By Mike Caton

Exodus 23:24, “Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.”

It has already been made clear that the Israelites are to have only one God. The first of the Ten Commandments is that they are to have no other gods before the one true God and the second command is that they are to have no images to represent their God. The command here is to not worship any of the idols of the land they are going to take possession of. In fact, they are not to keep any of the pagan idols they find, they are to demolish them, smashing them into pieces.

Even the places the pagans worshiped are to be destroyed, the sacred stones.

God commands them to leave nothing of the pagan nature behind; that seems a little harsh, until we realize the logic behind it. If there is nothing left to remind them, they will not be tempted to go back and worship those things. It is like an alcoholic dumping all of his liquor out, a smoker throwing away his cigarettes, getting rid of the cookies when you start a diet. If those things are not there, you are at least reducing the temptation towards those things. We know you can always go and get more of that stuff, but in the time it takes to get it, you have time to rethink your decision.

And this is true in our lives as well. We need to get rid of the things that are temptations to us. We all know it is impossible to rid our lives completely of those things, but we need to do so as best we can. Look into your own heart this morning, what are the areas you most often fail, the areas you are the weakest? What can you do to clean those areas out? Are there places you need to avoid? Things you need to quit watching? People you need to stop hanging around? Maybe you need to clear those things out of your life. But remember to replace those spaces with something better, something that will help you draw closer to the Lord.

Father, help me get rid of any hindrances. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Mike Caton is the preacher at Mount Olive Church of Christ in Belhaven. He volunteers at the Ponzer Fire Department and works as a full time AEMT with Hyde County EMS. If you would like to receive daily devotions in your inbox, email mikecaton@centurylink.net.

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