Charles E. Wigg
Chapter
Seven: The whole of chapter seven is there to warn against compromise.
They were soon to pass over the Jordan River. And they were to dispossess seven
nations who were greater and mightier than themselves. They were to execute the
wrath of their Holy God, upon those nations that had polluted the land with
their idols, and the abominable practices connected with idolatry. They were not
to make any covenant with those people either by marriage or by any other means;
they were to be completely separate, just as the false Prophet Balaam had said
when he tried to curse the people.
In this day of
departure there are many who consider it too hard or unkind to be separate from
what is evil, and great stress is laid upon the love and kindness of God. We do
need to remember that though God is love, yet He is also Light. His love is a
holy and a righteous love; He is a Just God, and a Saviour (Isaiah 45:21), there
is none beside Him, let us be true and loyal to Him!
They were not to
compromise in the matter of marriages, because the pull would always be in the
wrong direction; let us pay heed to these instructions. I have noticed that the
same is true even today, and I have seen again and again that where a son or
daughter is married to a denominational Christian they will be sooner or later
pulled in the direction of the other party’s affiliations and interests, even
though the parents of the son or daughter know that the religious affiliation of
the family into which they have married their son or daughter is wrong. It very
rarely happens the other way.
In verse 5 we are told
that every vestige of the wicked idolatry that was practiced by the nations that
they were to destroy, they were to destroy utterly. None of it was to be
cleansed and brought over into the worship of the true God. He had set His love
upon them, and that love was a jealous love, it would not tolerate them sharing
their affections with any other false god. His love that was so great demanded
that they should be totally separate from all that was evil. They were to be a
holy people. If this was to be so with them, how much more so it should be with
us. Because the great love of God, which led Him to give His Son to die for us,
is so much greater than He bestowed upon His people Israel. Let us then in
return, yield to God a life that is wholly separated to Himself. A life of total
obedience to His holy word. Such a life will insure to us the continual blessing
of God, in every area, both in the temporal, the physical, and the
spiritual.
In verse 6 the
uniqueness of the saints, those called of God to be such, is emphasised. What
divine favour has been shown to us! May the Lord help us so to live that we
might be in keeping with the calling on High in Christ Jesus, In writing to
Titus Paul emphasises the fact that God has called us to be a special people. He
is purifying to Himself a Peculiar people who are zealous of good works (Titus
2:14). Peter also tells us that we are to show forth the excellencies of Him who
has called us. (1Peter 2:9).
Then in verse 15 we
are given the secret of a healthy life. There we are told that if we live such a
life that is in accordance with our high calling, we will find that our lives
are free of disease etc. This is so much better than to be constantly talking
about, and falsely claiming to have the gift of healing.. May the Lord help you
and I to so live that we may not have to bear the sicknesses and infirmities of
the world around us.
In chapter
eight: Even a very casual reading of chapter 8 will show that the
blessing of God is upon the obedient life). We have the constant reminder
of the caring goodness of God, and the constant warning lest we should forget
these things. That the experience of God’s goodness and faithfulness should
produce in us a sense of self-satisfaction, such as existed in the Church at
Laodicea. This is the great problem with the Western Church today. Once when the
believers were poor, they were also faithful and lived lives of obedience to the
word of God, but now that they have grown rich, and their goods have increased,
their faithfulness has declined. Thus materialism has become a curse to us.
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