I read the chapter this morning and sat with it for a while but nothing settled into my heart. As the day passed, I kept thinking about the last verse. It was gnawing on me.
They (Ephraim) did not dislodge the Canaanites living in
They did not dislodge. The words “did not” bothered me. I wondered if they tried and if so, how hard they tried. It is not that they ‘could’ not drive them out. It was that they ‘did’ not. Was it laziness, was it disobedience? What was it?
Ephraim would be one of the larger tribes of the northern kingdom when it revolted from God and the southern kingdom. I wondered if their not dislodging the Canaanites was the seed disobedience that eventually grew in their rebellion against the Lord.
This got me thinking about how small seeds of disobedience can lead to much larger disobedience if they are not repented of and confessed.
Lord, search me. Are there small seeds of disobedience in me that I do not see? If so, Lord, please show me, so that I might confess them. Amen.
PS: The next morning I was listening to Psalms as I was working out and I came across Psalm 78, which confirms my thoughts about Ephraim. Here are a few of the verses from Psalm 78 that caught my attention.
Psalm 78:9-11: The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.
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