Overview of: DeuteronomyToday's Reading:
Dt. 7:1 – 8:20
"Driving Out the Nations"
Focus Verses: Deut. 7:25-26
25 The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God. 26 Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.
Insight:
In order to take possession of the land God had promised to the Israelites, they would have to drive out the nations who were living there. This would take time and would not happen all at once. So even as they moved in and conquered, they would need to be on guard against being seduced by the idols and practices of the current residents. Those foreign idols and pagan practices were destined for destruction. If the Israelites embraced and adopted them, they too would be destroyed.
Response and Action:
I am courting disaster when I embrace the things God hates. It is foolish and reckless to hold on to things that are bound for destruction. I must be careful to turn away from the things I know are detestable to God. With God's help and guidance, I must commit myself to drive out of my life every idol and practice that he has condemned. It is self-destructive for me to carelessly bring them into my house, to live with them in complacency, or worse yet, to love them and delight in them.
O God, give me the discernment to recognize what is good and what is corrupt. Give me the wisdom and will to turn away from what is unholy and detestable to you. Help me to see through temptation and deception, and give me a holy disdain and disregard for everything that would divert me from walking in your ways. Guide me in your truth, and teach me, for you are God, my savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Through Christ, I pray. Amen.
New Testament for Today: 1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
In Context: 1 John 2:7-17
Proverb for Today: Prov.25:26
"Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked."
Resources:
Love Not The World: A Prophetic Call to Holy Living
by Watchman Nee
