You must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, and demolish their high places.
Numbers 33:52 NET
As Israel camped on the border of Canaan, God instructed them to drive out the people who currently lived there and destroy all traces of their religious practice. They were to cleanse the land and make it a holy place.
But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your side, and will cause you trouble in the land where you will be living.
Numbers 33:55 NET
What would happen if they failed to do this? The people who remained in the land would cause them trouble, like an irritant in their eyes or a thorn in their side. They would lead Israel into the worship of their false gods, causing them to break their covenant relationship with God. And that, in turn, would open them to God’s judgment and discipline.
This instruction was not just for Israel. It is just as true for us today. Israel was to cleanse and purify the land they were going into. As a believer, it is not my responsibility to cleanse the land I live in of every impurity. But I am responsible for cleansing the land of my heart.
I need to tear down the idols in my life, destroying their influence. An idol is anything that completes with God’s place in my life. It could be money, pleasure, influence, other people and relationships, or material possessions. My idols may look different than yours. But what they all have in common is that they draw me away from God.
Those idols that remain in our lives are like thorns in the flesh, hindering our walk with the Lord and keeping us from experiencing the fullness of the promised land God has brought us into. Don’t let your idols become an irritant in your eye or a thorn in your flesh. Tear them down and be holy, fully committed to our Lord.
