Israel’s existence is threatened by her forming covenant bonds with the Canaanites, leaving God’s altar (the center of her identity) for Baal’s. Yet God nonetheless leaves leaves these serpents in the garden of Canaan—because Israel must learn his work of warring against evil. This is a picture of the New Testament age: Israel is the church, the promised land is the world, and the Canaanites are sin and Satan. Unlike Israel, however, we do not drive out nations from their physical territory; we rather drive out sin and the devil from hearts of the nations themselves—discipling them into an inheritance for Christ.

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