THE DANGERS OF UNDUE INFLUENCE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations - the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you - and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.”

“Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods, and the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.”

“This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.”

Deuteronomy 7:1-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

To this day, I still remember guidance from my parents when I was growing up, guidance concerning the important of choosing who I associated with. They cautioned me about using wisdom when it came to selecting friends because of the influence they could (and would) have on me. After all, they had invested a lot of hard work instilling right and righteous principles within me and knew that all their hard work could be put in jeopardy if I hung out with the wrong person or crowd.

Thankfully, I listened to them, took their advice, and then put it into practice. In return, I did successfully come through my childhood not failing or falling because of the undue influence of others. Since then, I have adopted the same practice, making sure I don’t invest a lot of time with anyone who might seek to compromise my values. Being in favor with the Lord has always been more important than trying to fit in and do whatever was needed to be accepted.

What a blessing it was and still is to have parents that loved and cared for me so much! Maybe you can relate. 

Well, as we start our look at the seventh chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, we see where God, Israel’s Father as well as ours, had the same general principle in mind for His people as they prepared to enter and possess the land of Canaan, the land He had promised to them. He knew that as His nation “grew up” in their new Promised Land, they would be in the midst of cultures that could potentially bring spiritual corruption if they weren’t careful to steer away from them and adhere only to God’s directives and expectation.

From our scripture passage, we learn that the Israelites would be inheriting land from the “Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites”. These “seven nations were all “larger and stronger” than Israel but God vowed to deliver them over to His people. As He did this, we see where He only placed one expectation on the Israelites as they went into battle. They were to totally destroy the seven nations, showing no mercy when they did.

God demanded that the people of Israel were to “break down” the “altars” of their enemies, smashing “their sacred stones”, cutting “down their Asherah poles”, and burning “idols in the fire”.

Why?

Because if they failed to totally destroy these people and their sinful objects of worship, then Israel would run the risk of being infiltrated by their people and adversely influenced by their sinful ways.

Through His instructions, God sought to keep His people from being morally compromised and spiritually damaged by the nations they were to defeat and displace. He commanded the Israelites to “not intermarry” with the other nations nor “give their daughters to another nation’s sons or take another nation’s daughters for their sons”.

This is because the Lord knew that if the Israelites integrated with the pagan, polytheistic religious practices of the seven mentioned nations, then they would run the risk of being turned away from Him and towards the service of “other gods”. And if this happened, God made it clear how He would respond for His anger would burn against His people and He promised to “quickly destroy” them.

I think we can see clearly that it was in Israel’s best interest to comply with their Lord’s commands and demands.

My friends, things haven’t changed a bit today nor has the Lord’s concerns. For the world and the enemy within present all kinds of undue influence that can entice and draw believers away from the Lord and just as in the days of the Old Testament, we need to be extremely careful when it comes to who we choose to associate ourselves with.

As we consider this, we need to remember about a thing called “guilt by association”, the concept that is grounded in the fact that one can be associated with the principles and reputation of a person or group, even if someone doesn’t actively participate in their ways. For example, if a person who professes themselves to be Christian, hangs out with other believers who live in ungodly ways, you can bet that people will start to look at you and your claimed faith with skepticism or even start to label you as being hypocritical.

Obviously, this is something we want to avoid at any cost as Christians. We simply can’t allow ourselves to be compromised or discredited when it comes to the ministry work Jesus has called us to do.

In today’s message, we find our God sending a clear message of concern about the matter of proper association with others and as in all things He expects, we need to heed His guidance, ever ensuring that we will walk the straight and narrow path He sets before us, the straight and narrow path that leads to true life, now and forever (Matthew 7:14).

There’s simply too much at stake for us to go astray and fall into the undue influence of Satan and those he uses to war against our Lord.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.