The altar of destruction...!

Joshua 22:16 NKJV

“Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord : ‘What treachery is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the Lord , in that you have built for yourselves an altar, that you might rebel this day against the Lord ?

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† Shalom †......! Day #260. Do you know we build our so called "own altar"? Let us pray.  Father,  forgive us for we have rebelled against You, by building an altar for ourselves. Instead of trusting and relying on You, we have trusted in a lie and turned away from following You wholeheartedly. Forgive us Lord. We commit ourselves once again to You. In Jesus name we ask and pray, amen!

Friends,  unknowingly We build our own altar. Altar of pride. Altar of success. Altar wealth and so on. We begin to rely upon our own ways and we turn away from following God wholeheartedly. We become the worshippers of our own success, pride, wealth and so on. We come to a stage where we think we don't need a God. Yet, we forget that it was God who gave us everything. It was an act of ingratitude towards the God who had established them in the good land in which they now found themselves. Such ingratitude and desertion of God was equivalent to rebellion, the term used immediately afterwards. The embassy clearly assumed that the fault had been committed, and that it would be necessary to proceed to extremities. Yet, deeply moved as they were, they did not refuse to listen to reason, and rejoiced that it was not necessary to inflict the fearful vengeance which otherwise would have been their duty. How great a contrast is this to the readiness, nay, even the eagerness, which many owning the Christian name have displayed to destroy the body, and the soul also, if that were possible, of their brethren in Christ, who have been overtaken, or have been supposed to be overtaken, in a similar fault!

Here is the care of the separated tribes to keep their hold of Canaan's religion. At first sight it seemed a design to set up an altar against the altar at Shiloh. God is jealous for his own institutions; we should be so too, and afraid of every thing that looks like, or leads to idolatry. Corruptions in religion are best dealt with at first. But their prudence in following up this zealous resolution is no less commendable. Many an unhappy strife would be prevented, or soon made up, by inquiries into the matter of the offence. The remembrance of great sins committed formerly, should engage us to stand on our guard against the beginnings of sin; for the way of sin is down-hill. We are all concerned to reprove our neighbour when he does amiss, lest we suffer sin upon him, Le 19:17. The offer made that they should be welcome to come to the land where the Lord's tabernacle was, and settle there, was in the spirit of true Israelites.

Let this day be the day of the Lord!

*** if you have any prayer request or any comments, or in anyway that I can serve today, please do let me know, I am at the Lord's service.

Please leave a comment. It would be a blessing for me to hear from you.

In His Majestic service,

+_=ShErKaRL=_+
TFGM's Daily Devotion
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