The circular pattern of
disobedience, punishment, repentance and restoration became typical of Israel. It
was displeasing to the Lord, and clearly not only ‘circular’ but also
descending, deteriorating and more frequent. The basis of God’s relationship
with Israel was His holiness and His law. They were to be a people holy unto
Yahwah, who kept His commands and lived by His law. Whenever Israel transgressed
and abandoned this God-determined pattern, and followed the ways of the heathen
nations around them, they became idolatrous, and lost their status with God.
The correction from the Lord was always administered in love and with a view to
their restoration, but the frequency and consistency of their disobedience to
His directives, demanded stern measures. In this instance God allowed them to
become enslaved under the authority of the Canaanite king Jabin. Israel had
chosen to follow the Canaanite practices in favour to God’s law, and in
righteous and telling judgment, God delivered them into the bondage and
oppression of the very people they had chosen to imitate! Sadly the pattern present with the Israelite
nation, can be observed among the people of God today. In many ways like them,
we too can be guilty of ignoring God’s law, His love, His warnings and finally
reap in our lives, families, churches and society, the results of our apathy
towards God, and of our misplaced desire for the things of the ‘heathen’ world
around us! It is interesting but not surprising to note, just how much control,
oppression and influence the heathen society wields against the church! Largely
instead of a repentance and return to the holiness and purity of service unto
God, most Christians simply re-adjust the measure of consecration required,
re-interpret the meaning of God’s directives and re-structure their practices
to be more in tune with contemporary thinking. These manipulations become more prevalent and frequent with each generation, and succeed only
in changing the level of tolerance believers should have towards sin and the
sinful practices readily accepted by the surrounding ungodly society. Things
thought totally unacceptable by Christians and seen as against God’s law in the
past, are now more palatable and so commonplace among believers that hardly
anyone even takes notice anymore! In fact it is the consecrated person who may
in concern speak up, that is marginalised as ‘legalistic’ and ‘sectarian’, one
given to divisive doctrine! Should we be surprised if in due course we reap God’s
judgment? Would it be too unreasonable to believe that a righteous, holy and
just God, who still wants His people to be holy, would judge the present church
as He did His people of old? We may not be able to turn the unbiblical,
God-dishonouring tide of present Christendom, but we can determine to learn
from the lessons of the past and apply them to our personal lives, while we
still can!
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion
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