Joshua Chapter 16
Stay Holy And Obedient Before God
God defines the territory for the tribe of Ephraim and all the cities it consisted of. After all was said and done it says that the tribe of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites that lived in Gezer. Instead they used them as slaves.
God’s command at the beginning was to destroy all the enemies so that there would be no negative influence from any non-believer who did not accept God as the one and only true God.
What was the reason they refused to obey God? Why didn’t they?
1. Perhaps they were just tired of the constant encounter and finally just gave up.
May we never forget God’s love boundaries for our lives so that we don’t end up “GIVING UP” in trying to be holy and obedient to the Lord.
2. Perhaps out of selfish reasons they figured they’d use them as slaves to make life easier for themselves.
May we never let our selfishness interfere with our striving for holiness and obedience to God.
3. Perhaps some of the people of Ephraim took pity on the Canaanites and didn’t mind them being around because they “weren’t really hurting anything.”
May we never let our emotions dictate truth so that we end up compromising and accepting sin just because someone we “love” is committing the sin. This could relate to any sin. If our child is a thief, we hate to acknowledge it as sin so instead we justify their behavior by saying, “At least our child hasn’t murdered anyone.”
Or if our child is gay then we end up accepting the practice of homosexuality.
True love means loving everyone despite their sin choices. It doesn’t mean we say it’s okay.
We must stay holy and obedient before God.
