Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Mar 17th, 2021 Driving Out the Inhabitants … by Dawn E. Foster

Today’s Passage – Joshua 16 – 18 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Titus 1 – 3; Proverbs 17; Psalms 81 – 85

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 18:3 & 46

Read the “0317 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read a previous post on this passage – “Get to Work“

Borders are set to define an area. To keep things in, and to keep things out. They define a starting and ending point. Borders define countries, our yards, our way of life. These boundaries not only define physical space, but also sin.  

God commanded the people to drive out the inhabitance of the lot that was given to them for their inheritance.  Drive out meaning completely ridding them out of their borders.  Yet in Joshua 17:12 we see that “the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities;”.  In the next verse, verse 13 we read that they “did not utterly drive them out.”  All the bells and whistles in our heads are going off at this point.  Get them out! Hello!!!!! This is going to be a huge problem! God said get them out plain and simple so do it! 

It is funny how we can easily identify this, yet in our own lives we let sin fester. Just like the children of Manasseh let the inhabitants stay in the land, we do the same with sin. It’s ok if I do (fill in the blank) because it’s a gray area.  We make a justification. Well…. the Bible doesn’t clearly define if it’s right or wrong. It’s ok if I drink because the Bible says don’t get drunk… so as long as I don’t lose my mind I’m fine to do it. It’s ok if…. little by little we slowly make another justification… we let one sin stay, then another. We let the sliver stay in our finger because we don’t want to deal with the immediate pain that would be caused if we would just pull it out. So, it festers… and gets infected.  Suddenly the one “it’s ok if I do” thing because a major separation from the Lord. We become consumed with living with the sin because maybe it’s easier. Maybe because everyone is doing it.  We keep it because the world does it so it can’t be so bad… right? Wrong.  

Sin will dim our eyes so we will not notice that we are not seeing clearly.  We will not understand why we start to struggle. We won’t see that our walk with the Lord is drifting farther and farther off the straight and narrow. We become part of the world because everyone is doing it. 

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1 John 2:15 – 17)

Until we drive out the inhabitants we cannot be right with God. We won’t see how dark it is in our lives until we turn the lights on. God gives another warning in Numbers 33:55: “But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.”

Child of God, if you are justifying sin get on your knees. Cry out to the Lord. Get in your Bible. Talk to your Pastor or Pastor’s wife. Get right, and drive out those inhabitances in your life.