Good Enough is Not Good Enough

Received:  03/26/2024
Received by:  Laurie Skipper

“Good enough” is ­not good enough when it comes to an assignment from the Lord. 

Numbers 33:55-56 (NLT)

⁵⁵ But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides.  They will harass you in the land where you live.  ⁵⁶ And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.”

I hear the Lord saying that if we do not push through to total and complete victory, removing everyone who is evil and corrupt and all who worked with and enabled them from office and places of authority and influence, they will be “splinters in our eyes and thorns in our sides” and will rise back up quickly to undo the gains made and retake the land from which they had been driven. 

This applies to all seven mountains.  How long and how thoroughly we rule each one will depend on to what extent we depose not only the giants at the top but those who support and enable them and those who have been working their way up each mountain with their eyes set at the top to become the next “king of the mountain” on that mountain. 

We must “drive out” all evil and all evil doers on each mountain to secure that mountain for kingdom purposes.  Any left behind, any with which we choose not to deal, will become “splinters in our eyes” impairing our clear vision and leading us off course and “thorns in our sides” crippling our strength to fight and resist them.

I hear the Lord say, “Show them no mercy,” as He spoke in Deuteronomy 7. 

Deuteronomy 7:1-5 (NLT, emphasis added)

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.  These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you.  ² When the Lord your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them.  Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy.  ³ You must not intermarry with them.  Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, ⁴ for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods.  Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you.  ⁵ This is what you must do.  You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars.  Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols. 

If we “make treaties” (compromise) with them, it will be as intermarrying with them.  They will lead us away from implementing a pure kingdom culture.  God will allow the authority and influence we gained for His kingdom to be short-lived if we compromise with evil.

We must dismantle every structure they have set up.  We must repeal the evil laws and replace them with righteous ones.  We must override evil decrees and rulings with just and righteous ones – just as Esther’s decrees overrode Haman’s. 

As surely as God placed Esther and Mordecai into position to save His nation, Israel, He has placed people within His remnant in key positions to activate His Ekklesia on each of the mountains to see their enemies – who are His enemies, those who stand against His kingdom culture and rule – brought down and their works destroyed.  Just as in Esther’s day, we cannot make peace (compromise) with an enemy who is determined to destroy not only our influence but us.  We must “completely destroy them.  Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy.”

Remember that when we speak of destruction, it is not about destroying a person – the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (2 Corinthians 10:4, NKJV) – we do not fight physically.  We do not physically attack anyone.  We focus on the work being done and the forces of evil behind it, which means the forces motivating and empowering the people who are, knowingly or unknowingly, doing their bidding.  If we deal with the evil forces, the powers and principalities, ruling on each mountain, then we will not only depose those at the top but the others seeking to get there. 

However, the warning is that we must be sure to “completely destroy” their rule, “make no treaties” (make no deals, no compromises) with them and then “break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars.”  That means to undo and dismantle all the evil structures and systems they put in place.  We cannot try to improve or sanctify them.  They must be torn down and shattered and replaced with righteous and just ones.

If we think we have “done enough” and stop pressing for a complete removal and dismantling, we will be as when Israel stopped fighting before fully conquering all the territory and driving out all the inhabitants who served other (false) gods.  Our peace, our “reign,” will be short-lived. 

 

 

My comment:  I like the way 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 reads in the NLT (emphasis added):

³ We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do.  ⁴ We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.  ⁵ We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.  We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.