Today's Devotion: ⁵¹ “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, ⁵² drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. ⁵³ Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. (The Holy Bible: New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Nu 33:50-53) These were the instructions that God gave to Moses before the Israelites crossed the Jordan to take possession of the land of Canaan. God tells Moses that he must take total possession of the land and that none of the enemy be left in that land.

Today's Comments: These are harsh instructions. God is telling his chosen people to wipe out or remove from the land all those who He has not chosen. Would the God of today say the same thing? Most people that I know would say, "no." However, if we read the Book of Revelation, it seems like God is going to do that for us. He will separate the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous. So, God has not changed. Only his timing has changed. God will do whatever he needs or wants to do, when the time comes. In the meantime, God promised the Israelites that if they did not drive all of the Canaanites from their land, they would be a thorn in the side of Israel. And, curiously enough, maybe that thorn in the side of Israel still exists today. Has God been punishing Israel for failing to carry out His orders, as he said he would in Verse 56? I will leave the answer up to the reader.