"...and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally (Deut. 7:2)!"
The above is part of a lengthy discourse by Moses to the people of Israel who are about to enter the Promised Land. Moses is sharing all the instructions that have been given him by the Lord for their own good. Completely annihilating the 7 nations named by Moses seems inconsistent with a God of love, grace, and mercy; unless we understand that their wickedness and immorality was so extreme as to suggest there was no hope for repentance or redemption. Further, God knew that if the people of Israel allowed any of the other nations to survive, even a remnant, they would eventually be influenced to worship other gods and forget all that the Lord had done for them. All we have to do is observe what eventually did happen from the time of Solomon on to know this was a real threat.
Relevant? Totally dude!!!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book "The Cost of Discipleship," makes the following statement, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." Jesus invitation was to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. We sing the song, "I surrender all," but do we really? Don't we hold back a part of ourselves? I know that I do. So long as anything of the old man still exists, it gets in the way of God being able to accomplish His purpose in our lives and ministry. When we dedicate our lives to the Lord and to do His work, it needs to be an irrevocable giving over of all that we are, all that we have, all that we hope and desire, all that we are able to accomplish. Whatever idols we worship, whatever gods we serve, whatever matters more to us than doing the will of our heavenly Father, needs to be totally destroyed. It needs to be completely removed from our lives and from having any possibility of influencing us or distracting and keeping us from doing the Lord's work.
Sometimes we may wonder why all this is so necessary. Moses reminded the people, "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, his treasured possession (7:6)." We have been set apart for service to God to accomplish His will upon this earth. It isn't because we deserve it, based upon our own merits, but because He loves us.
"You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light (I Peter 2:9)."
Doulos
The above is part of a lengthy discourse by Moses to the people of Israel who are about to enter the Promised Land. Moses is sharing all the instructions that have been given him by the Lord for their own good. Completely annihilating the 7 nations named by Moses seems inconsistent with a God of love, grace, and mercy; unless we understand that their wickedness and immorality was so extreme as to suggest there was no hope for repentance or redemption. Further, God knew that if the people of Israel allowed any of the other nations to survive, even a remnant, they would eventually be influenced to worship other gods and forget all that the Lord had done for them. All we have to do is observe what eventually did happen from the time of Solomon on to know this was a real threat.
Relevant? Totally dude!!!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book "The Cost of Discipleship," makes the following statement, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." Jesus invitation was to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. We sing the song, "I surrender all," but do we really? Don't we hold back a part of ourselves? I know that I do. So long as anything of the old man still exists, it gets in the way of God being able to accomplish His purpose in our lives and ministry. When we dedicate our lives to the Lord and to do His work, it needs to be an irrevocable giving over of all that we are, all that we have, all that we hope and desire, all that we are able to accomplish. Whatever idols we worship, whatever gods we serve, whatever matters more to us than doing the will of our heavenly Father, needs to be totally destroyed. It needs to be completely removed from our lives and from having any possibility of influencing us or distracting and keeping us from doing the Lord's work.
Sometimes we may wonder why all this is so necessary. Moses reminded the people, "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, his treasured possession (7:6)." We have been set apart for service to God to accomplish His will upon this earth. It isn't because we deserve it, based upon our own merits, but because He loves us.
"You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light (I Peter 2:9)."
Doulos
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