I posted this a few years ago. It is still sadly relevant today.
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When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall . . . destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places. . . But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live (Numbers 33:51-55).
Anyone who knows the history of ancient Israel also knows God’s people didn’t take His warning seriously. And it cost them dearly.
For the most part, Israelites intermarried with the Canaanites and soon adopted their behavior until no one could tell the two groups apart. The nation God had called to be separate ended up practicing the same idolatrous customs as those nations, including murder, torture, child-sacrifice and temple prostitution.
Ultimately, after ignoring multiple warnings by God’s prophets to repent, God brought devastation to His chosen people and scattered them into Assyrian and Babylonian captivities.
There is a significant danger in toying with sin. When we think we can compromise a little here and a little there, when we believe we can ignore God’s continued call to a holy lifestyle and not pay the consequences, we open ourselves to serious – and possibly mortal – danger.
God is still the same today and He was yesterday. And He will remain the same tomorrow.
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When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall . . . destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places. . . But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live (Numbers 33:51-55).
Anyone who knows the history of ancient Israel also knows God’s people didn’t take His warning seriously. And it cost them dearly.
For the most part, Israelites intermarried with the Canaanites and soon adopted their behavior until no one could tell the two groups apart. The nation God had called to be separate ended up practicing the same idolatrous customs as those nations, including murder, torture, child-sacrifice and temple prostitution.
Ultimately, after ignoring multiple warnings by God’s prophets to repent, God brought devastation to His chosen people and scattered them into Assyrian and Babylonian captivities.
There is a significant danger in toying with sin. When we think we can compromise a little here and a little there, when we believe we can ignore God’s continued call to a holy lifestyle and not pay the consequences, we open ourselves to serious – and possibly mortal – danger.
God is still the same today and He was yesterday. And He will remain the same tomorrow.
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