January 16, 2024

Passage Read: Joshua 22 - Judges 1
Meditation Verses: Joshua 23:6-7

Thought

The Israelites didn't drive out all the Canaanites at once, but many were left to be conquered after Joshua's death. Joshua warns them to remain faithful to the Lord and He will give them victory over the remaining Canaanites. So on their part, they were to be firm and do all that Moses had taught them, and they were not to make friends with the Canaanites, and especially not to learn the names of their gods and follow their practices. But of course, that is what they did. They became friends and learned of their gods and worship practices, and we're drawn away from wholehearted devotion to the Lord. So the Lord didn't drive the nations out, because the people didn't even try to get rid of them. Instead, they made them slaves. They became powerful enough to subject them to forced labor, but chose not to destroy them. Because they got used to them and found a purpose for them. And we're more compassionate than God, so spared their lives.

Application

They chose friendship with those whom God had rejected, people that God had commanded them to remain separate from and eventually to destroy. But instead of setting them as objects of wrath, they saw them as sources of labor. They were perhaps intimidated by them at first, but in time, they found their knowledge and experience and skills helpful, and discovered that they weren't so terrible, and learned from them, traded with them, until they became dependent on them. They learned far more than they were allowed, but by then, that didn't matter so much. We are so much like them in our practices: We are compassionate and gracious and loving even to those who hate God, we discover their skills and abilities and admire them. We see the good things in them, and we make friends with them and learn from them far more than we bargained for, and become enemies of God. We don't understand God's hard stance against those who reject the gospel even on first hearing. We think He's not as compassionate as He claims to be, so we end up defending unbelievers over God. We end up corrupted and on the path to rejection, but we don't see it. God's the one in the wrong, not us. And in so doing, we prove God right, but are blind to see it. We're not supposed to lead with compassion, but with the Gospel, and let the gospel sort who we befriend and who we avoid. Those who reject Christ should be rejected to us as well. Christ came to divide people, but that would affect our lives too painfully, so we blur the distinction and choose the world over Christ. This is a hard word even for me, but it is the direction I need to go.