LOVE - It's All About Him

Reading through Joshua we find that God has commanded them to utterly destroy every nation, to leave no man, woman, or child alive. As they walked in obedience to this command, God prospered them.
But why this command? Let's look back to the original issue given to Moses in Exodus 34:11-17.

"Your responsibility is to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then I will surely drive out all those who stand in your way – the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Be very careful never to make treaties with the people in the land where you are going. If you do, you soon will be following their evil ways.

Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash the sacred pillars they worship, and cut down their carved images.

You must worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.

Do not make treaties of any kind with the people living in the land. They are spiritual prostitutes, committing adultery against me by sacrificing to their gods. If you make peace with them, they will invite you to go with them to worship their gods, and you are likely to do it.

And you will accept their daughters, who worship other gods, as wives for your sons. Then they will cause your sons to commit adultery against me by worshiping other gods.

You must make no gods for yourselves at all."

God's command to Moses was to utterly destroy every altar, every god, and to make NO covenant with these nations. His reason: lest they be tempted to worship other gods and play the harlot.

More than anything (well, actually, it was the only thing) God was concerned that they remain devoted solely to Him. Any other devotion would ensnare them and render their love for Him divided and impure.

He was a jealous God. He still is. We are not to be devoted to husband or wife, mother or father, family or friends, work or school, fame or money. Our devotion is to be to Him ALONE. He will share it with no other.

He may direct us to love and serve our husband or wife, father or mother, teacher or employer, but it is born out of love for Him. It must start and end in devotion to Him, our Father, Redeemer, and Saviour - the true Lover of our Soul.

God's plan was to destroy everything that would draw them to other gods and loves. In our lives that is accomplished by laying all these other loves on the altar, sacrificing them to His will, putting them to death, if you will. Every wish, dream, and desire. Even Godly dreams must be laid aside if our hearts are to be wholly devoted to Him.

Consider this: any love we have to give to these loved ones has come from Him, for apart from Him we cannot love. It has come from Him to begin with - we love because He has first loved us. The greatest gift of love that we can give our loved ones is a heart devoted to Him. Only then are we free to truly love them.

Happy Valentines Day to you all!