back to the Word He gave at the start. That Word was their only safeguard.
The consequences themselves become the raw material of a fresh opportunity:
Here were people whose presence was a witness of past failure. But, thank God, He does not stop there. If His people have compromised Him and compromised themselves by their own unbelief and disobedience, God does not give them up. He is a God of infinite patience and long endurance. He leaves them to the result of their own disobedience. That is the first thing. Then out of those very results He brings fresh tests of their future obedience.
The verse sets the question. One writer notes what the test should have produced, and what it exposed:
Israel broke God's covenant, so He declared He would no longer drive out any of the nations still left when Joshua died. Instead, He would use those nations to test Israel. These nations worshipped demons. That very fact should have stirred Israel's disgust at such evil, instead of tempting them to follow the same practices. So it was a test, but one that proved Israel rebellious.
Even so, the arrangement trained them:
God left within the borders of their land what put obedience to the test… that they might learn war, and experience the ways and the government of the LORD.
- Cause — The nations stayed because Israel lacked energy and confidence in God's power. Their presence was a witness of past failure.
- Purpose — God turned that failure into a test, and the test into an invitation to present recovery.
- Measure — Would they keep the way of the Lord as their fathers did? The test called them back to the Word God gave at the start.
- Patience — God leaves people to the results of their disobedience. Out of those very results He raises fresh tests of obedience.
- Result — Israel's answer was rebellion. Even so, the enemy left in the land taught them war and the government of the LORD.
Therefore Jehovah left those nations, without dispossessing them hastily, neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.
Joshua is dead, and the nations Israel never drove out are still living in the land. Verse 23 explains why. God had not run short of power. He had a purpose in leaving them there.
The nations left in the land were not an accident of history. They were there because Israel spared what God told them to remove. The oppressors in the book of Judges came from that same group.
Notice this: the enemies who oppressed the Israelites from time to time were the ones they had left alive in the land. They left them there because of their own disobedience to God and their lack of confidence in Him. As long as they went on depending on God, no enemy could stand before them; God gave them one victory after another. It was their unfaithfulness alone that left these enemies in the land.
Joshua died with the conquest unfinished. The limit was not on God's side.
The power and the presence of God had not forsaken Israel up to the time of Joshua's departure. It was always available wherever there was faith to use it.
Israel's failure did not catch God off guard. He had foreseen it, and it shaped what He did next.
God, in fact, foresaw this unfaithfulness. That was why He left some of the nations among His people to test them. The presence of these nations was proof in itself that Israel lacked energy and confidence in the power of God. That same God would still have kept them from the disasters that followed. But in the wisdom of His counsels, God, who knew His people, left these nations among them as a means of testing them. Israel will be fully blessed only under Messiah. By His might He will bring in their blessing, and by His might He will keep it for them.
The testing in verse 22 is not only a punishment. It has grace in it.
There was only one resource, and it was worthy of God. In His grace He uses the very unfaithfulness and its consequences to bless the people. In letting these nations remain, God had more than chastisement in view. He also wished to test Israel by them, "whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did." In short, would they separate from evil?
The nations stayed, so the test ran through everyday life for generations.
These nations were left among them to try them. Living side by side with Israel day after day, they were a constant test of the loyalty and obedience of the generations that followed. Would Israel now go on to carry out the will of God and cast out the enemy that was there? In other words, as long as these men remained, their presence was always a witness of past failure and an invitation to present recovery.
So what did the test reveal about Israel?
After every rescue, when the judge died, Israel went back to their low state or even lower than before, serving and bowing down to idols. Israel broke God's covenant, so He declared He would no longer drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died. Instead, He would use those nations to test Israel. These nations worshipped demons. That fact alone should have stirred Israel's disgust at such evil, not drawn them into the same practices. So it was a test, but one that proved Israel rebellious.
Failure like Israel's can look like the end of hope. Commentators draw the opposite conclusion.
Let us say to one another that no position of bondage puts you beyond His power for fresh deliverance. Not even the position your own failure and disobedience to God have brought you to. You may not get the same complete victories that might once have been yours. But it is never right for us, never right for faith, to let our hands hang down and say there is no further hope.
- Cause. The nations still in the land were the ones Israel spared through disobedience and lack of confidence in God.
- Not weakness. God's power never failed. It was always there for faith to use.
- Purpose. God foresaw the failure. He turned the enemies left behind into a test: would Israel separate from evil?
- Daily. Living beside those nations made the test constant. Their presence was a witness of past failure and an invitation to recovery.
- Outcome. Israel failed the test and copied the idol worship. Yet failure never puts you beyond God's power for fresh deliverance.