Exodus 23:30

30 Little by little I'll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own.

Exodus 23:30 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:30

By little and little I will drive them out from before thee,
&c.] Not the beasts of the field, but the inhabitants of Canaan, who were left partly to keep up the cities and towns, that they might not fall to ruin, and to till the land, that it might not be desolate; and partly to be trials and exercises to the people of Israel, and to prove whether they would serve the Lord or not. Just as the corruptions of human nature remain with the people of God when converted, for the trial and exercise of their graces, and that they may have their dependence not on themselves, but on the grace of God to keep them in his ways, and to preserve them safe to eternal glory; and by completing the work of grace, which is gradually done, they might be made meet for it:

until thou be increased, and inherit the land;
for as their enemies were driven out gradually, by little and little, so they multiplied gradually, until at length they became a sufficient number to fill all the cities and towns in all the nations of Canaan, and take an entire possession of it, as their inheritance given unto them by God.

Exodus 23:30 In-Context

28 "And I'll send Despair on ahead of you. It will push the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of your way.

29 I won't get rid of them all at once lest the land grow up in weeds and the wild animals take over.

30 Little by little I'll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own.

31 I will make your borders stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates River. I'm turning everyone living in that land over to you; go ahead and drive them out.

32 "Don't make any deals with them or their gods.