Are You Taxing Your Canaanites?

Judges 1:28 "And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out."

It is easy to develop a tolerance of sin. We excuse our pet sins. We even "sanctify" them as a benefit and blessing in our lives. We label them "coping strategies." We depend upon them for stress relief. And we hit the "Repeat" button in our souls.

The Hebrews struggled with the same thing. God miraculously delivered them from Egyptian slavery. Moses led them through the Red Sea, toward the promised land, gave them the law of God, and brought them to the portal of Canaan, the land of promise. Then Moses died.

Joshua was God's chosen leader for the Hebrew conquest of Canaan. God performed another miracle clearing a path through the flooded Jordan River. Circumcision at Gilgal, victory at Jericho, and the conquest began in earnest.

At the end of his life, Joshua praised God for fulfilling every promise and granting the Hebrews occupation of the entire land of Canaan, just as He had promised.

"So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. 44 The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. 45 Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass." (Joshua 21:43-45)

But there was a problem. The Hebrews failed to drive out all of the Canaanites. In doing so, they disobeyed God. The sex and religion cults of the Canaanites worship had caused God to declare that the Canaanites had so defiled the land, that they no longer were entitled to occupy it. Rather than exterminate them as God commanded, the Hebrews confined their Canaanite neighbors to villages and taxed them.

"Why obey God completely when we can turn these folks into a revenue stream?"

But the Canaanites were influential. They influenced the Hebrews with sex. The Canaanite gods, Baal and Asherah, demanded sex for worship. Sex with priests. Sex with priestesses. Sex with other Canaanites. Even sex with Hebrews. Everybody knows that "Sex sells." It did then. It does now.

The Hebrews taxed the Canaanites so that they could profit from the sex trade. The only problem was that the sexy Canaanite worship would destroy them.

They taxed the Canaanites.

Are you taxing the Canaanites of your life? Are there areas where God has said, "Exterminate these practices." Rather than occupying the land of promise, you are preserving enclaves of carnality. You may even be turning these enclaves into a revenue stream. 

Obey God. Taxing the Canaanites has never worked out very well.