And a messenger of YHWH came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. ² 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? ³ 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 2:1-3 KJV)

I was raised in a Christian home, not a monastery.  Like most believers, I have a past that has been very much influenced and polluted by the world.  While I attended church from infancy, to one degree or another, it was not until high-school that I had a profound and radical religious experience that changed my life.  From that moment in time forward the course and path of my life took a drastically different direction.  But like most believers I very much lived in the world and my life was filled with mixture.  While I heard the Spirit of the Holy One calling me daily to the cross, inviting me to put the “old man” to death, and to “come out of Babylon,” I was still very much surrounded and polluted by the world.  The purging process is not a quick or easy one. 

As I read the verses above, I could not help but to see the comparisons between Israel, called to inhabit and purge a defiled land—and the believer’s calling to take possession of one’s life and soul and purge it of all the mixture and defilement from living in the world.

 The land that Israel was promised was already inhabited and polluted.  Israel was to conquer the land and tear down the old defiling altars to other gods.  Israel was to drive out the old defiling inhabitants of the land. Israel was not to make covenants with these old defilers, lest they become a snare to them.  But Israel, for whatever reason, failed to do what YHWH had commanded.  Once, Israel reached a certain level of success, obedience, and comfort, they stopped fighting, purging and obeying.  A messenger of YHWH appears to them, and reminds the children of Israel how faithful YHWH is.  The messenger reminds them that it was YHWH that delivered them.  Israel should have remembered that it was this miraculous deliverance that motivated them to enter an everlasting covenant with YHWH.

Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. ⁵ Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: ⁶ And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. ⁷ And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which YHWH commanded him. ⁸ And all the people answered together, and said, All that YHWH hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto YHWH. (Exodus 19:4-8 KJV)

The messenger also warns that failure to purge the land thoroughly of the former residents and their defilements, will ultimately allow them to become snares for the children of Israel.  We should also note, that neither the messenger nor YHWH would drive out what the children of Israel refused to purge for themselves. YHWH cannot be obedient for us.

Clearly as the children of Israel and disciples of Yeshua we are to purge our lives and souls of all the defilement of our old life.  YHWH alone is to be the sole Sovereign of our lives.  We are daily called to cleanse out the leaven of the old life from our lives. Yet, when truly standing in the light of Messiah, we may all see numerous places in our lives where we are yet holding on to old possessions, ideas, dreams, mannerisms, and ways of thinking that belong to our old life.  We may have quickly passed through the landscape of our soul and removed the obvious offenses, while at the same time permissively passed by some of our favorite things from the past.   Every now and then, while listening to the secular radio, I will hear an old favorite song from the past.  I recall all of the various memories attached to the song and soon find myself returning mentally to the old life and pleasures that I delighted in before I committed to become a disciple of Yeshua.  All of us that come from the world into the Kingdom of YHWH come with our worldly “baggage” packed.  Much of what we bring with us is not appropriate or useful in the Kingdom of YHWH. Most of our old ways of living and thinking are not consistent with the teachings of Messiah.  These cherished and protected mementos of the world provoke us to become “home sick” for our old lives.  At times we may even find ourselves boasting of what we should be confessing.  Like the children of Israel in the wilderness longing to return to the flesh pots of Egypt instead of focusing on the Land of Milk in Honey before them, we too can be easily drawn back to the old life instead of occupying the Kingdom of YHWH and being occupied with the work of the Creator.  The temporary pleasures of the past always seem so much more rewarding than the temporary discomfort of the cross that marks the way before us.  But this is deception.  The old ways lead only to death while the path through the cross leads to life.

 Because the children of Israel did not completely obey and completely purge out the old they were snared and defiled by what they allowed to remain.  Eventually this defilement would lead to the children of Israel themselves being spewed out of the land. This is a lesson that we should not soon forget.  YHWH has called us to put off the old man.  We are to come out of the pollution of the past and live in the purity and holiness of the Kingdom of YHWH.  We must daily keep up the struggle to conquer and cleanse the whole landscape of our heart, mind, and soul, until we are perfectly prepared to be a habitation for YHWH’S presence.  We must not protect that which belongs to the old life, but strive to live in the perfect and pure image of YHWH. We must not make covenant with those things that we once turned to for comfort, security or pleasure, but must turn our hearts, minds, strength and souls to YHWH. We should always be ready to tear down the strongholds that hinder us from serving YHWH with our whole hearts.  For truthfully, nothing in this world can compare to the incomparable joy and life found in YHWH and his Kingdom.  Let us here remember the words of the Apostle Shaul,

 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18 KJV)

 Let us not grow weary brothers and sisters in our quest to conquer and take possession of our hearts, minds, flesh, and lives that we may indeed present ourselves to the Father as pure, whole and perfect vessels for his service.