April 2, 2009
The Promised Land
God had used Moses to bring the people out of Israel and is preparing them to
enter into the Promised Land. He is telling them that He will do for them what
He promised but they have a part to play in getting there. There is a call to
obedience.
Exodus 23:20-33 NIV
"See, I am sending an angel ahead of
you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he
will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen
carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your
enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.
My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites,
Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them
out. Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their
practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.
Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water.
I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in
your land. I will give you a full life span. "I will send my terror ahead of you
and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your
enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive
the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.
But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become
desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will
drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of
the land. "I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the
Philistines, and from the desert to the River.
I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them
out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let
them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the
worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you."
Here is the part I want you to zero in on:
“But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become
desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will
drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of
the land.”
God knows that the people of Israel can only handle so much at a time. They
would be stretched too thin if He opened the country up all at once to them and
would end up getting destroyed instead of blessed.
In a similar way, God doesn't always show us everything that's wrong with us all
at once. We simply wouldn't be able to cope. He shows us areas to work on and
then as those areas get under control, He shows us something new. It's very much
a process.
God is moving the mountains in our lives as we respond to Him and are obedient.
Sometimes He moves them in huge pieces and other times it a little at a time.
Sometimes we wonder why God doesn't simply take it "all away". His timing is
always perfect and He alone knows how much we can handle.
Our job is to keep walking with God and deal with the issues as He leads. If we
trust He'll remove the enemies in our life.
He will deliver us to the Promised Land and He will bless our lives along the
way. You need to listen carefully to what he says and do all that He says.
Until next time may you be blessed as you journey towards the Promised Land.
Just keep in mind your promised land is as much in you as outside of you!
Be blessed!
Darrel Mason