DO NOT create ‘LOOPHOLES’ in your PATH of OBEDIENCE!
February
19 Bible Reading: Numbers Chapters 31-33
DO NOT create ‘LOOPHOLES’ in your PATH of OBEDIENCE!
Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of
Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying, "Speak to the children of
Israel, and say to them: 'When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of
Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before
you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and
demolish all their high places; you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the
land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess. But if you do
not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be
that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in
your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover it
shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them." (Num
33:50-53, 55-56)
Just as the
Israelites were preparing to invade the Promised Land, God gave Moses
instructions for the people about the conquest of Canaan. Israel was to exterminate the Canaanites and take full possession of their land. For over
400 years, from the time of God’s covenant with Abram in Gen. 15:17–21, God had
warned that a time would come when He would punish the sinfulness of the
Canaanites. The Canaanites, by their continual wicked acts, had no right to
live in the land of Canaan. God, whose land it really was, transferred the
right of possession to Israel. So, God’s command to the Israelites was to
completely exterminate the inhabitants of Canaan as He had spoken to them many
times earlier (see Exodus 23:24; 34:11–13; Leviticus 20).
This may
seem cruel to people today, but actually these Canaanites were among the most
corrupt, immoral, depraved people in those times. God patiently dealt with them
for over 400 years without seeing any change on their part. Israel would become
infected by their immorality and idolatry if they did not exterminate them
completely. So, not only were the Israelites to kill the people, but they were
to destroy every trace of idolatry (v. 52). A further reason the destruction of
the Canaanites was necessary was to protect the purity of Israel, in order to
guarantee success of the missionary mandate of Israel.
Thus, the
Israelites must drive out (v. 52) or dispossess (v. 53) the inhabitants of
the land. Failure to do so will result in the Israelites being driven from the
land, as Yahweh intended to do to the Canaanites (v. 56). The warning in verses
55 and 56 became a reality, because they failed to exterminate the Canaanites
eventually (Judg. 1, 2), and the Canaanites caused Israel to become like them
and be spewed out. This resulted in the Assyrian captivity of Israel (722 B.C.)
and the Babylonian captivity of Judah (605 B.C.)
This concern
illustrates the incompatibility of our
old way of life with our new life of faith. When we accept Christ and
become His children, we have to get
rid of all our old habits and ways. "Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new." (2 Cor 5:17) We must destroy
anything that may lead us back to our old sinful life. Otherwise, if we create loopholes in our path of
obedience, let us understand that they
will become a hangman’s noose that will destroy us eventually!
