Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“If you hear about one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, that certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known, then you shall inquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, with all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.”
(Deuteronomy 13:12-15)

“You will groan at your latter end,
    when your flesh and your body are consumed,
and say, “How I have hated instruction,
    and my heart despised reproof.
I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers,
    nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
I have come to the brink of utter ruin,
    among the gathered assembly.””
(Proverbs 5:11-14)

We often times reject passages like this as barbaric. Old School Judgment. We tell ourselves the world has changed. Advanced. Evolved. We’re BETTER than that now. Or we convince ourselves that ‘cut off from the people’ or ‘killed’ is a euphemism for being cast out of the community or exiled from the Land. But these phrases DO mean killing the individuals. And it was both a mercy and the best thing for everyone. Yes, this was NOT vigilante justice but a system of trial, judgment, and punishment. Everything HAD to be proved. But if there was this kind of sin found (idolatry) it was to be cut out. They were under the Law. They had no way of changing hearts or transforming lives – yet. Jesus hadn’t come yet to provide the payment for sin. They treated sin like cancer. Mild cases could be covered by sacrifices and offerings as per the Law. But severe cases, or type-four sins had to be cut out. Killed off. If they weren’t, it would spread and consume the whole nation. It was SERIOUS business. Thank the Lord that Jesus came when He came, and we are free of that. We can be cleansed and made whole in and through Jesus. Amen.

Sooner or later, we all come to our end. The end of ourselves or the end of our lives here on this Earth. All around the globe people have been doing that for thousands of years. Sooner or later we look back and can see all the times that we went wrong, refused to be corrected, and that it wasn’t as big of a secret as we thought it was. That someone – maybe many someones – knew what was going on (Luke 8:17). It is when we listen to correction and take things seriously that we are willing to renew our minds to the truth. It is when we take the steps to AVOID evil, to AVOID distractions, to AVOID compromise, that we keep our eyes clear to what we need to do. To the path that the Lord sets before us. That’s when we can embrace what Jesus did for us and walk in His truth, repent when we mess up, and keep from falling because we are actively keeping our hand in His.

Summary

We are VERY blessed that Jesus has come and done the work for us that He has. We have a way to deal with sin, get free of oppression, and stand on the Word in Jesus’ defeat of the devil. We can be CLEANSED from Sin and our iniquities. We don’t have to kill to be rid of it. We have Holy Spirit living inside us to give us counsel, correction, and guidance so that we can avoid the pitfalls of this world. We can rest in Jesus and look to Him instead of going wherever the wind blows. Jesus opens our eyes so that we can see the truth of what’s being offered to us. If we are willing to listen to Him, we can see what will trip us and avoid it by relying on Him and His direction (1 Corinthians 10:13).