Driven Out....

Here are two comparisons and consequences of God giving people choices. God instructed Moses to tell the people of Israel when they entered the promise land (referred as PL hereafter) to totally drive out all of the inhabitants living there. If they didn’t rid the PL of these people, those left would be like a splinter in your eye and a thorn in your side. On a side note, Paul referring to his “thorn in the flesh”, may have been human tormentors, instead of a physical weakness, as many have interpreted. Time after time we read about everywhere Paul went he was met with opposition when it came to spreading the Gospel. Maybe some of those “thorns in his flesh” were hybrids (the mixing of Hebrew and pagan beliefs) that resulted from those not driven out of the PL? Anyway, because the Israelites didn’t drive out all the people living in the PL, they suffered the consequences of their disobedience. Pagan worship, pagan wives and children, and many other practices that evoked God’s anger resulting from assimilation with these pagan people. Like the Samaritans; they were know as “Half-breeds”, who were despised by the Jews. You know the saying, “When in Rome...”. God knew this, that’s why He warned them. Does this consequence still exist in Israel today? Thousands of years later, Israel is still dealing with these “thorns in the flesh”. Now, let’s compare this lack of obedience with humanity’s lack of response to the Gospel. When man fails to bow a knee to the Lordship of Jesus, the consequence is spending an eternity in Hell, where there will be constant torment, forever. The splinter in your eye and thorn in your flesh will only be a tiny visual compared to the constant, eternal suffering man will experience in Hell. God warned His people and gave them a directive, to save themselves some pain and anguish when it came to conquering the PL. They didn’t listen, and still suffer from the constant chaos from those who weren’t “driven out” to this day. This tiny picture of not responding to God fails in comparison to the eternal torment one will experience when they fail to answer Gods’ call with the Good News and redemption of Jesus’ work on the cross. God gives man a choice, and with that choice comes rewards and consequences. Does this paint a vivid picture for you? Does it motivate you to be a “doer” of the Word instead of just a “hearer” only? If you’re not a believer, does this scare you about the reality of Hell? It should. You have a choice to make: do nothing, or do something about it. The outcome will be your triumph or tragedy.

50 While they were camped near the Jordan River on the plains of Moab opposite Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, 51 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: When you cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, 52 you must drive out all the people living there. You must destroy all their carved and molten images and demolish all their pagan shrines. 53 Take possession of the land and settle in it, because I have given it to you to occupy. 54 You must distribute the land among the clans by sacred lot and in proportion to their size. A larger portion of land will be allotted to each of the larger clans, and a smaller portion will be allotted to each of the smaller clans. The decision of the sacred lot is final. In this way, the portions of land will be divided among your ancestral tribes. 55 But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. 56 And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.” Numbers 33:50-56