Kick them out

DEVOTION

EXODUS

KICK THEM OUT

Ex 23:31-33

31 "I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. 32 Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. 33 Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you."

NIV

Certainly there is a truth about not being in covenant with those who are not in the same nation or kingdom that we are. We are no longer citizens of this world, but rather our citizenship is in the kingdom of God. The children of Israel were not to allow those who lived in the land God was giving to them to stay there. He knew if the Israelites allowed them to stay they would infiltrate the thinking of the Israelites, they would inspire them to worship their gods. Is this not the same with us? If we allow the world to live in our kingdom, they will infiltrate our thinking and before we realize it, we are worshipping the gods of this world. Of course we physically live in this world, but we do not live in it either spiritually or mentally. Our thinking should not be affected by the ways of the world. We should be living according to the beat of a different drummer, the Spirit of God. Does that mean we never fail him? No, of course not, we do fail him, we do fall short, because we sin. If for one minute we think we have attained perfection, a sinless state, we have either been deceived by Satan, or we deceive ourselves. Yet the point is not to be in either fellowship or covenant with the unbeliever. We are not to be unequally yoked.

2 Cor 6:14-17

14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."   17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.

NIV

There are so many ways we can be yoked with the unbelieving world. So many different ways we can be infiltrated by their thinking, their behaviors, and their way of life. Yet the one area which God speaks volumes on seems to be the easiest for us to get ensnared by because it does not appear to be a sinful act.  Yet it just cannot be any planner then this. We are not to be in partnership with the unbelieving world. Yet all too often too many believers are financially yoked with unbelievers, in partnership with the world, invested in the market in some form. They have joined forces with unbelievers for the purpose of gold, money, for their future gain. How do we warn them? What can we say that will reveal the truth to them? How do they not see this command of God? Do they separate their physical life from their spiritual one? There is a great warning here and there is history to show exactly what God thinks and does when this behavior happens. We would have to include nearly the whole of this Psalm, but this portion is enough for now, for this point.

Ps 106:24-31

24 Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise. 25 They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the LORD. 26 So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the desert, 27 make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. 28 They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; 29 they provoked the LORD to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. 30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. 31 This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

NIV

When we partner with the world, we are in fact not believing his promise. We are in fact grumbling in our tents, not obeying him. He has told us we cannot serve too masters.

Matt 6:24

24 "No one can serve two masters . Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

NIV

Have we embraced the god of money, the god of wealth, the god of investment for our future, the god of retirement security, financial security? We need to be very careful about this, not allowing that kind of thinking to become our thinking. We cannot allow them, the unbelievers to stay in our kingdom, to cause us to worship their gods. This is a difficult lesson to learn. We need money to survive, to live our daily lives, to pay our bills, to buy that which we want or need. But we cannot allow ourselves to be entrapped, ensnared by the god of money. Our God said he would provide all our needs according to his riches in glory. What we need to do is worship the LORD God alone, and him alone. He should be the center of all our lives, not the other way where we are the center of our lives. Although he does provide for us, in all reality it is not about us, it is about him. When we become so invested in the world, we are making ourselves the center of our lives, not him. Let us kick out those unbelievers from our land, of our thinking, so they will not be a snare to us. We live in the kingdom of God, and he is our God and we are his people, so let’s kick them out.