Today we are going to look at Deuteronomy 18:9. It says:
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.
Why did God put such a high importance for the Israelites not to copy the people that were living in the land? Because he knew the concept of monkey see, monkey do!!! He knew that no matter how close they were to Him, if they started imitating the people that were in the land, they would eventually draw away from Him and choose the things of this world.
We have many examples of this in Scripture, but here is one that deals exactly with Deut. 18:9. There were two Kings of Israel who took this command in very different ways!
In 2 Kings 21 we see the life of Manasseh. He disobeyed directly this command of God. He even went so far as to sacrifice his son!!! Take a minute and read this chapter, you will also see that his son Amon followed in his footsteps.
Then, in 2 Kings 22 and 23 Josiah obeys God's command and tears down all the things that his father and grandfather put up! It is an awesome passage of Scripture. I love how when Josiah is presented with the truth of God's Word, he tears his robe and immediately starts getting rid of all the "junk" in the kingdom.
My question to you is this: which king are you like? Manasseh or Josiah? Are you letting the junk in this world be a part of your life, or are you "tearing your robe" at the way our country is going?
What are the things in your life that you need to get rid of in order to draw closer to God?
Take a minute and ask God to show the areas of your life that have drifted away from Him.
i am like both of them i have some junk that wont go away and junk i can get rid of and i can obey God sometimes and disagree like why is he doing this to me why is he bringing me down this path?? so i want to make it stop so i go off the path and disagree with what he is doing in my life so i get of the path and try to go my own way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your honesty Andy! The main question is do you trust God? If you do, when He sends you to the right when you want to go left, it may not make sense but you will follow because you trust. This week's lesson was all about "copying" God's examples for us. I didn't touch on trust however! When we trust, we can then obey - that's what today's lesson was all about. Hope that makes sense!
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