It’s all or nothing?
Numbers33:51,”Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places ; 53and you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it. ‘ “
After forty years of wandering the wilderness the Israelites were on the verge of entering the Promised Land, but before they could enter God had one last instruction for them. He told them that when they entered the Promised Land they were to get rid of everything that belonged to the Canaanites and all other inhabitants. This was not an unusual command by God; whenever the Israelites entered into a foreign land to possess it God told them to get rid of everything. In many places He told the Israelites to destroy everything, and in a lot of cases that meant animals, women and even children.
Sometimes we read these commands by God and woner how could a loving God call for the destruction of everything. When we ask that question, we need to remember that God is loving but He is also a jealous God, and anything that might interfere with our worship of Him must be eliminated. Even then we sometimes think that destroying children and animals is overkill. It’s a fact that children as young as 5 years old can have memories of their previous life, and those memories can slowly work their way into society and corrupt the wholehearted worship that God commands. While we might sometimes question the morallity of things that are commanded by God we must in the end know that God’s commands are always for our benefit.
This command by God reminds me of the story told by Jesus in Matthew 12 of the man who got rid of a demon in his life, but did not destroy it. Eventually the demon came back bringing more, and the man was worse in the end because he allowed room for the demon to get back.
If we get rid of a bad habit in our lives, but do not totally destroy it by surrounding ourselves with things that exalt God then we are leaving ourselves open for future attacks by the enemy. Some commands that are given by God may not make sense to us now because of our limited foresight, but they are necessary to keep our worship of God whole and pure!
_________________________________
Father, I thank You for loving me, and for proving that love by the sacrifice of Your Son; and I ask that You help me stay committed to You even when I don’t understand. In Jesus’ name, Amen__________________________________
The image above can be found at:http://www.freejesuschristwallpapers.com/2010/07/jesus-on-cross-wallpaperspictures-and.html
Yes, You Can Ministry 