Too Comfortable?

This morning I  was reading in Joshua and noticed that not all of Israel's enemies were removed from the land that God had given to them.  When Judah went to claim their land, they did not dislodge the Jebusites and it was the same also for the tribe of Ephriam and the tribe of Manasseh.  They did not dislodge the Canaanites. This seemed really strange to me.  God had given Israel the strength to demolish Jericho, Og, the Amorites, the Hivites . . . the list is quite long.  God had even commanded the Israelites to destroy absolutely everything when they went in to possess the land.  (Deuteronomy 20:16-20)  Why then, were a few of these Jebusites and Canaanites left?  The Bible says the Canaanites remained because they were determined to stay.  However, I am sure that the inhabitants of Jericho were equally determined to stay, and they were removed.  So what was the difference? 

I believe that some of the Israelite tribes got a little too comfortable and possibly a little bit lazy.  The Jebusites and the Canaanites did not want to leave and were not causing the Israelites too much discomfort.  In fact, it worked out well for both the Israelites and the natives of the land.  The natives got to stay and the Israelites got workers.  In Joshua 17:14-18, though, the tribe of Manasseh began to complain to Joshua that they did not have enough space to live.  Joshua encourages the tribe to clear the hill and wooded country for themselves.  However, they had good excuses as to why they shouldn't do this.  Even if they cleared the hill, it still wouldn't be enough room, not too mention the Canaanites had iron chariots.  It is almost as if they had completely forgotten all of the times before that God had won the battle for them or  they doubted that He would give them the victory this time!  So Joshua, and I love his response to them, said, "clear it and it's farthest limits will be yours; though the Canaanites have iron chariots, and though they are strong you can drive them out."  In my translation of this, Joshua was saying, "Come on you guys.  You can do it.  Stop complaining about it and do something about it instead!"

It just seemed like too much work.  So instead of tackling the job in front of them, they whined, hoping Joshua would take care of this for them.  Maybe they would get lucky, and he would just hand over to them some more uninhabited land.

I have been guilty of this.  I have become too comfortable and, yes, even lazy with issues in my life.  Instead of tackling the situation, I complain about it  hoping that someone else or God will fix it for me without any effort on my part.  What holds me back from continuing to claim my promised inheritance?  I believe it is an attitude of settling for "good enough".  It may not be the optimal situation, but it will do.  The effort I have to put forward to claim what is mine and clear out the enemy is too much.

Apathy will rob us every time of the inheritance that is ours to claim.  We can no longer afford to waste our time settling for "good enough" because we have been called to be ready and to be set apart (1 Peter 2:9).  The Israelites did not remove everyone from the land as God had commanded them to.  The outcome of this, was:
- The Israelites were not able to claim their full inheritance
- Over time, the Israelites began to accept the culture and the gods of these people, defiling themselves.

Do not allow apathy to steal away your full inheritance.  The situation may seem small and harmless. It may be easy to excuse away, like a wrong attitude, a little more food then what you need, a movie that you shouldn't have watched, surrounding yourself with the wrong crowd, or a little white lie.  However, with enough tolerance and exposure, it will not be long until these issues distract you from being who you are meant to be in Christ Jesus.