Prayer: Father, You want us and our hearts, exclusively, just as You wanted the hearts of the Hebrew nation. Help me to love, listen, and obey You exclusively, only. In the name of Yeshua. Amen.
Reading: Exodus 23 key: vs. 20-25
20 “Behold, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you into the place that I have prepared. 21 Watch for Him and listen to His voice. Do not rebel against Him because He will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in Him. 22 But if you listen closely to His voice, and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For My angel will go before you, and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. 24 You are not to bow down to their gods or serve them, or do what they do. Rather, you are to utterly overthrow them, and break their pillars in pieces. 25 You are to serve Adonai your God, and He will bless your food and your water. Moreover I will take sickness away from your midst.
Attention: Have you ever fished? It doesn’t matter what kind of fish you have fished for, the same methods apply. We use fishing lures in an attempt to fool the fish into thinking this is food. The unsuspecting fish strikes at the tempting object and is caught by the hidden hook, a snare.
Do you know what a snare is? A snare is a method of trapping animals. Trappers used a snare to catch or trap animals for their pelts or meat. There are basically two types of snares. One uses a net which traps the animal and the other uses a rope or cord, which either catches (or snares) the animal by the paw or neck.
Figuratively, the mention of the word “snare” in this passage, is symbolically telling the Hebrew people that comingling with neighboring cultures would become a snare to them. They had been told by Adonai via Moses, not to “bow down to their gods or serve them or do what they do.”
Why would God be so jealous that He would not tolerate His people doing what other cultures did in sacrificing and worshipping their gods? We will see much later in the scriptures as the nation is established in the promised land, that the Hebrew people look at the neighboring nations/cultures and desire a king to rule them rather than Adonai’s protection and provision.
Would we have been the same way? Would we have also rejected the King for a king? Do we do the same today? Do we enjoy the culture and lifestyle of the world, more than the lifestyle of a child or servant/slave of the King of Kings?
Have you been caught in the snare of the world? The world system has a real lure. A tempting appeal, void of the consequences. For some of us, we are caught or feel trapped. However, there is a way out, through Yeshua. Adonai is a God of reconciliation. Repentance is our part; forgiveness of sin is His.
Adonai made promises to the Hebrew people if they would listen and obey. He would “send an angel before them, to guard (them) you on the way and bring you into a place that I have prepared.” He would also “be an enemy to (their) your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.”
God is poised to be our provider, protector, our source for health and blessing (vs. 25). However, it all comes with a condition, that we too listen and obey Him. We must be aware and avoid the snares that surround us and seek to enslave us or destroy us.
Action: I will ask the Holy Spirit to identify blind spots and snares which I am oblivious toward and then pray against my weakness.
Yield: I will give the Holy Spirit permission to reveal to me my weaknesses.
Engage: Teaming with the Holy Spirit to transform my life.
Relationship: I am in love with Yeshua and His Holy Word.
Prayer: Father, thank You for the presence of Your Holy Spirit. Please keep me from the lure of snares which seek to harm and destroy me. Hold me close to You. Amen.
Memory Verse: Psalm 140: 5-6
5 Keep me safe, Adonai, from the clutches of the wicked.
Protect me from the man of violence who planned to push me off my feet.
6 The proud have hidden a trap and cords for me.
They spread out a net by the path.
They set snares for me. Selah
Music Video: Vertical Worship—Strength of My Life https://youtu.be/6sqy1URx4mg
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”