So Israel was at rest from war but not for long.
And the land of Israel was not yet called “Israel”.
Because at this stage, the Hebrews were far away from being a politically stable nation.
Yet, what Israel had achieved thus far under their God was awesome.
In spite of being just a rag-tag mob of 12 related tribes, they had laid waste to the combined coalition forces of all of the Northern and Southern Canaanite kings.
On top of that, Joshua and his men had also entered into numerous peace agreements with many of the smaller Canaanite tribes in the region.
This was unfortunately a big NO-NO that went directly against the Lord’s commands but it did allow for a period of relative stability when there was no fighting.
Let’s not forget that a good portion of Israel’s most fierce enemies still occupied the Mediterranean shores bordering Canaan.
I’m talking about a huge coastal plain containing a ton of cities and villages scattered throughout the Promised Land.
So this situation kinda resembled America’s relationship with Russia during the Reagan era.
In other words, at this point in the Scriptures, Israel was involved in a “Cold War” with its Canaanite enemies.
And Israel was under no illusions about the remaining Canaanites still living in the Land.
They knew darn well they were dangerous and could not be trusted.
And the Canaanites were quite familiar with Israel’s theology which demanded that sooner or later, they would have to leave of their own volition or be booted out.
There was no middle ground between these 2 choices.
The Canaanites knew they were earmarked for destruction.
However, for the time being, both sides were okay to not attack each other as uncomfortable as they were living side-by-side…
…which if you think about it is kind of the situation Israel is currently under right now with every one of their non-Hebrew neighbors.
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