Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I
will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and
you inherit the land. ... You shall make no covenant with them, nor
with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make
you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a
snare to you." (Exodus 23:24, 27-33).
God had placed His people in Canaan to hold back the tide of
moral evil, so that it would not flood the world. God would give into
the hands of the Israelites nations that were greater and more
powerful than the Canaanites. "You will dispossess greater and
mightier nations than yourselves. ... From the wilderness and
Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the Western
Sea, shall be your territory." (Deuteronomy 11:23, 24).
But they chose ease and self-indulgence. They let their
opportunities slip away for completing the conquest of the land, and
for many generations they were harassed by the survivors of these
idolatrous peoples, who were like "irritants" in their eyes and
"thorns" in their sides (Numbers 33:55).
The Israelites "mingled with the Gentiles and learned their
works." They intermarried with the Canaanites, and idolatry spread
like a plague throughout the land. "They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons. ... And the land was polluted with
blood." "Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His
people, so that He abhorred His own inheritance." (Psalm 106:35-
40).
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