33 And now, do ye suppose that the children of this land, who were in the land of promise, who were driven out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were righteous? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.
The implication here is that if the former inhabitants of
Israel’s Promised Land had been more righteous they may not have been driven
out and destroyed. This is not stated specifically, but I suppose the Lord had
probably sent prophets to call them to repentance. This is something He always
does (Amos 3:7). It looks like they didn’t repent, so after warning them He
followed through. And just “coincidentally” at this time, the people who had
been promised the land are led from bondage in another country. So in the
Lord’s economy He used the people to whom the land was promised to punish the
unrepentant occupants of the Promised Land. He punished the wicked and
fulfilled a promise in one move.
