The Hard Question
Behind the Promised Land Why didn’t God give Israel empty land instead of land already filled with people? There are moments in Scripture that people read quickly, almost like they are trying to move past them before the weight settles in. The entry into the land in the Book of Joshua is one of those places. It does not read like a children’s story. It reads like something that presses on the conscience, something that makes a person stop and ask the question I ask so plainly: why didn’t God just give them land that wasn’t already occupied? Because if God is God, if He is able to form the earth, to stretch out the heavens, to call a people out of nothing, then surely He could have pointed to an empty place on the map and said, “there… go there.” No conflict, no loss, no bloodshed, no wrestling. Just inheritance. And yet… that is not what He did. So we slow down, and instead of rushing to defend or dismiss, we listen carefully to what the text actually reveals. Long before Joshu...