LEARNING DAILY

 

Joshua 10:40, So Joshua conquered all the land; the mountain country and the South and the lowland and the wilderness slopes, and all their kings; he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded.

 

I am once again reading through the conquest of the Promised Land by Joshua. The command given by God to kill all of the people there seems cruel and cold by the God we know to be the God of love and peace. In the commentary offered in the Daily Readings of the Chronological Bible I am using for daily devotions, the following is given as an explanation for God’s commands to Joshua. “Even now the cost in Canaanite lives is shocking, and once again a moral issue is raised, particularly because the Israelites themselves are the invaders. Though it affords little comfort to the modern mind, it must be remembered that the extermination of defeated enemies is expected of victorious armies at the time. The record further hints that God is using the Israelites as His instrument in punishing the pagan Canaanites for their continual wickedness.” The wickedness of this people consisted of willfully disobeying the law God had given Moses including the worship of and sacrificing to idols, practiced magic and sorcery, child sacrifice, and other grossly immoral practices.

 

God commanded these people be destroyed because He knew their presence would become a source of temptation for His people. He demanded to be the center of their lives and would not tolerate compromise with sinful people as the Canaanites. Judgment came to the Canaanites when the Israelites entered the land God had promised to the descendants of Abraham.

 

As we have written the nature of God does not change; He hates sin and judgment comes to sinful nations, to sinful man. He has already sent a flood as the judgment on sinful man. I can only wonder how near we are to His judgment on this sinful world! I am so thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ taking my place on a cross for the sinfulness of my life. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you will know it’s focus is to encourage everyone who has accepted Christ as their Savior is to make Him the Lord of their life by walking a narrow way to eternal life in His kingdom. The Lord Jesus died for every sin we have made or will commit. Yet, it is our responsibility to walk in His presence and renew our hold on the truth each and every day. In other words, we must walk with Jesus all day long.

 

How did I get to this encouragement from God’s command to destroy all the Canaanites in Joshua? Simple. Each Christian is to stay away from sin. How do we do that? Die to self every day. Instead of living life filled with sin, we say no to it. Now, you must be honest because that is easy to say and difficult to do. When we sin, confess it. If we do not confess the sin we commit, our unconfessed sin weakens our fellowship with God; our relationship can become distant. Confess sin and move on! Walk with Jesus, be diligent about staying strong in your faith, and walk in the light on the narrow way.

 

God still demands each of us to destroy the sin in our life in order to walk with Him! Better for us to confess our sin than to face His judgment without doing so!