The Damage of Sinful Associations

Joshua 23:9-13

⁹ “The Lord has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. ¹⁰ One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. ¹¹ So be very careful to love the Lord your God.

¹² “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, ¹³ then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.

I am what they call a shade tree mechanic. I can do most of the little things on a car but the big jobs, I cannot do. If I take on one of those larger jobs on a car I may be over my head, but not at first. At first I convince myself “how hard can it really be?” I am right about that, but I am totally forgetting the larger picture which is, I might encounter things on this large mechanical job that I have not even seen before much less have the tools for. With a sense of bravado, I charge on. Sure enough, after I have taken almost everything apart, I run into a snag of understanding or lack of tools. Sometimes, I finish the job only to have something break down on the road because I did not put things back together properly.

Joshua was about to pass away and calls all of the leaders, elders, and officials from every tribe in Israel together to give them some parting words of wisdom. Joshua carried the mantle of Moses and led the Israelites into the promised land. Through his leadership, he guided the Israelites into a campaign of war that conquered large powerful nations through the mighty hand of the Almighty.

Chapter 23 tells us, “After a long time had passed and the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them,”. Most of the fighting was over accept for a few areas left to conquer and the Lord was with Israel driving out the enemies before them so they could inhabit the promised land the Lord had given them. He tells the leaders of Israel that they have seen all the Lord has done and to remember the allotments of land the Lord gave them as their inheritance. A final word from Joshua is found in verse 6, “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning to the right or the left.” He goes on to tell them not to associate with these other nations and do not worship or say the name of the other gods they serve, and that they must hold fast to the Lord their God just like they have until now. A very strong directive from a very strong leader, Joshua.

Our verses come after this directive. It restates that the Lord had made them a powerful nation, that their enemies fear them and to be careful to love the Lord their God. But if you turn away from the Lord and ally yourself with the survivors of these nations, they will become snares, traps, whips on your back and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land. Israel’s story goes on after Joshua and Israel surely does not follow this directive, those stories are in the rest of the Old Testament.

For us, the directive is the same. We must love the Lord our God and not worship other gods or get involve heavily with sinful people or their practices. You see sin has a way of rotting away what the Lord has blessed you with. Like the verses today, that sin has a way of becoming snares for us. It traps our minds into compromise against God’s word. We feel burdened when we give into sinful behaviors. Our sight is clouded as we charge into things and practices that ultimately tear us apart. We will see all this while sitting in the same great place the Lord has given us, a good land or a great family or a great job. Sin will destroy all of it. When the Lord takes His hand of compassion and grace off of your life because you choose to sin, the rotting starts and will eventually rot out all of the good things the Lord had done in your life.

So today, make a commitment like the Israelites did back then, not to let that sinful nature take ahold your life. Make a commitment to choose Jesus and not the world. Block out and turn away from all sinful behavior. We all need to do this every day. Don’t let a day go by that you don’t read the Bible and pray to your God and thank Him for all of His blessings. You see the shade tree mechanic in me will let some better judgment slide while I calmly walk into something I cannot finish. The Holy Spirit is send by God to guide us and teach us so let Him do that for you today. Run from sin, don’t even give it any place in your life. The directive from Joshua was for them to obey “All the is written”, not some or part by all. Commit to all today.

Prayer: Father, help us to commit to following you with all of heart, mind, soul, and strength. I pray that I read your Word every day, pray every day and get to know you better every day. Help me when sin does attempt to trap me, so I am ready to defend myself with your Word which is shaper than any double edge sword and use the shield of faith to extinguish all of fiery darts from the evil one. In Jesus name, amen.