Treaties

DEVOTION

EXODUS

TREATIES

Ex 34:8-16

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 "O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes," he said, "then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance." 10 Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.   14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15 "Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

NIV

We have just seen the LORD describe himself as compassionate, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. We saw the initial response of Moses by bowing down and worshipping the LORD, and now we continue with what Moses says in his worship. Moses asks the LORD to do exactly what the LORD just said who he was. Moses asks God to forgive the sin of the people and continue to be their God that goes before them. The LORD makes a covenant with Moses, an agreement which not only is his promise but is also the requirement upon Moses. This covenant is an agreement between both parties. God will but Moses has to obey. This seems to be the everlasting thread that runs throughout all of time. God will if we agree to obey.

2 Chron 7:14-15

14 if my people , who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

NIV

Time and time again God makes covenants with certain individuals and with the entire nation of Israel. He also has made an everlasting covenant with all of his creation.

Rom 10:8-9

 9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

NIV

There it is, the covenant God has made with us. If we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe it in our heart that God raised him from the dead, God will save us. He promises to do, if we agree with him about what he has done. This is an agreement between God and us.  Now that Moses and God have come to this agreement, God tells Moses that when he arrives in this land flowing with milk and honey he is not to make any treaty with any of the people who live there. Do not enter into any agreements with those who are not the people of God, who are not called by his name. If Moses did make a type of treaty with them it would become a snare to him and the Israelites. He was to smash down all their idols, altars, sacred stones and Asherah poles. Listen to this lesson well. Do we make any treaties with the people of this land that we are foreigners in? Do we enter into any agreements with the unbelieving world? Do we allow their altars to exist in our lives? Do we accept any of their sacred stones as a part of our lives? The first and foremost thought brings us to financial agreements, or treaties. If we give them a portion of our money, they will make it gain more. If we enter into an agreement with them, investing in their endeavor, they tell us they will increase our investment. That is nothing more than a covenant. On the other hand are we also in an agreement with them when we accept their money in the form of credit cards as we promise to pay them back with interest? Isn’t that also an agreement? How do we avoid any of this? How can we live in a house unless with enter into an agreement with a bank for the mortgage? How do we drive most of our cars if we do not enter into some agreement with some financial institution? Where do we draw the line?

2 Cor 6:14-18

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. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."   18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,        says the Lord Almighty."  

NIV

Again, where is the line? Can we live on a cash only basis in this society? We have to be in some form of agreements in order to live in our culture. But where is that line? Is it only in the spiritual sense rather than the material? Does this line concern itself with the ideologies of this world? What exactly does not being yoked with an unbeliever look like or mean to God? It would appear the idea is not working together as a team for the same purpose. Can that apply to the material or just the spiritual? How would we team up spiritually with unbelievers? How would we sign a treaty spiritually with unbelievers? Have we made bad choices in the past? Have we made any treaties? How can we break down their altars, smash their sacred stones? We cannot escape our society, our culture, our countries way of life. Many of us have made agreements with our unbelieving employers, if we do the work, they will pay us. Is that a form of a treaty?  Yet we have been called to come out from them. Is it just in the sense of the differences of what or who we worship? If they worship materialism then we cannot. If they worship humanity, we cannot. If they worship or place their trust in anything, we cannot. There has to be a difference, a disagreement, a non-treaty with the unbelieving world. It has to be more than a list of things we do not do, such as smoking, drinking, dancing, mixed bathing, movies, roller rinks, and such. It still comes down to making a covenant with them, doing things together for a joint benefit. The idea seems to come down to this one idea. We are to be in the world but not of it. That is to say we should be infiltrating the world with the gospel message, but not allowing the ways of the world to infiltrate our lives. This has to be more about ideologies and spiritual matters then about material, except Jesus also told us that we should be concerned about the material either. Just how much have we wandered from what God desires for us? Let us examine ourselves and see if we have made any treaties. Then what do we do with them?