Today’s Scripture: Judges 1-5
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. – 1 John 5:21
When the children of Israel took possession of their respective areas in the Promised Land, it was a lot like establishing a beachhead. This was not the end but the beginning. They were to move on from there and rid the land of idolatry, blasphemy, occult practices, and sin of every kind. But they didn’t. We are told Judah didn’t drive them out; neither did Manassah, Zebulun, Asher, and so on. Why? Basically, they failed to move out from their beachhead.
I recall the day our Marine outfit invaded an enemy-held island during World War II. We weren’t ten feet out of the water when a Marine right next to me had his left arm blown off, and another man had his upper lip shot off. It took a lot of work to establish that beachhead, but that was only the beginning. From there we had to move inland and capture the airfield, one of our major objectives.
The people of God had done a lot of work to possess the Promised Land, yet they failed to follow through and finish the job. Why? It seems to me there were three reasons: fear, slothfulness, and tolerance for idolatry.
These same traits–fear, sloth, idolatry–can defeat us as well. In our saner moments, we know we’re not to be controlled by fear but by the Holy Spirit of God. If we’re not careful, our sloth can keep us from our morning prayers and Bible reading. And if we don’t have a deep and abiding hatred of idolatry, we can soon find ourselves becoming idolators.
Prayer
Lord, protect me from idolizing the things I love. Amen.
To Ponder
Are you growing in the Lord, or have you been content merely to establish a spiritual beachhead?
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