As we have earlier learned, when Israel occupied the Land of Promise a few “enemy” inhabitants remained. “Pockets” of resistance here and there. And the people of God were required “to separate themselves” from those wicked survivors of the Jewish conquest.
Here in today’s Text the aging Joshua reminds the little nation Israel, the “Apple of God’s Eye” Scripture says … “Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God. Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these (wicked) nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.” Joshua 23:11-13
If a high degree of separation is not maintained … “if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you” … God will no longer … “drive out any of these nations from before you” … and these heathen inhabitants will become … “snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes” … for the rest of your lives!
Wow!
Pesky little things (sins) that should have been decimated long ago … if we befriend them (cuddle and pet and patronize them) … will become “griefs, heartaches, sorrows” in our daily activities.
Look with me at the four nouns specified, “snares and traps and scourges and thorns!”
The word “snare” means a “trap” like is used in catching birds, any animal (prey) for that matter!
The word “trap” means “bait, a lure, an enticement!”
The word “scourge” means “anything that pierces.”
And the word “thorn” in similar fashion means “prickly.”
Sounds like “sins” are ultimately rather uncomfortable!
Hebrews 11:25 allows sin to be pleasurable “for a season,” but here in our Passage today … not so much!
The sins mankind (womankind too) thinks he (she) loves so well, practices so joyfully … will some day return to “bite” him (her)! As in Numbers 32:23 … “Behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.”
Indeed!
Oh that we could memorize this sequence … “But they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.”
Now 2 Corinthians 6:17 is coming to mind: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
Wow!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell