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Read: Deuteronomy 7:6
"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the people who are on the face of the earth." (Deuteronomy 7:6)The whole chapter tells us how God sent out His people, the Israelites, to completely destroy other nations, to have no covenant with them, to never intermarry with them and to break down their altars.
God's intention were to rightfully judge these other nations and to consecrate His own people. He wanted His people to be preserved of their purity and to be free of ungodly influences. God also reveals His stand against rebellion and His
plan to make His people conduits of blessings to other nations.
This passage shows, the heart of God for His people and His intention for them but because of their constant unbelief and disobedience they would always compromise.
A proof of these compromises are found in Joshua 16 where we see how the Israelites disobeyed God by sparing other Canaanites, and from there, they did everything God told them not to do.
In Judges 1 they settled and lived among people from other nations. Because of that, intermarriage started to be a part of their culture which then paved way for the introduction of foreign idols, which they also worshipped. They even came to a point where they have already forgotten about God and what He has done for them.
"He came to His own and His own did not receive Him, but to all who did receive Him who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:11-12)
The verse says that those who believes in Jesus's name and puts their trust in Him have become God's holy people.
If in past the holy people of Israel failed miserably on what God intended them to be, now in Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of these intentions comes to reality when the same promise has been retold to us in the book of Peter.
"But you are a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation out of darkness into his marvelous light."
(1 Peter 1:29)
This is a marvelous picture for all of us! For our holiness no longer relies on a person's abilities but by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ in our lives. Because of what Jesus has accomplished on the cross, you and I have been made holy. In response may we live in the truth that says "For our God is holy so we too are holy". (1 Peter 1:16)
Photo by: Jaime Legaspino
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