And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites Hittites and Amorites and Perizzites and Hivites and Jebusites;
God left several nations in the land, and Israel did not drive them out. This one short verse names six of those peoples, and it marks the moment the conquest ends and the slide begins.
Commentators treat this verse as a turning point. The first part of Judges ends here, and the long story of oppression begins.
From Judges 1 to 3:4 we have the first division. I think we might call it "independence of God." From Judges 3:5 through 16 we have the result of that independence: the enemy comes in, and bondage follows. Bondage under the hand of the enemy; and second, deliverance under the hand of God for a repentant people.
The verb carries the weight of the verse. It describes a choice, not an accident.
In the fifth verse we read that the children of Israel "dwelt" — made their home, settled down. That is the thought: they have settled down. Where? Among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. There is a list of names, and I have no doubt each of those names has its special meaning. Canaanites are "traffickers"; Hittites, "sons of terror"; Amorites are "talkers"; Perizzites are "rulers"; Hivites are "villagers"; Jebusites are "treaders down."
Earlier in the book some tribes let the Canaanites stay with them. Here the direction reverses, and that reversal is the whole tragedy.
Ephraim and Zebulun allowed the Canaanites to dwell among them (v. 29, 30). From then on, the world formed part of the people of God. Asher and Naphtali (v. 31-33) went a step further: they dwelt among the Canaanites. They swallow Israel up.
How long did Israel take to fail the test? No time at all.
Verse 4 tells us God left those nations to test Israel. Verse 5 follows at once to show that they failed the test. They intermingled by marriage among these nations and served their idols… Once evil gets its thin edge in, it is not long before it brings a complete split. If we once welcome evil, we shall soon find it is far too strong for us, and we become slaves.
Why do these names matter? The answer starts with the first one.
These names stand for spiritual principles that control conduct. If you are living where any of these principles rule, you may be sure you are in the same circumstances as Israel. First of all are the Canaanites, "traffickers" — those who handle things only for the profit in them. They are merchants who have no heart in divine truth. They just take it and handle it for various reasons: some for financial gain, some for social gain, some to avoid unpleasant conflict with people they love. All that kind of handling of divine truth is mere Canaanite trafficking.
The next verse tells of marriages with these nations. Solomon's reign later shows where such marriages lead.
Solomon was openly disobeying God, who had said to His people: "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you." There was a double prohibition. We are in danger of going to the world, or of letting it come in to us. Perhaps the second is even more dangerous than the first… Little by little it works its way into our homes and our lives. Often, when we open our eyes to the danger, it is already too late. "Surely they will turn away your heart after their gods," the Lord had said. Marriage with the world will necessarily lead us to the religion of the world.
The bondage that follows is not the end of the story. Only one thing turns each cycle around.
In Judges God uses the enemy's oppression, which Israel deserved, to bring about revivals. "They cried to the Lord" is always the phrase that introduces them. Christendom today discusses what methods to use to start revivals. There is only one: a sense of the low state of the world, of the sinner, or of the church, deep enough to make the troubled soul turn to God.
- Settled — "dwelt" means they made their home there. Israel once let Canaanites live among them; now Israel lives among the Canaanites.
- Tested — God left the nations to prove Israel, and verse 5 shows Israel failed at once.
- Married — going in to the world, or letting it come in, is a double danger; the second is the quieter one.
- Served — marriage with the world leads to the religion of the world. Welcome evil once, and it soon grows too strong for us.
- Cried — the cycle of bondage breaks in only one way: when a sense of the ruin drives the soul to turn to God.
and they took their daughters as wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
Israel failed to drive out the nations, so they settled down beside them. This verse takes the short step from living beside those nations to marrying them — and shows how a people who belonged to God ended up serving someone else's gods.
Israel existed to be a testimony for God. Sharing the land with these nations made that impossible.
Now think of a nation whose existence meant a religious testimony, a testimony for God. Bring God into account, and see how much more disastrous it is for such a people to settle down among the nations and merge with them. How impossible it was for Israel to be loyal and true to God, to carry out His law and to be subject to His government. It was an impossibility. So the presence of these unconquered nations in Canaan was not only a witness to Israel's failure. It was a constant threat to their integrity and faithfulness.
The nations still in the land were there for a reason. What followed came quickly.
Those nations were left to test Israel. But they failed the test, for they intermingled by marriage among these nations and served their idols... Once the thin edge of the wedge of evil begins its work, it is not long before it brings a complete split. If we once welcome evil, we shall soon find that it is far too strong for us, and we become slaves.
God spoke about marriage from the very start. The command covered both directions of the exchange named in this verse.
From the very beginning, the command to Israel was to keep the way of the Lord with great care in the matter of marriage. They were on no account to give their daughters to Canaanite sons, or to take Canaanite daughters for their sons (Deuteronomy 7:3). If they did so, it would mean they were no longer owned by the Lord (Joshua 23). In line with this, disobedience in this very thing marks the days when Solomon turned away (1 Kings 11). Afterwards, no real recovery to God could be accepted without a return to this principle in their marriages (Ezra 10; Nehemiah 10).
The steps run in a set order. Each one makes the next one easy, and the last one is not Israel's choice.
Look at the order, and see the inevitable progress of evil. First, they fail to drive out the enemy. Second, they bring them into servitude and make them pay tribute. Third, there is intermarriage, linking themselves with them. Fourth, they adopt their false gods and depart from God. Last, there can be only one result: God hands them over to an enemy, to make them taste what an evil and bitter thing it is to depart from Him.
Marriage is the closest tie there is. That is why the gods came with the daughters, and why believers today face the same trap.
We are told they intermarried with these nations and took them into the closest union with themselves. They adopted them as part and parcel of their nation. As a result, they adopted their gods, their religious beliefs and practices and service. What multitudes of believers have fallen into the trap of actual marriages with people of the world. "What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?" The unbeliever here is not only someone who openly denies the faith. It is anyone who is not personally a believer to the saving of the soul. Oh, the Christless homes, the aching hearts, the wrecked lives that have come from neglecting the plain word of God.
These marriages broke a command, so the disobedience was deliberate. The sin behind them is not limited to Israel.
It was therefore in wilful disobedience that they had made these shameful alliances with the world; for this is what these marriages picture — the besetting sin of God's people in every age. The apostle James says, "You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).
The rule for believers today is different, and the remedy is not to end the marriage.
Believers today are not under such a law, though they are told, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 6:14). If they disobey this Scripture, they are not told to put away the unbeliever... Today, a believer who marries an unbeliever must learn the painful results of this disobedience by experience. There is no escape from them.
- Settle — an enemy you fail to drive out never stays quiet. These nations proved Israel's failure and threatened it.
- Marry — marriage is the closest union there is. Israel took the nations in as part and parcel of itself.
- Serve — the gods came with the daughters. What you join yourself to, you end up worshipping.
- Sold — the final step is not chosen but suffered: God hands His people over, to let them taste how bitter it is to leave Him.
- Separate — the same wedge still works. The call now is not to end a marriage, but to refuse the first step.