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"The Land Of Canaan"
by Wayne Blank
"These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth ... The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt [i.e. Mizraim], Put, and Canaan ... When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers." He also said, "Blessed by The Lord my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave." (Genesis 10:1,6 9:24-26)
Despite the curse put upon Canaan by Noah (and the concurrent blessing upon Shem, from whom the Israelites are descended - see Hebrews), Canaan had many descendants whose territory, although limited at first to the Mediterranean coastal areas of Lebanon (i.e. Sidon) in the north, and then Gaza in the south, by the time of Moses and Joshua they occupied all of the land west of The Jordan River and the Dead Sea/Salt Sea, including Jerusalem (i.e. the Jebusites):
"Canaan became the father of Sidon his first-born, and Heth [see Sons And Daughters Of Heth], and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon, in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha." (Genesis 10:15-19 RSV)
"Now therefore, if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which The Lord had commanded him." (Exodus 19:5-7 RSV)
"pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides"
Even when the Israelites disobeyed God (as they very often did), and He punished them for it by sometimes sending them into exile (see Why Babylon?), they always came back, according to God's Will, whether it was in the ancient time of the return from the Babylonian exile, or the establishment of the modern-day state of Israel (primarily by the people of Judah, one of the twelve tribes - see Israelite Dynasties) in 1948 (see United States, Britain and Israel) or the yet future greater return (see The Gathering of Israel and Judah). And, every time, the same warning applied, and applies - God commanded the Israelites to take what was theirs, the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (not the land of "Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael" - see Isaac and Ishmael), all of it (no "West Banks" or "East Jerusalems" etc.), without compromise, or suffer terrorist attacks and political mayhem within their own God-commanded borders from people who had no God-given lawful right to be there (and whose own territory is already over 150 times larger than the land of Israel - see Arabs):
"Say to the people of Israel, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places; and you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it. You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance; wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell." (Numbers 33:51-55 RSV)
Fact Finder: While God has absolutely decided where each nation shall have their country (see Country and Nation), The Bible also makes plain that there is no favoritism with God when it comes to salvation. God accepts anyone and everyone who truly repents and obeys Him.