Living in the Promised Land
The people of Israel were freed from their slavery with the promise of being taken to the Promised Land. God’s purpose was to release them from both their physical and their spiritual slavery.
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth … because the Lord loves you – Deuteronomy 7:6-8
For that reason, God commanded the people of Israel to destroy anything that could separate them from Him.
…you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them… For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. – Deuteronomy 7:1-4
These instructions seem strong, but these nations did not serve God, and represented rebellion and sin against Him. The place God wanted for his people could not be contaminated by the sinful ways of the nations they were about to conquer, so they could not live together with the people of God. To allow otherwise would result in God’s people turning away from him, with the resulting consequence of receiving punishment instead of blessings.
The people of Israel did not obey God’s command, and allowed some of these nations to remain in the Promised Land. In other words, they opened the doors to sin in the Promised Land. The result was that eventually the conquerors were conquered by the sinful ways of the conquered.
The sacrifice of Jesus opened the way for all nations to reconcile with his creator. Through it we all have the opportunity to escape the consequences of sin and receive eternal life. However, just as Jesus preached, repentance is required to enter the kingdom of heaven.
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” – Matthew 4:17
Repentance requires a change of direction. This includes rejecting anything that can separate us from God. Receiving Jesus and allowing sin in our lives is to do the same as the people of Israel did. We might not understand the reason for all the teachings of the word of God, as the people of Israel might not have understood the instructions they received, but we can be sure that what God asks in his word is for our own good.
We are living in times of spiritual dilemma. If we want the blessing of eternal life (the Promised Land) we must be careful not to fall into the bondage of sin.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. – Matthew 16:26-27
The Promised Land is for living in freedom, not in slavery.
Comments
Living in the Promised Land — No Comments
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>