Let’s start with the story of the twelve spies recorded in the book of Numbers 13:1-33. Moses sent a delegate from each of the tribes to scout out the land of Canaan (for forty days) that God was giving them as their inheritance. This was during their exodus from Egypt. The names of theses spies are listed in Numbers 13:3-15. One of them is Caleb from the tribe of Judah and another is Hoshea from the tribe of Ephraim. Numbers 13:16 tells us “these are the names for the men Moses sent to explore the land. Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.”
Now here is another interesting bit of information:
“Joshua” is the Hebrew version of the name translated as “Jesus” in Greek. Imagine that when Jesus was a youth reading this book, He was reading a book with His own name as the title, the book he would have called “Jesus.” In this man Joshua, who bore his name centuries before him, Jesus saw the shape his own life would take, how he would lead his people into the rest that God had promised to provide, and how he will one day come again to bring judgment on all those who persist in living out their wickedness on God’s land. Here in the book of Joshua, we see the deliverance Jesus accomplished in shadow form. Yet when Jesus came the first time, he did not accomplish his great work of deliverance by brandishing the sword of God’s judgment. Instead, he delivered us by bearing the sword of God’s judgment. “He was pierced for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). The sword of God’s wrath against sin was turned against Christ in order to reconcile to God those who were his enemies (Romans 5:10; Ephesians 2:11-14). Because Christ was pierced by the sword of God’s justice, we can be sure that the sword of the Lord will never turn against us but is always for us. And “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).” (Excerpt from The Son of David, page 47)
Ten of the twelve spies (all but Joshua and Caleb)came back with a “doom and gloom” report about why they should not go into that land – they did not believe that God could help them and they persuaded the rest of the people that they could not take possession of the land. (Numbers 13:26-31)
Due to their contempt of God (Numbers 14:11-12), instead of killing them He made them wander for forty years in the desert until “all the men of military age – died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt.” (Joshua 5:4). The only two still alive were Joshua and Caleb.
We enter the book of Joshua just after the Lord shows the Promised Land to Moses and confirms the oath He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses dies in Moab and is buried there at the age of a hundred and twenty years. (Deuteronomy 34) God chose Joshua as Moses’ successor. We’ve already seen that God favors Joshua as we read in Exodus 33:11 “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.”
In Joshua, we witness him leading the people of God into rest in the land that God gave to them. But . . . this was not easy – it wasn’t “go pack your bags and your tents, bring your kids and your cattle and let’s head into this vacant land of milk and honey waiting for us to settle there.” With God’s leadership – they are required to fight those who live there for possession of the land. We are reminded that the land does not “belong” to the Canaanites in Psalm 24:1 which states: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” In Leviticus 25:23 God tells us: “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.”
So . . . Who were the enemies of the Israelites in the Old Testament?
In order to understand this we need to head back to Genesis 10 which gives us an account of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japeth, who survived the flood with him. Remember that Noah, his wife and his children were the only people who spanned two worlds – pre-flood and post-flood. Some of the names below will help us understand the Nations who formed from Noah’s sons:
The Japhethites became the Caucasians of Europe and Western Asia. Genesis 10:2 – 5. The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
The Hamites became the Negroes of Africa Genesis 10:6-20 - The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan. Genesis 10:15 states: Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Mamathites.
The Semites (Shem) became the Jews, Arabs and other Orientals Genesis 10:21-31 Genesis 10:32 states: “These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
This suggests that we should focus on Ham and his offspring, specifically Canaan. Why Ham? Why Canaan? Canaan, son of Ham and grandson of Noah, was the father of the Canaanites. He was also the recipient of the “Curse of Ham.” (This is an explanation I had never understood before and can be found in detail in http://kgov.com/why-was-canaan-cursed)
Let’s start with the origin of the Canaanites: The various tribes of Canaanites are listed in Genesis 10:15-18 and include the Sidonians, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites and Arvadites. The Canaanites settled in familiar areas including Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of Gaza (Genesis 10:19). The hostility with their namesakes (and mixed descendants) continued right up until the time of Christ, for example, when He resisted ministering to “a woman of Canaan” (Matthew 15:22).
But why did Canaan and therefore his descendants become cursed? Reading the account in Genesis 9, many suppose that after Noah became drunk, Ham saw his father naked, and as a result, Noah cursed Ham’s son Canaan. (Bob Enyart – author of this article and Pastor of a Denver Bible Church) believes that is not at all what happened. For that story, at least on its surface, would be an especially arbitrary and capricious origin for Canaan, Israel’s great nemesis. Here is what he believes actually happened:
“The story is about Canaan more than it is about Noah. “Seeing the nakedness of a man” was a common Hebrew expression for having sex with his wife (Leviticus 20:11). Canaan lived a cursed life because he was conceived by incest. Noah’s kids, Japheth, Shem, and Ham lived for about a century in the wicked pre-flood world. The statement that “Ham was the father of Canaan” (Genesis 9:18) begins this passage, which then quickly repeats “Ham, the father of Canaan” (Genesis 9:22), to emphasize by reiterating that relationship. The story ends with three mentions of Canaan including “Cursed be Canaan” (Genesis 9:25). The first chapters of the Bible quickly cover 1,600 years of sinful human history. Yet, there is no mention of intoxication until after the flood, until Noah planted a vineyard and became drunk. While Noah was inebriated, one of his sons, Ham, committed incest with Noah’s wife. Ham took advantage of his father’s drunkenness. A husband is to be a covering for his wife to protect her but Noah being drunk (e.g., Habakkuk. 2:15), Ham saw that Noah's wife was uncovered. Having lived before the flood in a sexually perverse society, Ham committed incest with his own mother, impregnating her and thereby fathering Canaan. The earliest Canaanites should not misrepresent their own heritage, so because Noah’s own wife bore Canaan, the story twice clarified for its ancient audience that “Ham was the father of Canaan,” not Noah.”
Okay, now that we understand the lineage (and Moses the author of Genesis makes it clear that even though the passage references the ‘sons of Noah’ AND includes Canaan, he is NOT a son of Noah, but a son of Ham) let’s get down to the enemies of Israel.
"Who were the Amorites?" They were an ancient nation descended from one of the sons of Canaan (Genesis 14:7). Their land included Syria and Palestine. Some of the southern mountains of Judea were also called the hill country of the Amorites (Deuteronomy 1:7, 19-20).
“Who were the Hittites?" Interestingly, though rather obscure in the scope of world history, the Hittite nation played an important role in the history of the Old Testament, and has since helped verify the accuracy of the Bible. For many years, archaeologists and historians knew nothing of the Hittites, and critics of the Bible treated the Hittites as proof of the “mythology” contained in the Bible. The critics reasoned that, since they had no archaeological evidence of a Hittite civilization, it must never have existed, and the Bible must be wrong. However, many archaeological discoveries, beginning in 1876, have since proved that the Hittites were a powerful people in the 15th and 16th centuries B.C.
The Hittites are mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible. They were descended from Heth, the son of Canaan (and great-grandson of Noah, Genesis 10:15). They ruled the area of Syria and eastern Turkey and battled with Egypt and Babylon for territory. Babylonian and Assyrian records refer to Syria and Palestine as "Hatti-land," and Joshua 1:4 includes their territory as a great part of the Promised Land for Israel. Abraham was well acquainted with the Hittites, and he bought the burial cave for Sarah from them in Genesis 23. Esau took wives from among the Hittites (Genesis 26:34), and Uriah the Hittite was one of David's mighty men (2 Samuel 11:3). The Hittites are mentioned throughout the kingdom years and even after the Jews’ return from captivity (Ezra 9:1). It is assumed that the Hittites were eventually absorbed into the surrounding cultures and lost their distinctive identity.
The religion of the Hittites was a pluralistic worship of nature. They believed in various gods over the elements of earth, sky, weather, etc., and these gods were often listed as witnesses on treaties and oaths. As in most other pagan societies, this nature worship led to despicable practices which brought the wrath of the true God on them. When God delivered Canaan to the Israelites, one of the given reasons for destroying the inhabitants was to eliminate the pagan practices which would ensnare God’s people (Exodus 23:28-33). God didn't want His people following the idolatry of the Hittites.
Who were the Perizzites? They were referred to as people who dwelled in villages (as opposed to being nomadic); they were ancient inhabitants of Palestine, who had mingled with the Canaanites, or were themselves descendants of Canaan.
Who were the Hivites? They were a nation that descended from Canaan. They are first mentioned when Shechem the Hivite raped Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, and full blood sister of Simeon and Levi (Genesis 34). The brother's bloody revenge cost them their second and third-born status, and their descendants were condemned to be dispersed in Israel without any land of their own (Genesis 49:5-7). And while Jacob and his family were trying to deal with the Hivite problem, Jacob's brother Esau acquired Oholibamah the Hivite as a wife for himself. When the Israelites escaped Egypt and made it to Canaan, the Hivites were firmly established as one of the seven Canaanite nations (Deuteronomy 1:7), whose complete destruction YHWH promised.
Who were the Jebusites/Hebusites? They were one of the Amorite tribes who were placed under judgment by God for their wickedness (Genesis 15:16). God described their pagan worship as abominable practices (Deuteronomy 20:18), which may have included child sacrifice. As a result of that judgment, God told the Israelites to exterminate all of the Amorite tribes when they came into the land. The Israelites were also forbidden to intermarry with them, so the Jebusites would not pass on their pagan practices. The Jebusites dwelt in the hill country, with Jerusalem as one of their key cities (Numbers 13:29; Judges 19:10–11). The Jebusites’ name for “Jerusalem” was “Jebus,” and it retained that name until the time of King David (1 Chronicles 11:4–5).
Of Israel’s nearby enemies, not all were Canaanites. For example, the Moabites and Ammonites were the product of other parent/child relations. Again involving drunkenness, Abraham’s nephew Lot impregnated his daughters who gave birth to the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis 19:32-38).
Remember in Genesis 15:16 God told Abraham in a dream “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of Amorites has not yet reached its full potential.” Well, here we are more than four hundred and thirty years later – God is ready to rage war against the wickedness of the Canaanites. Their iniquity was now complete and their day of judgment had arrived (Joshua 5:14-15). This is where we find ourselves in the book of Joshua.
Joshua provides us with a picture of the way Jesus, our greater Joshua, will deliver judgment on that day when all who persist in wickedness and unbeliever will be “devoted to destruction.” On that great and terrible day when Christ comes again, all those who have rejected Christ’s shed blood and perfect righteousness as their only hope will suffer the same fate. Rich and pool, great and small, young and old, will face God’s fury when the commander of the Lord’s armies, who led the armies of Israel to kill every inhabitant of Jericho, will bring complete and final destruction upon the city of man. But this book that paints the picture of divine judgment upon the Canaanites is also quick to make sure that we see what happens to those who deserve judgment but cry out for mercy. “But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day.” (Joshua 6:25). (Read why Rahab’s heart melts into faith rather than fear and gets saved in Joshua 2 AND becomes ancestor to Christ Matthew 1:5)
When we come to the end of the book of Joshua, we see that God’s promise that Israel will possess the land has been fulfilled (Joshua 21:43-45). God always fulfills His promises. Sadly, they did not obey God’s command to destroy all the Canaanites – they made peace and even intermarried bringing their pagan practices with them.