Skip to main content

Daily Devotion: Judges 3:5-6

By

Judges 3:5-6    "And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:  (6)  And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods."

The people of Israel had allowed those nations to remain even after God had told them to drive them out. It would have been nice if the influence of Israel had been greater than the influence of those nations, but it didn't happen. It did not take long for Israel to start allowing their sons to marry the daughters of the Canaanites and their daughters to marry the sons of the Hittites. Taking their gods was the next digression from marrying those who were of the world. Then we read, "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves." (Judges 3:7)

Jesus told His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees because a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. It is a fact that we tend to take on the character of the individual, or individuals, with whom we keep company. We are easily influenced. When He was being tempted, Jesus said, "Get thee hence, Satan."  We use the word, if, quite a bit, BUT, we might not be in such a mess if Eve had told Satan to leave her alone.  That being said, I can't blame Eve for my transgressions. The same principle works for me today. James wrote it in this manner, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you..." (James 4:7=8)  If we live like the world, our conversation will be indistinguishable from the world. We soon will be looking and acting like that which God has told us to avoid. We must take care in seeking to become more like Jesus each day.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Daily Devotion: Psalm 88:1-4

By
Psalm 88:1-4  A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. "O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:  (2)  Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;  (3)  For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.  (4)  I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength" I've said this before and I will say it again (and probably more times before we get to the end of the Psalms) - I love the Psalms because I can surely identify with them. Most Psalms start in a low place and as the writer expresses his thoughts, the Lord begins to lift him up out of that dry place.  Though this entire Psalm is a fervent cry unto the Lord, the Psalmist tells us specifically in three verses that he cried daily unto the Lord. Just a few Psalms ago, we were reminded that God always hears our prayers. ...
Read more

Daily Devotion (Video): I Will Fear No Evil - Psalm 23:4

By
Read more

Daily Devotion: Knowing God By Bearing Fruit

By
Some will notice the title is not “Bearing fruit because we know God,” so to avoid getting sidetracked with that, we can start with the fact that we won’t bear any godly fruit unless our heart has been changed and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Also, to avoid confusion, I’ll be using the terms “bearing fruit,” “good works” and “service” interchangeably.  I took this article’s title from Part 7, of John Piper’s “Look at the Book” session on Colossians 1:9-12. I greatly encourage you to view that short video to get his excellent exposition on this subject.  When I saw the title of the video earlier this year, I got kind of excited because that’s the direction my thinking has gone in the past several years. My thinking was founded Biblically with verses on good works like Matthew 5:16 – “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven.” But I couldn’t expand it to expla...
Read more