Old Thoughts for the New Day 33

Then Joshua struck and killed the kings and hung them on five trees, and they were left hanging on the trees until evening. (Joshua 10:26—NIV)

Now Joshua brought out the five kings from the cave at Makkedah and put them to death.

This is how the Holy Spirit leads us in sanctification. He confines the "kings of wickedness" of our personality while we, through the power of the Spirit, put the more obvious sins to death.

Then there comes a time when we are mature enough to deal with the kings. How those kings of romantic lust, pride, the love of money, self-importance, witchcraft, plead for their lives, reasoning with us as to why we should not put them to death!

These are the great leviathans that live in our personality, the kings of self. The lesser enemies are to be put to death at once through the Spirit. The kings are dealt with as God brings us through imprisonment and suffering until the self-love, self-seeking, self-will are revealed. Then they are to be put to death without mercy.

Do not spare your own personality! When God shows you the problem, address it with vigor. Kill it! Put an end to it! If you do not you will never gain the fruitfulness and dominion you desire. God will not share the throne of your life with any aspect of Adam.

Hang them on the cross! Put an end to them once and for all! They will spoil the freedom and power of your new life with Christ. Totally destroy the self-life. Leave no survivors. Follow the Lord Jesus Christ to complete victory.

The LORD also gave that city and its king into Israel's hand. The city and everyone in it Joshua put to the sword. He left no survivors there. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. (Joshua 10:30—NIV)

Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them. (Deuteronomy 7:20-24—NIV)

These words were not written only for the sake of Israel of that day. They are addressed to us upon whom the end of the age has come.

God wants no compromise with the enemy. The nation of Israel is a pathetic example of the unwillingness to follow God in the complete destruction of the enemy. They allowed people to remain in Canaan whom the Lord had appointed to destruction.

What God said would happen did in fact take place. It was not long before the Israelites were worshiping the filthy gods of Canaan, to their own destruction. So it is today.

Continued. Old Thoughts for the New Day 34