DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 29 June 2023
TOPIC: Tangled by Mingling
KEY VERSE
“Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.”
(Deuteronomy 7:3)
DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 29 June 2023 MESSAGE
The corpse flower produces a huge flower. It derives its name from the awful odour it gives off, which smells like a rotting corpse. Corpse flower happens also to be a parasitic plant, meaning that it attaches itself to and feeds from a host plant (usually Tetrastigma). Once the corpse flower infiltrates its host, it sucks the life out of it by systematically extracting its nutrients.
Toxic relationships like that of the Tetrastigma plant and corpse flower are more common among people. Therefore, God, through Moses, warned the Israelites against toxic relationships with idolatrous people ahead of their occupation of the Promised Land. They were particularly required by God to war mercilessly against these wicked nations; to avoid intermarrying with them and to utterly destroy the relics of their idolatry. The intention is to keep Israel from being drawn into backsliding and unfaithfulness to God that would normally result from such mingling.
The warnings handed to God’s covenant people, Israel, are applicable to Christians today. We should set necessary relationship and affiliation boundaries. For instance, it is fatal for a true believer to go into a marriage relationship with an unbeliever. Other intimate relationships and associations with those who do not share our Christian faith and values are also to be avoided – they are capable of causing the believer to err or backslide.
If you are a Christian, you occupy a special place in God’s economy. You are called out to showcase God’s glory and goodness. As such, you must take heed to this warning and avoid being tangled by mingling with people who are worldly and ungodly.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: No special grace for the management of avoidable unequal yoke.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 19-20
