you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.
Exodus 23:24-28
One relevant application of these verses with relation to spiritual life is that God undertakes to lead us to our proper place in His purpose and will for our lives, but only if we are truly obedient to His voice. We have no kind of ground for supposing that His good and perfect will for us will be fulfilled in spite of our rebellion and neglect of holy things. Whatever predestination means, we can hardly suppose that it does away with our moral endeavour and ethical response to God's Word. The question of the ejection of the heathen tribes of Canaan to make way for Israel arises here. It is sometimes objected that there can be no justification of Israel's displacement of these tribes, and still less of their grim and bloody overthrow of them. But it should be noticed here that it is God Who says He will do these things to the tribes. Israel was therefore only the instrument in His hands for the fulfilment of His will and the execution of His judgment on them. Their being cast out is therefore analogous to the destruction of the cities of the plain in Genesis 19, and took place for the same reasons. Their cup of wrath was filled to overflowing, and God could not abide them any longer. They had reached a depth of depravity which rendered it necessary for them to be utterly destroyed (24), lest evil be perpetuated in new generations. This is made explicit in Leviticus 18:25 and Deuteronomy 9:4, 5. Israel was therefore used in a judicial capacity as the rod of the divine anger against the sins of these peoples.