As I have been reading through Joshua and Judges, it reminded me that over the years I have thought that it was too harsh for God to command that the Israelites were to destroy their enemies completely. Including women and children. But I have come to realize His purpose was to punish God’s enemies and keep Israel from sin. Because God had warned them that, by not destroying all, it would create a snare for them, in that, they would fall for the gods that their enemies worshiped. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened time and time again. They would rebel and worship other gods and then would get overtaken by their enemies.

So how can we apply this for today? Are we following the Bible’s commands which tell us how to live and what to do? He is telling us to do away with idols so that they will not become a snare to us. For each time we give in to temptation it will become easier to fall for that temptation again. As we know, temptation isn’t sin but giving in to it is. Now on the other hand, it is also true that every time we defeat that temptation it becomes easier to defeat it the next time. Hallelujah!!

We need to remember that God has promised:He will not allow the temptation to be more than we can bare. (1 Cor. 10:13) So as we understand what God was doing with His commands to Israel, we can use that same reasoning to follow His commandments for us today. Don’t allow Satan to snare us into something that God has promised to help us to defeat.

-Cecil