It is Radical or It is not Obedience

And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. (Judges 2: 2, 3)

Have you realised that just about enough and almost enough is not enough?

Do you realise that any command from God has to be carried out to its conclusion or it is not obedience?

That is what I want us to look at today.

Why must it have to be extreme to be acceptable?

A small slip has the capacity to water down the almost complete obedience.

Israel was commanded to clear Canaan of her inhabitants as a condition to their settling in the land.

But it was not so straightforward to them.

You see, some had superior weapons (iron chariots) while others were in fortified abodes.

What was wrong with slowly weakening them before dealing with them? I am sure many opined thus.

They were therefore unable (unwilling?) to go the whole hog as far as dispossessing the occupiers of the Promised Land was concerned.

What then happens?

The abhorred will neighbour the blessed. To the rebellious (supposedly with their heart at the right place) start fetching water with the condemned from the same wells. They start sharing the same bushes for wood. They start sharing the same grazing fields with their animals.

Of course they will start talking since they are social beings.

This will then lead to them sharing more than things.

They will share in culture. They will share in language. They will share in relationships and marriage. Ultimately, they will share in worship.

This will result in the blessed being condemned as a result of those associations.

That comes out clearly when we read the book of Judges.

All because of an innocent oversight, a little slip.

Or was it?

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit. 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. Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them. (Numbers 33: 51 – 56)

The command was clear, very clear.

Arguing about the implementation of the same was the problem. Explaining the reluctance or difficulty of ‘literal’ obedience was the reason the Canaanite was left, albeit in small numbers.

But that was as against the commandment as would have been had they completely ignored the commandment.

Would there be a difference between drinking a sip of poison and swallowing a whole jug of the same?

That is how God sees it.

There are no different levels of obedience. It is complete or it is disobedience.

The world has tried to make us dread the word radical. Yet in the sphere of obedience that is the only obedience God recognises.

And I have explained why partial obedience is so intolerable to God because He sees where it all heads to.

The consequences of partial obedience are probably more destructive that outright disobedience.

Do you realise that there was grace for Manasseh and none for Saul, for example?

Manasseh was lost, completely so. But Saul was on the borderline and not ‘exactly’ disobedient.

Don’t you realise he waited, and he killed the Amalekites? Are there no marks for trying?

With God there aren’t.

What am I aiming at?

Do we debate and rationalise what the Bible says? Do we look for explanations when we are looking to be on the right side of the Good Book?

Do we treat God’s commandments as suggestions as even some modern Bibles have been translated to say?

Do we trust God so completely that we will walk on our heads if He says so?

Caleb walked for forty years with the rebellious Israelites, but his case was different because his response to the spying mission was as radical as God required.

No wonder forty-five years later he was as strong as he had been after spying while all his peers had been dead and buried long before then. He could even ask for permission, not support, to tackle the giants that were the reason for the forty years punishment.

I hope you get me.

As usual I will place these verses I always quote.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

I hope you realise that they are not going to hell for not doing. They are going because they did not do exactly what they had been commanded.