Why did God lead the Israelites to the Promised Land? It was just because he promised Abram he would give it to his descendants, right? Wrong.
In Genesis 15.12-16, God lets Abram know that his descendants will spend a few centuries in Egypt as slaves. He also lets him know, though, that when the time is right he will bring them out of Egypt, after "great judgment" on the Egyptians and richer than they went in. Verse 16, though, is really interesting to me.
God tells Abram that the delay is necessary, "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." In other words, the Amorites weren't quite bad enough to be completely destroyed by the Hebrews yet. God had a plan to deal with them, and a timetable, and he was using Israel to do it.
The Hebrews were God's chosen people, but they weren't the only people with whom he dealt. In some cases they were to be witnesses of his grace and power to the other nations; this case they were his instruments of wrath.
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