Purity and Obedience

Judges 2:1-3 (The Message)
1-2God's angel went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you out of Egypt; I led you to the land that I promised to your fathers; and I said, I'll never break my covenant with you—never! And you're never to make a covenant with the people who live in this land. Tear down their altars! But you haven't obeyed me! What's this that you're doing?
3 "So now I'm telling you that I won't drive them out before you. They'll trip you up and their gods will become a trap."
4-5 When God's angel had spoken these words to all the People of Israel, they cried out—oh! how they wept! They named the place Bokim (Weepers). And there they sacrificed to God.

God had told the Israelites to completely conquer the land and they disobeyed Him. When God gives us a command in our lives, He always has our best interest in mind. He knew that if they allowed even part of the current inhabitants to remain then the Israelites would soon be tempted by their ways. Future generations would mix with the other tribes, their sons and daughters would marry, and soon they would forget the rich inheritance from the one true God that they brought with them. Of course, when God brought the failure to their attention through an angel then the Bible says they wept. They had regrets.

What was God really asking of them? He asked them to clean out the land and to keep it pure. They decided that cleaning out most of it was good enough. Even today, God calls us to purity in our lives. Leaving parts of the world in our hearts only leaves an open door for more to come in later. It's easy to think that if we clean up most of our life then the little things won't affect us. It's amazing how little things can become big things quickly. It only takes one little breach in our faith for the enemy to eat at our weakness until he can move everything else back in. It is a difficult task to completely purify our lives. It is a task we may never fully accomplish in our lifetimes but we must continue to obey God and conquer each area one at a time.

"Spiritually, there is a great lesson for a new generation of Israelites to learn-namely, that with obedience comes prosperity; with disobedience, adversity. It is a lesson which the older Israelites had learned through the wilderness wandering and the initial conquest of Canaan, but the passing of the older generation leaves a vacuum of any real dedication to God or his laws. From this point forward, Israel heads into both spiritual and political decline."

"The incomplete conquests have left Israel vulnerable to pagan influences around them....A strong spirit of compromise leads to intermarriage, idolatry, and immorality."- The Daily Bible Footnotes

Why has God called us to study the Bible from beginning to end, Chronologically, this year? Perhaps it is because he needs to take us back to our roots before He can show us how to move forward. Personally, if I had time, I believe I could take the history of America in reference to Christianity and compare the path of the Israelites to where we find ourselves in our country today. Just as with the Israelites, we now face a strong spirit of compromise across our land and disobedience has led to adversity.

Judges 2:16-19 (The Message)
16-17 But then God raised up judges who saved them from their plunderers. But they wouldn't listen to their judges; they prostituted themselves to other gods—worshiped them! They lost no time leaving the road walked by their parents, the road of obedience to God's commands. They refused to have anything to do with it.
18-19 When God was setting up judges for them, he would be right there with the judge: He would save them from their enemies' oppression as long as the judge was alive, for God was moved to compassion when he heard their groaning because of those who afflicted and beat them. But when the judge died, the people went right back to their old ways—but even worse than their parents!—running after other gods, serving and worshiping them. Stubborn as mules, they didn't drop a single evil practice.

The people repented and each time they did, God raised up another judge to deliver them. In other words, he raised up a righteous leader to guide them back into obedience. The obedience lasted as long as the leader was alive and that in itself is another posting. Regardless of how that turned out for the Israelites, we don't have to accept deliverance in short term today. Repentance from the Christians of our nation could move God to raise up a leader to deliver us from the adversity we currently face. Strong leaders who will intercede on behalf of the world could cause God to rain down compassion on us. After that, it would be up to us to make it a permanent way of life.

Closing Prayer:

Father, today we come to you as broken and conflicted as the Israelites were in their day. We have allowed a spirit of compromise to lead our lives and our church services all across this nation. We have allowed the world to dictate who we will become rather than allowing You to shape and mold us. After all of these years, we find ourselves in the middle of adversity, conflict, and pain. As Christian, we repent of these ways and pray for long lasting deliverance. We ask you today to raise up righteous leaders who will guide us back to obedience. We ask you to convict the hearts of Christians to seek you first among all things. Help us to see the weak areas in our lives and move us to lives of purity where the darkness has no place. Finally, we pray for Christian intercessors to be raised up all over the world to pray for a new spiritual revival not just in America but in all nations. In Jesus Name- Amen