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"In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE
LORD; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea,
every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they
that sacrifice shall come and take them and seethe therein; and in that day there shall be
NO MORE CANAANITE in the house of the Lord of hosts" (Zech. 14: 20, 21).
#6.
The Conquest of Canaan.
pp. 237 - 239
In our last article we devoted most of our space to consideration of the typical
character of the Canaanite, and saw that in the Canaanite we have an example of Satan's
method of attempting to forestall the purposes of God, and supplant the true heirs of
promise.
It will, however, be observed that, as always, the aggressor is first in the field and, for
a time, apparently successful, but it is of the very essence of final victory that it shall be
based upon truth and righteousness, and often therefore it is correspondingly slow,
because no unrighteous advantage may be taken. A further reason for the long delay is a
principle suggested in the words of Gen. 15: 16, "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet
full". But, at last, under the leadership of Joshua the time for Israel's entry into his
inheritance drew nigh, and in the approach to the land, and in some of the statements
made in the record of the conquest of Palestine, we may see certain foreshadowings of
the greater conflict of the ages.
There are explicit commands given by God to Joshua that forbade Israel from
attacking or attempting to seize the inheritance of Esau, Moab and Ammon: "Meddle not
with them" (Deut. 2: 1-5, 8-12, 18-21). We discover that Esau, Moab and Ammon found
"giants" in possession of their territory, and "succeeded them", "as Israel did unto the
land of his possessions" (Deut. 2: 12).
Access to Israel's inheritance was barred by the Amorites, and the command went
forth, "Behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his
land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle" (Deut. 2: 24).
When the reader discovers that the words "meddle" of Deut. 2: 5 and "contend" of
Deut. 2: 29 are the same in the original, he will therein perceive that there is a principle
at work differentiating Esau, Moab and Ammon from the Canaanites. This information
will prove serviceable when we come to examine the question as to who are the foes
against whom the believer is authorized to contend in the spiritual conflict.
The crossing of the Jordan, the presence and power associated with the Ark and much
of the precious typical teaching contained in Josh. 3:-5: cannot be touched on here, but
the reader should make a point of re-reading the articles in Volume XXV which deal
with this great episode. The actual taking of Jericho, however, must be given a place in