Judges 3 They got to stay

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Judges 3:1 These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.

5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.​

This is from the easy English site.

Chapter 3 has a list of the nations that remained in the land. We read that the Israelites married some people from these nations. They served their gods. The 5 towns where the Philistines lived were Gaza, Ekron, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gath. The Canaanites lived in the valleys and they also lived near the sea. They had lived there before anyone else. The people from Sidon lived near the port called Sidon. Later, people called them the Phoenicians. The Hivites were probably the same people as the Horites, who had been in Upper Mesopotamia. They went to live in the south-west. They lived there in the mountains of Hermon and Lebanon.​

God told them not to do this.

I was about 15 years old when my church started teaching about intermarriage. Back then it was more about not marrying outside of my religion... [there had been a time when churches also preached about not marrying out of race... but not in my particular church.]... they said that if I married someone who was not a Southern Baptist... I would not be equally yoked but what was more important was the need to show our children unity. I did not enjoy those lessons. They made sense but they didn't seem right.

This is from the blueletterbible.org site.

It was within the power of God to eliminate those pagan nations without any help from Israel. God allowed the pagan nations to remain for a reason. The word test here is used in the sense of "proving." These nations would remain because God wanted to prove the faithfulness of Israel to Himself, and to improve their reliance on Him.

The whole reason a person doesn't want to be unequally yoked is result..... If there is a strong partner on one side and a weak partner on the other.... and they both pull with all their might.... they will just go in circles.... God knew that.

Unequally yoked....

Unequally-yoked-2.jpg

:coffee:
 
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