You shall make no covenant with them nor their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. Exodus 23:32-33
Have you ever found yourself in a mess, a time when you were clearly warned about something and you chose to ignore the warning you were given, and had you listened to the wiser person, you could have avoided the problems and heart ache you reaped because of the decisions you made. The Children of Israel made one of those bad decisions in Joshua 9 and it cost them. God was very clear that when they came into the promised land, destroyed the inhabitants and took possession of the land He gave them, He warned them, “You shall make no covenant with them nor their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.” Exodus 23:32-33. In Exodus 34:12-15 God warned them through Moses with more of an explanation, “Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images. (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord your God whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land.” Then in Deuteronomy 7:1-6 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess…the Lord your God delivers them over to you…You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you marry them… But thus you shall deal with them, you shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their carved images with fire.” Despite God’s clear instructions to the Israelites not to tolerate any other worship in the land He was giving them, in Joshua 9, they fell into a trap of the enemy. Not heading the warning, the leaders of Israel thought they were wise enough to make a national decision without consulting God. The news spread quickly that God had gone before them and destroyed the inhabitants of the land in Jericho and AI, and the neighboring cities started to brace for the battle they knew was coming to destroy them. The next closest city was Gibeon and the inhabitants of Gibeon devised a clever scheme to try and save themselves. They pretended to be ambassadors from a far away country, dressed in old garments, sandals with patches, carrying dry moldy bread and patched wineskins. The Gibeonites told the elders that they heard of their God and the fame of His victories and they wanted to make a covenant with them. They showed them their worn-out clothes and shoes and offered some of their dry moldy bread and wine from patched wine shins and the Bible says that the men of Israel took some of their provisions and with our asking God, they made a covenant with them. After the covenant was made, The Israelites went to conquer the next city and found out it was the city of Gibeon.
One of the most effective tools of the Devil is deception. Defined as: The act of making someone believe something that is not true by lying, hiding facts or misrepresenting reality. Satan successfully used deception on Eve in the Garden Deception is usually so close to the truth that it is hard to discern what is real and what is a lie. Have you ever been deceived? Several years ago, local news did a story on how a late freeze in April killed the budding flowers of the marshmallow plant and there was going to be a shortage of marshmallows for that year’s crop. Farmers whose crops were affected then the news anchor said April Fool’s Day. Without thinking things through, I did not question the segment. This deception was a harmless April Fool’s joke, but it made me wonder how many things did I take for truth and accept without investigating the facts, much less ask God for His Wisdom and truth. Jesus said in Mark 13:5 “Take heed that no one deceives you.” Satan is still trying to deceive us and his deceptions are not harmless pranks but they are life altering and future destroying lies. 1 Peter 5:8 warns “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” In everything that comes out of his mouth is a deception Jesus told the Pharisees in John 8:44 “You are of the father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murder from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Many of the beliefs and convictions that are being taught today are half truths which make them a lie. J.D. and I were talking about what James Talarico asked what would Jesus say if He walked onto the floor of the U.S. Senate. He believes Jesus would say, “I was hungry and you kicked Me off food stamps. I was sick and you kicked me off Medicaid.” Even though it sounds like a good argument, it cannot be supported by the Bible. 1 Thessalonians teach, “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” I like how the Message puts this, “And now we are getting reports that a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings are taking advantage of you. This must not be tolerated. We command them to get to work immediately-no excuses, no arguments-and earn their own keep.” Galatians 6:2 “Bear you one another burdens.” Providing help when someone is doing everything they can and still needs a hand up, not someone who for years expected the government to feed them while they refuse to work. Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 10:8 “Heal the sick,”, then Mark 16:18 “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe; in My name they will cast our demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” I cannot find in the Bible where God commands us to set up social systems to provide health care at the expense of the tax payer. All my life I have been told to be nice, play nice, when someone treats you poorly be nice, be the bigger person and take the high road. But the word nice is not in the Bible. Nice is defined as: pleasing, agreeable. While we are told in Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Our interactions with other people should exhibit these qualities, but we should never be people pleasers(pleasing) but we are to fear God and please Him. We should never be “agreeable” on anything that contradicts God's word just to keep the peace. Our code of conduct needs to be based on the Bible.
Politicians and some pastors have wrongfully used the word of God to shape our society into dishonoring or not adhering to the Wisdom of God’s Word. Things like separation of church and state and now the issue of immigration. The Bible clearly states we should be kind to the alien among us, but it also states that we should not embrace those who serve other gods. To embrace Islam under the guise of Freedom of religion is not what the right was set up to be in our Constitution. Deuteronomy teaches us to be careful who we allow into our nation because who you allow in can one day become your masters. The Islamists do not want to live peacefully in the USA, embrace our government and enjoy our freedoms, they want to take over our country and change us. In Dearborn Michigan they have already instituted Sharia law. I heard someone interpret the prayer spoken at Mamdoni’s swearing in in New York, and they prayed death to all infidels (infidels are anyone who does not practice Islam.) New York City now broadcasts the call to prayer 5 times a day in all the city streets. Instead of taking partial scriptures about how to treat the aliens on our land, we need to go back and see what all God says about making covenants with those who worship other gods. The Church needs to see what is happening, even in Texas. We need to make this a matter of prayer before we lose our religious freedoms. It will take us praying and the Spirit of God to stop the invasion. Zechariah 4:6 “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of Hosts.” Will you stand in the gap with me and intercede for our nation?