When is a land fully conquered?
Depending on what timeline you’re looking at in history, it could be when the main leader falls, the capital is taken, or a flag is planted right in the middle of the enemy camp. It totally depends on what the situation demands.
For Israel, Canaan would not officially belong to them unless two conditions were met: They must enter the land and hold it securely.
These may seem like common sense. After all, you can’t control a land until you actually enter it, and you can’t enjoy the land unless it’s secure.
But these two aren’t necessarily a given. The two-and-a-half tribes of Manasseh, Reuben, and Gad left most of their people in their territory, sending only shock troops across the river to accompany the rest of Israel. You could argue that their territory wasn’t really theirs unless the rest of Canaan was under control.
Controlling this area was not exactly easy, either. The book of Joshua details a multi-year campaign that originally cuts through the center of Canaan, heads north, then shoots south. In this way, all the individual city-states are brought into subjection.
By the time you get to Joshua 21:42, these conditions have finally been met. Shiloh is chosen as the central point in the land for everyone to worship, and the area is at peace.
Or is it 2 Samuel 8, when David finally has “rest on every side” from his enemies, and Jerusalem is the place of worship?
It’s possible that it’s both, but that the eventual campaign by David reflects this lackadaisical attitude in fully conquering the land. Joshua did his part, to be sure, but after his campaign, little pockets of resistance remained in the land and tormented Israel. Had they been removed, it’s doubtful the impact would’ve been as great.
There’s a nod to this in these passages. Moses tells the people in Deuteronomy 12:8 that they should “not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.”
That’s a message against the vague, decentralized worship that Israel was engaged in. When they were wandering around in the wilderness, every one had their own individual worship, but that can lead to irreverence (as it did). That stops when they get into the land.
But doesn’t it also sound like Judges? A few places in that book, it’s mentioned that “every man did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Why? Most likely because of the influence and pressure of the cultures that still existed in the land.
So, if you’re asking me when the people conquered the land, you could point to Joshua 21:42 and say that the two conditions from Deuteronomy 12:10 were met.
But if you’re asking me when the land was fully under the control, it wasn’t until the days of David. For that brief window of time, idolatry was on the decline, and the people focused their eyes on God.
Too bad it didn’t last.