"Nursing The Enemy"

"And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword." Joshua 6:21

When the children of Israel came out of Egypt on their way to the land that the Lord had promised them, we read that they had to fight many battles against the inhabitants in the wilderness and in the promise land. The command that the Lord gave them was to utterly destroy them all- the kings, every man, woman, boy and girl. They were not to take any captives. When you first read this it sounds very cruel and unloving, especially the part about killing even the children and babies. I am not going to address whether it was cruel or not, I want us to look at it from a spiritual point of view this morning. There is a spiritual parallel to this command to "utterly destroy all" that we need to heed.

I was thinking about this the other day and wondering about not taking the babies captive. After all, they were little tiny babies- what threat could they possibly be. They were helpless, defenseless, weak and unable to do any harm. But the more I thought about it I realized that someone would have to "nurse" those babies. Those nursing babies were not just babies- they were enemies, and they wouldn't stay little long. They wouldn't always be those "cute" little babies that they could "carry" around in their arms. They would grow up and get stronger and stronger. Therefore, they had to be destroyed.

The spiritual parallel that I see here is that if we allow even the "smallest" sin to remain in our lives, even though it may seem "innocent", little and unthreatening at the time, and don't "drive it out" and "utterly destroy" it, eventually we will begin to "nurse" it and it won't stay little long. Once you start "nursing" it, that "small" sin will begin to grow and become a greater enemy in your life.

We need to learn a lesson from what was commanded to them in the natural and apply it to our lives when dealing with the enemy of sin and not be sympatric with sin- no matter how small and unthreatening it may look because one day it will be a bigger enemy.

Have a great day. Sin is our enemy and once we start nursing even a small sin, it will turn it into a bigger, stronger enemy.

For further reading:
1 Corinthians 5:6
Galatians 5:9
Song of Solomon 2:15

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Coffee Break is a morning devotional written by Lorraine Ezell
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