The Lord’s desire for fellowship with his people is so great that he would patiently bear with their sins and failures for many generations before finally removing them from the land. The fact that Israel was even allowed to enter the land never mind live there for the best part of one thousand years had much more to do with God’s faithfulness to the promises he made to Abraham than any kind of obedience on the part of Israel.
1 But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the LORD burned against the people of Israel.