And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in
(Jos 16:10)
In this chapter, we have another instance of a failure to drive the enemy out. I want us to look at three reasons why this could have happened, and relate those reasons to us driving sin out of our own lives.
- God didn’t deliver the Canaanites into their hands because of the sin in their lives. When there is sin in our lives that we have not repented of, we should expect to reap the consequences. When I am in a losing battle with the flesh, this is often the first thing I look at. “Is their sin in my life that I am not dealing with?” If God has shown us something He wants us to deal with, and we won’t deal with it, we can expect that He will turn up the heat. Not only that, but He won’t move on to something else until the sin is taken care of. Do you remember what happened with Ai? They couldn’t win that battle until Achan’s sin was dealt with. In our own lives, the victory we achieve will be directly related to just how much of our lives we are willing to give to the Lord. The moment we hold something back is the moment we stop moving forward.
- They didn’t achieve victory because of their SLOTHFULLNESS. I believe that often in our lives we miss out on what God wants to do because we are lazy. I can be a procrastinator, putting things off that I don’t want to do. THIS IS A PROBLEM. When we continue to push things off… when we are lazy about the work God has called us to do… then we miss out on what He has for us. The Lord wants us to be faithful diligent servants, not lazy sluggards! He has given us so much, but we must go in and posses it!
- Maybe they let them stay for reasons of their own COVETOUSNESS. It is possible that the Israelites saw in the Canaanites a possibility for gain… and so they let them stay. I think we often do this with the things of the world. The Lord wants us to chase them out of our lives, and take back the territory they possessed for Him; but instead we let them stay because we like them. Are there worldly things in your life today because of your own covetous heart? You say you can’t defeat them, but the truth of the matter is that you DON’T WANT TO. I think that we have good reason to believe this was the case in this passage. We read that the Ephraimites made them slaves… but this isn’t what God had commanded them to do. God said “chase them out”, but the Ephraimites said, “Not so fast, I think we can use them”. Let’s not do that with the things of the world, if Jesus says it should go, let’s trust Him and get it out rather than trying to use it for our own purposes.
I hope as we go through these passages you are starting to realize the importance of doing ALL the Lord commands. In the end, partial obedience ALWAYS ends up hurting!
3 comments:
It is never impossible to drive sin out. Is is always us. Either we don't want to drive the sin out, or we are not fully relying on God to deliver us.
As for parcial obedience, either you are fully obeying God, or you arn't. There is nothing inbetween. So really partial obedience is equal to nobedience.
Lol. I wasn't even there to hear Jimmy's sermon and I'm already expanding on it!
"Follow the Lord, and do what you want." I forget who said that,and I am pretty sure that is how it goes, but I thnk it is somthing we all need to work on. If we follow the Lord the things we will want to do will be honnering to God. And it will be easier to drive sin out of our lives because we are following Him.
PS This Devo was posted late, at 1:32am, who was up that late, and why?
Elizabeth: It was Augustine that said follow Jesus and then do what you want. We talked about that in youth group last night!
I (Tommy) was up at 1:30 last night, writing devo's for Sunday and today. I have a 10 month old baby, so I tend to do that kind of work whenever I can. Sometimes late at night is the only time that works. I went to bed right after I posted it!
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