The mention of fearing the people of the Land is certainly
meant to remind them of their failure to enter the first time. Now, however, these people are sick of the
wilderness, they have also seen the Lord do mighty things in their behalf and
these now are the memories that will sustain them in times of trial. They know that it success is not dependent
entirely on themselves, the Lord is with them as they obey His command to move
forward and take the Land He is giving them.
They will conquer at the rate that they can possess the Land, and it
will be complete, the Lord will send the hornet to dispossess those who hide
themselves. Moses says that the people
of the Land will be in confusion and the names of the kings of the peoples will
be heard no more. These Canaanite
civilizations essentially will cease to exist.
The warning also includes the temptation to possess the idols of the
people or even the gold and silver covering them. They are to destroy these things, even the
precious metals.
Andrew, Simon Peter and Philip may have been excited about
finding Jesus but Nathanael was skeptical.
He had a problem with where Jesus was from, Nazareth. He knew the word of God well enough to know
that this wasn't where Messiah was supposed to be. He also knew the culture up there, they had
more acclimated themselves to Gentile culture, had lost their distinctiveness. Surely Messiah could not come from
Nazareth. Nathanael, however, was
willing to come and see and he was willing to believe based on an incredibly
simple sign, Jesus saying He saw him under the fig tree. Jesus has said that he is a man of no deceit
or guile and Nathanael's response of proclamation of Jesus as Son of God, King
of Israel is proof that he hides nothing, he is a man who speaks from the
heart. Just as he has not hidden his
skepticism, so now he overflows with praise for the man whom he has just
met. He is a man of faith.
What would the church look like if we devoted ourselves to
good works and not " foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and
quarrels about the law"? What would
our fellowship look like if we would not tolerate those who seek to create
division and in fact, after warning them twice had nothing to do with
them? Instead, churches are devoured and
consumed by exactly those things, secondary issues, gossip and people creating
division. We lose sight of the truly
important things because we are not focused on the primary thing. Devote yourselves to good works Paul says,
for these things are excellent and profitable.
The people of God are always tempted to lose focus, why do we allow that
temptation to rule over our churches? If
we are to advance the kingdom in the same way the people were to conquer the
Land, we must not allow ourselves to be distracted or divided on our
mission.
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