Yesterday we discussed the historical and religious background of the Lord's command for Israel to destroy the tribes of the promised land as they took it over from them. You might also say we discussed the morality of it, from the Lord's viewpoint, and why it was a command issued only for a specific time and place in history.
It is imperative that the Israelites not move in and live side by side with the tribes inhabiting the land of Canaan. This would bring about their own downfall. "Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following Me to serve other gods, and the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you." (Deuteronomy 7:3-4)
In the New Testament we find the Lord, through the Apostle Paul, warning Christians not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. (2 Corinthians 6:14) When a farmer puts two animals in a yoke, those animals have to be pretty equally matched in size and strength or else the partnership will be ineffective or even dangerous. The same goes for marriage: a believer should never marry an unbeliever. There's no guarantee the believer will ever be able to lead his or her spouse to the Lord. Often it's the unbeliever who has the greatest influence, for their disinterest in all things holy discourages the believer. It can be lonely and depressing for a married person to have to attend religious services without their spouse. It can be difficult to set aside time for Bible study and prayer when the unbelieving spouse feels those things are a waste of time. The Lord knows that if the Israelites intermarry with heathens it's going to affect their spiritual life. At the very least, it will cause them to place less importance on spending time with the Lord. At the worst, they will fall away from the Lord and fall into idolatry.
I grew up in a household where my parents were unequally yoked together. My mother was a Christian from her youth and my father was not a Christian until late in his life. I have no doubt that their marriage would have been far more fulfilling spiritually and emotionally if they'd been equally yoked together. My dad did more than a lot of unbelieving spouses would have done; due to his immense love for my mom he got up early every Sunday morning and drove her to church (because she didn't learn to drive until she was in her forties) even though he didn't attend with her. He waited outside for her every Sunday, week after week, year after year. I know she must have longed to have him pull up to the church one Sunday morning and say, "I'm going in with you this time." I know she must have wished he was sitting beside her in the pew like many other husbands in the church. He did eventually come to Christ but it was during his final years on earth when his health was so bad he wasn't able to go to a church and attend a service, and I am sure he probably regretted all those years he didn't serve the Lord and didn't sit beside my mom in church. Likewise, I believe my mother probably had regrets late in her life because she gradually, in her fifties and sixties, stopped attending church altogether until after she was widowed. Part of this was due to her taking a job that required her to work every other Sunday, but that doesn't explain why she didn't go to church on the Sundays she was off work. I think my dad's disinterest in church had affected her by that point in her life. She started spending her Sundays off work at home with him.
The Lord wants us to have peace in our homes. Marrying someone who doesn't share our faith does nothing to promote peace in the home. If anything, it often causes conflict. The Lord wants us to have marriages where we help each other grow in our faith. This is best achieved by marrying someone who loves the Lord like we do. If I were a single woman looking for a marriage partner, knowing what I know now at the age of fifty-one, I wouldn't even give the time of day to a man who doesn't love Jesus at least as much as I do---preferably even more since the Lord has appointed to the husband the responsibility of being the spiritual head of the household.
The Lord commands the Israelites to destroy the idolatrous tribes from the promised land. And after they have done this, they must destroy all traces of those tribes' pagan religions. Every heathen altar and idol is to be torn down so no one will be tempted by the sight of them. "This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire." (Deuteronomy 7:5)
Removing the idols from the land is as important as removing the idolaters because it's never smart to "make occasion for the flesh" as the Apostle Paul puts it in Galatians 5:13. If we make it easy to indulge the carnal side of our natures, we will indulge the carnal side of our natures. If those altars and temples and idols are left standing, sooner or later they will be put into use again---but by the Lord's people this time. They must clean house when they move into the land. They must remove the leaven of sin, so to speak, in order not to be tempted by it and drawn into it.
We can't completely avoid the sight of sinful things as we go about our lives in a fallen world but we can control what comes into our houses and what goes on in our houses. We don't have to watch or listen to sinful things on TV, on the radio, or on the internet. We don't have to purchase pornographic magazines or pornographic novels. We don't have to keep alcohol in the cabinet. We don't have to be in the possession of recreational drugs. As believers we have a responsibility to sweep our houses free of the leaven of sin, just as the Israelites were responsible for sweeping the promised land free of every trace of heathen idolatry. Leaving sinful things within our sight and within our grasp just sets us up for failure. We may think we can keep ourselves from giving in---and our spirit indeed is willing---but, as the Lord said, the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41) And as the Apostle Paul said, we have this conflict in our earthly bodies where our carnal side fights against our spiritual side and our spiritual side fights against our carnal side. (Galatians 5:17) Why make it easier for our carnal side to win the battle? For whatever reason, the ancient Israelites struggled with the temptation to fall into idolatry. Leaving idols in the land would only set them up for failure. Your weakness may be something completely different but leaving that thing within your sight or within your grasp sets you up for falling into sin. My weakness may be different than yours but if I make it easy for myself to fall into that particular temptation, sooner or later I probably will fall into that temptation.
In addition to putting distance between ourselves and whatever we have a weakness for, we must draw close to the Lord and be led by Him in everything we do. The Apostle Paul says we will have far more victories over sin if we "walk by the Spirit" because this will help us not to "gratify the desires of the flesh". (Galatians 5:26) The Lord Jesus said that because our flesh is weak we must "watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation". (Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38, Luke 22:40, Luke 22:46) The Apostle James, brother of Jesus and leader of the Christian church at Jerusalem, advised that to avoid falling into sin when we are tempted we must, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you." (James 4:7-8a) We will have victory over temptation far more often if we remove as much garbage as possible from our homes and from our minds and focus on those things which strengthen our relationship with the Lord. This is what the Lord is telling the Israelites to do in their new home. This is what He's telling us to do in our homes too.
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